Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I've never read anything by an agent that expresses anything but hatred for when writers do this. Do it if you want, but I always see it pop up in agents' lists of annoyances. We like to think they don't ask for many partials, but some do and you shouldn't assume that they have the time to respond personally to each one. Sucks, I know. But that's how it is.

The short answer: yes.

The long answer: Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine large blobs of people constantly vying for your attention everyday, each with a couple hundred pages of writing for you to read. Naturally, it's easier to pick a few that interests you, but since you don't know any of these people personally, you can't judge their quality of their writing by the its subject. Hence, the partials. Among these, some are not as interesting as others. That's life. Cry, whine, watch TV, move on. At the end of the day, you have realize: if you got one partial request, chances are you'll get more.

(Out of the five queries I've sent out, they came back as: partial request <later rejected>, silence, full request <sending today>, rejection, silence. In that order. So count your rejections, chin up, and get back to work...)

On a different track, what about thanking an agent for feedback on a partial/full? It seems like it'd be different because the agent took the time out of their day to comment specifically on the work, but does it irk some of them?

Everything I've heard or read seems to be along the lines of: a polite "thank you for your time, I appreciate it" response email is okay. Asking for any kind of personalized feedback, being rude, or generally trying to fish for another response is considered out of line.

I don't mind if someone writes a quick note back after a query rejection, but I'm really unable to respond specifically to question and requests for advice. It's just not possible with the volume of submissions. Everyone is sending something they slaved over, everyone wants more feedback than an agent is able to give. It's just kind of the nature of the system. It's also far easier to come up with a yes/no decision than it is to stop, pause, and articulate precisely why it's a no.

When responding to partials, if there's something in particular that was a problem for me I'll point it out, otherwise I'll be intentionally vague. I'd rather be vague than lead the writer astray with an ill-thought out comment.

With fulls I'm usually able to tell the author precisely why, but I still stick to points of concern that I really believe in rather than saying something just to say something.

I know it's a frustrating process, but ultimately a no's a no and you just have to dust yourself off and move on to the next one.

Not only does it annoy agents, but it's just a waste of our time. As Nathan said, ultimately a no is a no, so what's the point?

I thought it was just good manners to simply thank the agent for looking at your work, anything else would be extra.