Profuse Apologies To All the Agents I've Ever E-Queried

Well, maybe not "profuse."

But my experience with Are You Hooked? last week was eye-opening. Sixteen entries was more than I had anticipated. (I was hoping for four or five!) And then, when the comments started rolling in -- well, let's just say my inbox felt a little overwhelmed.

And when I started to think about it -- started to think about what an agent's inbox must look like on a daily basis -- I had a moment of epiphany. So many emails! Having to go through each one with fresh eyes and an open mind is something beyond what I think I could personally do.

I mean -- holy bits and bytes, Batman!

(Okay, I don't mean that. That's really stupid and it dates me.)

I admit that I'm torn in my apology to all the agents I've e-queried, though. Because I've also learned something else about all those comments in my inbox, and this is it: When I didn't read them right away, they piled up on me. That's when it got scary. If I would have simply read each one as I discovered it, I would have kept up.

And agents like Nathan Bransford do just that. He keeps up. He answers each email and he answers in a timely manner. (I know this because he once rejected me. It was a prompt and fairly painless rejection, thank you very much.) He's very open about this policy on his blog, and I like that.

But other agents take forever and a day to send that form rejection. Naturally they're busy; naturally, clients come first (and possibly bathing and eating at least a meal a day). But if we would all be completely honest, there's also a bit of procrastination going on here. We all do it, whether it's our inboxes or some other less-than-savory task, like hosing out the garbage bin (which I've procrastinated to the point of never having done it at all) and filling out our tax forms (it's April 14 -- have you done yours?).

So please. Let's all be honest enough to admit that, most of the time, we don't answer our emails because we haven't prioritized an email-answering part of our days.

I can respect a person who admits to having put off a not-so-fun task. Really, I can. And believe me, after my not even half so overwhelming experience of last Thursday, I can understand how an agent might open his inbox, gaze with glazed eyes at the dozens of marked-as-unread subject lines, and close down the window with a nauseous shudder.

I can go there now. I may not like it, but I can go there.

So to all the agents I've sneered at and whined about and muttered over and rolled my eyes at, I'm sorry. I personally couldn't live with the email influx with which you are daily inundated.

And who knows. After this experience, I may just stop obsessing over checking my email every seven and a half minutes when I'm waiting to hear back from the Latest Hot Agent on my list.

Or I may not.