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Rejections from a Literary Agent*

What If a Literary Agent Responded How They Liked

This book, if it isn’t clear from the blurb, is a fictitious collection of query letters to a literary agent with a manuscript sample and a cranky agent’s response (like may want to do but never gets done in the real world). It is meant to be a satirical look at the modern publishing industry according to the book description. Having been a writer, editor, and reviewer, I can say that I am of several minds of this book. There are parts of it that are amusing if you’ve ever dealt with rejection from an agent or publisher. Back in the last millennium, I actually did submit books to publishing houses, so I do understand what the process is like from that perspective. It is hard to get rejections. As an editor and reviewer, some items that the acerbic Ms. Ribbons brings up in her responses are truly problematic with books or with authors in the free-wheeling world of modern independent publishing. I would never be as abrupt and unkind as Ms. Ribbons, but I do understand some of her points. I think the book is overly repetitious; Ms. Ribbons could have made some other salient points instead of some of the same ones over and over. This book might be too much of an insider view for the general reader, but authors, future authors, or writers might be amused by parts of it (or unfortunately see themselves in it).

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