Time Is Irrelevant

Thank you for your recent query letter and your interest in PMA.

Excuse me?

It's the 23rd of January, and I frankly don't recall...recent, you say.

E.M. Blake, an intern at PMA, has replied to a query I e-mailed so long ago that I'd given up on it, erased it from the sent mail box, and vowed never again to send anything to PMA. If he hadn't pasted the rejection onto the original e-mail, I'd be completely in the dark as to what I was asking Peter Miller to consider.

My "recent" query was sent in August. Remember, the summer, when it was warm and sunny? Hard to imagine, I know, when there's two inches of fresh snow and the forecast predicts temperatures in the below zero range.

We have to be very selective of what we choose to represent, and all of our decisions are based on a frank assessment of the current needs of the literary and film markets. The fact that this work doesn’t fit our narrow criteria for representation does not mean it couldn’t find a home elsewhere.

Very selective indeed, and I believe that's a true fact. I have hope that my manuscript will find a home, and I'm doing all that I can to make that happen.

We urge you to submit your work to other agencies or management companies that may be more suited to this type of material.

How can I put this? After so many months, not hearing from you, well, I went and assumed that it was a rejection. And, you see, I went ahead and queried other agents. I didn't mean to jump out of turn, ah no, none of it, but if I waited five months for a reply and didn't query others...you get my point.

Thanks all the same for responding at all, when most agents hit the delete key and move on. If you should finish up your internship with all your faculties intact, and get a job as a literary agent, it would be grand if you'd continue the practice of responding to queries with a letter of rejection. The writers appreciate the gesture.