DO LITERARY AGENTS EXIST?

I haven’t been here in a few weeks because I’ve been suffering a writing block lately, and can’t even face putting up my excerpts. I’ve long since worked out that these bouts of writing blocks beset me at times when I receive the rejection letters.

You see, like every other struggling writer, I go to the library, spend hours doing research about the best agents to whom I should send my manuscript. I then do further research about what these individual agents require then set out to do just that.

After weeks of preparation and writing, I send out several copies of my ms to the agents I chose. I do this regularly and send out in blocks as I find it easier to prepare them in this way. (I suppose that sending out more than one at a time means that one rejection would leave me hope for other yeses to follow.)

I then go to the post office and send out the ms, making sure to include SASEs in each pack. I come out with a much lighter purse, but with new hope that maybe this time would be the clincher and that this would be my last manuscript sending saga.

Last week, after three days of one such posting, one of my packages was sent back to me. Three days! The letter said, “…It is very difficult with new fiction…”

Now you see my predicament. At the top of this page, I’ve posted my blurb, and as you can see, ‘fiction’ is NOT what ‘Sunday’s Child’ is. Of course I won’t say which agent this is - that would be improper, but I ask, what chance has anyone got, if we won’t even be given the benefit of having our manuscripts read.

I’ve had tonnes of rejection slips and letters, even ones that said ‘we don’t do fiction’. But for the first time, after receiving this letter, I thought that maybe I should just quit. I mean, if no one would even read my synopsis or cover letter (which both stated in the first couple of lines that this was non-fiction) what chance have I got in all honesty.

Today I am writing a letter to my TV agents to suggest a meeting to talk about doing television on a more regular basis. Maybe this is too hasty and maybe I’ll change my mind later on. Nothing gives me more pleasure than writing, but hey, one has to also be practical right.

Right now I’m thinking that I haven’t got a chance…