Ive tried writing a book before and the process for a nobody like me involves querying dozens and dozens of literary agents in MFH, who consider signing you to a contract and trying to sell the manuscript to publishers. Getting an agent is nearly impossible. Most agents are super shrew ((chicks)) who are explicit about only wanting #othervoices and WOC genderqueer narrators, etc. Their wishlist pages make it plain they are super shitlibs in a supershitlib industry.

I probably sent out 100 queries. 80 probably did not respond, and the rest sent form rejections. THREE however requested to read the whole thing. One rejected. That leaves:

A. A Gen X "junior agent" with a big, prestigious literary agency. He said he was too busy and so passed on representing me. But he said he liked the idea and thinks I have something.

B. An aging baby boomer with a little-known agency who said he would sign me. He requested a few easy edits and said he would then send a contract. Here's the thing. He emphasized this is a "difficult" project and that I needed to have "realistic expectations". His email was full of typos: a weird font-change mid-email, and a few missing spaces between periods and the next sentence.

I emailed A to tell him about B. A responded, "I dont know who B is and never heard of his agency, though that is not necessarily a bad thing". A continued, "I really do think you have something good, but it needs a major re-write to make it snappier and shorter." (The book is 100k words over 365 entries). A also said, "I think it needs drawings." A concluded, "You may want to go with B because it is a bird-in-hand, and even if you were to do the re-write I suggest I cannot guarantee I would represent you. However, I already have some editors at certain big publishing houses in mind."

Im a little turned off by B, because he may be a rinky-dink guy. I also did not like that his first response was to lower expectations. My expectations are already very low. And the typos spooked me. Do editors take him seriously? Or is that just Boomer typing? A is at a fucking prestigious agency, but he could well reject me, as he warned.

It was very hard for me to get any interest at all. Do I reject B and do the re-write A wants, gambling on A when his schedule frees up in a few months? Or do I just take B and count my blessings?

Advice?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3867969&forum_id=2#35214586)