Welcome to the official site of India Drummond – urban fantasy, sci-fi, and romance author. Ordinary Angels, her debut novel, comes out April 2011!
I’ve grown increasingly disappointed as I’ve seen more agents go to the “No Response = No Thanks” method of dealing with query letters. What this means is that if they don’t want to see more, you won’t hear back.
My first response was annoyance, because although I realise that agents get a lot of query letters, I put a substantial amount of time into each letter and in researching each agent that I might write to and making sure I supply exactly the number of pages they want in the format they want, a synopsis, or not, depending on their individual tastes. So to just hear nothing would be dreadful. The uncertainty of being a writer is one of the worst parts. (The best part, of course, is writing itself. But we all know by now that the days of a writer being able to ignore the business end of authorship and only compose are gone, if indeed they ever did exist.)
However, I’ve changed my mind. For two reasons.
1: I recently got a response from an agent upon rejection, even though they said they don’t do that. Why did they bother? I wonder if it is because they could tell my letter was personal? I’m not certain, but I like to think so.
2. An agent I queried recently explained her “No Response = No Thanks” policy in her Publisher’s Marketplace listing by saying that she’d quit sending out rejections on queries (although she does still on partials and fulls) because she was getting rash, vitriloic responses from overwrought authors who couldn’t take the “no” gracefully.
I used to tell people all the time, “Internet people are crazy.” It’s a little true. Not all of us, but a lot of us. And the worst part is that I’m sure most people at one time or another has sent an ill-advised email. Of course this behaviour, when talking of agents, editors, and any business correspondance is completely unacceptable, but considering that they’re dealing with the public, it’s hardly surprising.
I doubt any of those folks would have sent her hateful messages if they’d had to put a stamp on it. Internet people are both crazy and lazy. (Not you, dear readers. But I’ll bet you’ve met someone who’s gone a little off the deep end online. I know I’ve met quite a few. They’re in chat rooms and RPGs and forums.)
It just never occured to me that anyone would send a f*** off message to an agent, but wow, I guess they do.
With that in mind, I’m not going to complain about this “No Response = No Thanks” policy anymore. As a multi-website owner, blogger and forum admin (on other domains, obviously), I have felt the wrath of the trolls, and I do not blame agents one bit for cutting off this avenue to people who aren’t professional enough to see their queries as business letters, and to see a “no thanks” from an agent as a “no thanks on this project“. It’s unfortunate, but understandable.
I'm a lot of other things, but mostly I'm a writer. I like books with fast action, scary killers, fantasy worlds, and smutty sex. Maybe even all four at once. My novel Ordinary Angels debuts from Lyrical Press in April 2011. To read about my other projects, click the My Fiction page. To get in touch with me, click Contact India and send me an email.
The only time the “no response = no thanks” angle bothers me is when they also say “no simultaneous submissions”.
They’ve got to be kidding about that, right?
It’s sad that there are nutjobs out there. It’s infuriating, actually, especially since it means those of us who are serious and professional now have no end to the torture of waiting (when no response = no thanks, you can keep hope alive forever! When do you know when to stop waiting?)
Argh.
My only problem with this is that, in my opinion, agents are responding to unprofessional behaviour with more unprofessional behaviour.
I’ve been submitting work of one kind or another for 20 years or so and I have always behaved with the utmost professionalism and, yet, if I’m truthful — even before some agents started to “officially” introduce this policy — I’ve been treated very discourteously many times. Not every time or by every agent, but enough times to wonder if these people would have survived in any other industry.
Responding to email enquiries etc frankly isn’t difficult — even with the huge numbers that some agents receive. Use form emails, if necessary, but please respond — if only so that I can keep my records in order etc (because, dear agents, I’m professional in my approach, too.)
It’s utterly amazing to me how people will be rude to agents and editors, as if they don’t talk to each other.
No one wants to be known as a nutjob.
I would advise all authors that if you don’t like what an editor or agent has to say, then move on. Spouting off back will only give you a bad rep and you may be mocked on panels at conventions too about what NOT to do.
People tend to remember negative stuff, so just keep your bitching to your buddies at your local bar.
Cora hit the nail on the head. If there is no response for a rejection then the author never knows when it would be OK to submit to another agent. So a no response = no thank you should also automatically = simultaneous submissions are acceptable. That, or a clearly stated time frame in the submission guidelines, i.e., No response after eight weeks means you are free to submit to other agencies. Thank you for considering me as your representative.
But yes, I agree with you whole heatedly. Rude responses to rejection are very unprofessional and downright immature.
~jon
[ Follow me on Twitter: jmstro ]
So true…there’s enough whack jobs out there to ruin it for the professionals. I think that’s one reason why it seems so hard to get published today–there’s such an importance on stellar first lines/pages in part because there is so much bad work out there that an agent doesn’t have time to waste if she can’t tell it’s immediately good!