Q&A Thursday 2026 Debut

My friends,

First, if you haven't told your friends they can get 27% off a yearly subscription to Agents & Books, please send them this link! If anyone has trouble accessing it, the fix is to sign out of your account and access the promo that way. I don't know why. I'm trying to see if I can make this process smoother for future promos!

Second, let's dive right into 2026 with our first Q&A of the year.

C asks: What motivates you to give feedback on a full manuscript that you ultimately reject? (if you do give such feedback). I can understand what would motivate you to refrain from giving feedback (namely, you don't have time to articulate the book's issues in a way that is coherent and palatable to the author). But I've heard of writers getting feedback on their full rejections, so I know it's a thing that happens. Why would an agent choose to spend their time doing this, if it's not a revise and resubmit situation?

I wish my answer here is an overflowing heart that just wants writers to improve and succeed. I mean, better writers means potentially better clients for me, and maybe we all make more money. But as you said in your question, agents don't