“Worst Advice I’ve Heard from a Speaker”

This was what someone posted on a conference twitter thread that I recently spoke at. Of course, the speaker was moi. Making friends and sowing happiness wherever I go.

The advice was to query every agent who attended the conference whether the attendee met the agent or not and say they had met.

Of course, the tweet didn’t include my caveat that I include at the beginning of every session where I tell people that anything I say is my opinion and feel free to ignore. My wife does that on a regular basis and she’s the smartest person I know. In fact, I’m not sure the tweeter even attended my session since no issue was raised when I said this.

Here’s my theory: the difference between being aggressive and obnoxious is whether or not someone has a good manuscript.

I’m not talking sliding manuscripts under bathroom stalls or accosting agents. I’m just talking about sending a query. But here’s something to keep in mind: those attendees PAID for those agents to attend. To get flown in, housed, and wined and dined. It’s their job. The attendees took the time and energy and finances to attend the conference. That puts them ahead of 95% of wanna-be authors out there.

You know how long someone spends on an average query? Under a minute, if that long.

Here’s another thing: of those writers they meet that the agents actually do tell to send their material, the majority don’t. People don’t believe that, but trust me, it’s true…