Why Agents Don’t Give Feedback—And Where to Get It Instead | Jane Friedman

Author after author asks on Twitter, in writing groups and workshops-why can't they just say what's wrong? Make a checkbox or a copy-paste? At least tell me, is it the writing or the story or what? It would take thirty seconds!

Well, no. Responding with brief-but-helpful feedback to your query takes maybe 10 minutes, after the agent has read the query and enough of your first pages to know the book is not a fit and why, then copy-paste "Sorry I didn't believe your hero" or "Vampires are over." But agents get upwards of 200 queries each week. Two thousand minutes a week is 33 hours. When are they supposed to, you know, work?