The queries that went out before the holiday weren't expected to garner any answers before next week, but wouldn't you know that Pam Strickler was toiling away on Friday.
When I submitted my little piece of magic to her, I considered her an ideal agent. The genre was right up her alley, as they say, and surely the opening pages would attract her attention.
Except that on Friday, when she read the query, she didn't find it suitable. Can't say that I blame her.
Her response to the e-mail included my original query, which I scrolled through to see if it had made it in one legible block through cyberspace. Then I read the first paragraph of the manuscript and I couldn't believe I'd ever thought this was ready to send.
A weak opening, entirely lacking in punch, and largely because I was so thrilled with the way the manuscript flowed that I was blind to the strings of words. There was a paragraph that was poorly written, not making all that much sense, and things didn't get better until three pages in. By that time, of course, an agent has stopped reading.
That'll curtail the urge to submit until I sit down and revise the beginning. After writing up a query letter, I know where to focus the manuscript's opening. I'm only sorry that I didn't let the thing rest before I pasted it in to a query and sent it off.
It's been a waste of a perfectly suitable agent, one who's so keen to find new talent that she's working on a holiday weekend when anyone else would be off visiting or sitting in front of a television blaring sports programs.
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