I'm a month into my search for a new literary agent and I'm already bored and uninspired by it. Despite encouraging writers to send email queries on agency websites, email is obviously not the way to go if you want a response. (They warn that they might not respond if they aren't interested, but personally I've come to like getting those rejection letters back. At least its a break from credit card offers and Victoria's Secret catalogues!) It also seems to be a popular practice that agents won't necessarily respond even if you mail your query with an SASE. I hope some intern is at least steaming the stamps off to paste on the letters that don't come with SASEs, and are going back to the writers who probably never ever researched the politics of the query process but still managed to write the "right" kind of novel for publication.

I have had some encouraging nibbles--but it's still incredibly discouraging to get a request for sample chapters and then a rejection for the full manuscript. I think this is how writers eventually just give up and stick their heads into ovens.