Dear Editor…
When querying by email, it’s hard to know if an agent’s response is a form letter or a personal note. This came to me recently: “Thank you for sharing your work with me. Right now my list is full but I invite you to query back in two months. Thanks for thinking of me.” I’m guessing this is more of a form letter response. Am I right?
Thanks,
B.
Dear B….
I’ll take your “form letter” guess and do you one better: I suspect it’s an automated response and the agent didn’t read your query. Otherwise, the answer would’ve been yes, no, or wait to hear back because it’ll take me a while to read it. View this response as a polite (and needlessly vague) way of saying, “I’m not accepting submissions right now.” Instead of marking your calendar to resubmit in two months, put your energy into looking for agents actively acquiring. Look in Literary Market Place and Writer’s Market, check the member resources of your category/genre’s national writers’ organization for a directory of agents, and scan the acknowledgment pages in your favorite authors’ books for their agents’ names. Google promising names to research their interests and author lists to be sure they’re well regarded and rep projects like yours. Your manuscript is important and your time precious—better your chances with strategic submissions instead of knocking on the same closed door simply because you know where it is.
Happy writing!
The Editor