So Glad I Retired From The Querying Game

Out of sheer boredom I pulled up the Absolute Write forums today. That place used to be my bible. When I first began writing I scoured the forums a couple times a day. And I learned a lot. I didn't even know that one could (theoretically) land a literary agent who would shop your novel to publishers. I just thought, well, I have to self-publish. I had zero clue how publishing worked. I guess I thought best-selling authors appeared on the scene by magic. But to be honest, I never even thought about it at all. I learned how to write query letters, at least the AW consensus of how they should be written. I absorbed a lot of data about story structure, point of view, writing devices to employ and those to use sparingly, if at all. For someone as clueless as me, AW was like a college course in writing and publishing.

The place had its share of blowhards and rude comment specialists, even though its mantra is "respect your fellow writer". That rule seemed to be flouted for a few who'd been there since the site's inception. One person in particular tore queries to shreds, with responses like, "What were you thinking?" and "Trash this and start over." He/she even began advertising query services. Oooh, if I want someone to destroy my last vestige of self-esteem I can do that myself for free. 

And the members are so left-wing they're practically communists. Politics and social issues seemed to be a huge magnet, maybe more so than writing posts. Complaining about the vitriol was pointless ~ the owner was right there in the mix, egging folks on. That may have been my impetus for giving up on it. "Respect your fellow writer unless her political views are kooky". 

And too, I was uninterested in reading about querying. I'd made the decision to stop, so it was all irrelevant to me. 

Every now and then, generally when I can't think of any other site to browse, I'll log in and check out the latest posts. The ones about querying are fun, in a perverse way, because tons of unagented writers will weigh in on the best ways to go about it, and how the query letter format must be configured very precisely. As if any of it matters. I almost want to respond with, "Why bother?", but then I guess I'd be like that rude person I talked about above. Regardless, it would probably be the best response the OP could receive. I mentioned it before, but in all my years on the site I ran across one member who secured a publishing deal. And she had a direct connection to an agent (she worked for him). 

I can think of few things worse than begging a Gen Z agent to like you. They're never going to. Some authors, like me, refuse to bow to that mob. But then, I'm not a communist.