Thursday, November 1, 2012

Is It Wrong ...

... of me to eliminate an agent from my query list because their Agent Query page includes not only the text "We accepts queries" (I didn't find Gollum on the client list ...) but also the sentence "Her clients include bestselling authors, Jane Doe and Jeannine Doe."  That comma isn't helping anything here.

Edited to add - it just got worse!  I actually decided to click through to their website, which includes this perfect little gem:  "since we don"t specialize in" ...

Yes.  The "don't" had a quotation mark instead of an apostrophe in it.

As much time as I have spent making sure *I* don't present typos to *agents* - the least they could do is copy edit their own dang websites.  Eesh.  Their copy itself is also all but unreadable.  Guys, I know that like critics, you might not be able to create good art, but know it when you see it - but if your trade is the written word and you aren't adept at deploying words yourselves, HIRE A WRITER.  Surely you have access.

3 comments:

K.E. Skedgell said...

Yeah, I think I would pass as well. It makes you think if they care so little to make sure their Agent Query page is void of mistakes, then what would they do for your manuscript? We put in so much time to make sure our manuscripts are mistake-free, yet an agent can't make a short Agent Query page mistake free? It would be one thing if it were one, but you're finding several. I don't know, it might just be me.

JSF said...

Oh lordie, that is so pitiful!

DLM said...

It'd be one thing if it WERE only Agent Query - but that quotation-mark-instead-of-apostrophe issue is on *their own website*. That was really the dealbreaker (along with the fact that even without that prominent typo, the writing itself on their agents page wasn't exceptionally good.

I got one of the hottest hits ever on my original round of queries (pre-revisions) when I found an agency site which was AMAZINGLY well written, and said so even at the risk of looking brown-nosey. It's surprising, actually, how unusual it is to find really engaging copy on literary agencies' sites.