Haystack gets bigger, deeper! Needle nowhere to be found.

So the supposed purpose of an agent initially was to take the slush pile from large publishers and weed through them. Not every agent has access to every large house and no agent will tell you who they do have access to should you be able to get one to consider representing you which is a joke in itself.

I posted the other day that I submitted to an agent that I could've met at a writer's conference. As an interesting twist, I didn't get the automated rejection but rather what seemed like a personal response which still said the standard, I wasn't a good fit (though I was a perfect one) and a suggestion to ANOTHER agent who this agent thought might represent me.

I also posted that I'd heard this before and wouldn't waste my time with this other agent. Well for the sake of reporting to you, I did waste my time. LOL This time I did get the automated, "you are not a good fit," with no recommendations on where I might fit. Bottom line, my query wasn't even looked at and no author's query ever is for the most part. The agent's excuse: "We're overwhelmed and have to do automated responses." Translated: we do fine by getting friends into the larger houses and don't need to bother with anyone else.

So y'all go ahead and waste your time submitting to agents. Pfft, it only takes two minutes really then a few weeks later they'll pop off the automated response to you. Sure beats wasting your money going to a writers conference to have them tell you to your face that they'll let you know in a couple of weeks, with an automated reply, that you're not a good fit. ;D

Here's what the response will look like, word for word:

Thank you for your query. Unfortunately, I don't feel that we would be a good fit.

Best wishes for finding a good agent and publisher.

By the way, I queried my first traditional publisher myself and got signed on without the help of an agent. Others later used an agent to get to them. They lost out big time as the agent didn't know anything about the publisher. They just knew the publisher paid them a little "something, something," to send them prospective authors.