Monday, January 31, 2011

On Agent Revision Letters

I have been reading agency blogs today, something I used to rabidly peruse, now not so much. BookEnds blog recently posted this about revision letters to non-clients:

"Remember that revisions to a submission are only just the tip of the iceberg. Revision letters to my clients can be pages and pages long. I’m not going to spend that time on a submission. Therefore, you have to carefully read between the lines. Look at what I’m saying and then beyond that, and fix it all.(bold is mine)

The above is best applied to all revision advice, except set-in-stone grammar. Why? Because, quite frankly, not everyone can teach. Teaching requires the ability to juggle two different mindsets, the expert's and the novice's.  So, don't expect your agent to be a teacher on top of it all. His primary job is dealing with the publishers and contracts, not to instruct you on how to write and revise. Your writing quality, before and after revisions from an agent, is up to you and you alone.