Newly opened agency, keen to find new clients, etc. etc.? Perhaps not enough enthusiasm as I could use, however. But you're asking about the response time, and it comes in at just over two weeks.
"I appreciate your query, and your interest in Fountain Literary. I'm going to pass on the opportunity to read your work, but wish you the best of luck placing it elsewhere."
Standard boilerplate rejection, short and to-the-point.
Other agents have liked the query, but it isn't always about the query letter. It's the story that's being told, and the ability of the agent to sell that story to editors they know.
Write what you like, to please yourself, but keep in mind that literary agents may not believe that your particular topic has legs.
Sure you have the option to write what's selling, but the books that you see in the shops were written two to three years ago. Your task as a writer is to compose novels that will be selling long after you've written them. In other words, you have to predict the market, which is what an agent is doing.
They have an advantage, however. They're driving that market, and they know what's going to work. You, as a writer and avid reader, don't. There's another reason why you need a literary agent.
2 comments:
I hadn't thought about agents needing to foresee the future, and I see how that would make them cautious. Devil a job.
Of course, I knew about that lag time. But it's so hard to see it spelled out as you've done today, ramming it home, as it were.
I read about some older writer who was being praised for his first novel at 70. At the rate I'm going, that could be me!
I'm starting to believe my publication date might be posthumous. I'm sure I'll notice, too, since it will be a cold day in hell before my novels see the light of day.
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