IN TURN

My muse and I have been arguing this morning…
I'm trying to warn her!
About sticking my toe in…

Don’t do it!
The controversial waters of…

No!

The publishing industry.

I'm begging you!

Because I’m confused…

Better to stay confused than be a pariah!

And I need ask a few questions.

You’ve been warned!

Recently in The Huffington Post…

Any potential agent out there—please disregard her!

An agent wrote an article…

OK! She’s on her own! I’m outta here!

On rejection letters…

And how awful it feels…

Sending them out…

To the thousands of writers submitting to him each year…

And why in the future, he may not send them out.

So here’s my question/suggestion…

What about hiring an intern to send out these rejections?

I believe interns are free because they earn credit hours.

I’d bet there’d be a line out the door and down the street…

Of students eager to work in an agent’s office.

And their job could be as simple as…

Taking the stack of query “rejects” …

And sending the form rejection letter in the SASE.

(because very few agents give a personal reply)

Or the intern can hit an auto “rejection” reply…

To respond to the email queries.

Badda boom, badda bing!

See? I think this is a great solution.
Especially since I’ve heard agents don’t even read the queries…

That an assistant reads them first.

So, dear kind, considerate agent, think of it like this…

You have a lump (God forbid!)…

You go to the doctor…

A biopsy is done…

And now you’re waiting for the results.

And you wait…

And you wait…

And you wait!

You're going out of your mind to know!
Trust me…
It's far better to know if the lump is benign or malignant…

Rather than to hear nothing at all?

So dear, gentle agent…

While sending rejections is difficult…
We writers are far better off knowing…
Rather than hearing nothing nothing at all.
Think of it this way…
Rejecting someone's query…
Isn't as bad as…
Telling someone they're…
Well, you get the picture.
So, am I bad for making this point…
And speaking for the thousands of writers…
Who wait?

Always, Em-Musing
P.S. And if I am? Mea culpa!