Are some agents living in the last century?

[Jaqhama]

This isn't so much a gripe as a rasied eyebrows, scratch my head kind of thing, or an observation...

An editor of a big SF publishing house in the UK recommended an agent to me for my SF manuscript.
So I dutifully sent an inquiry email and a synopsis of the story.

I get an email back from the agent saying they dont accept emailed inquires or outlines or manuscript submissions via email.

Now I can understand not accepting an entire manuscript via email because they bear the cost of printing it out to read...and as I've discovered plenty of agents and publishers don't want to read a story off their computer screen, doesn't matter that we spend months writing the story on a computer screen. We're just authors. Plenty of us around. No need to make anything easy for the people whom agents and publlishers make their money from.
But not accepting an inquiry or a story outline via email?

The reason given in the reply to my inquiry and synopsis was that "I need to keep my inbox free for clients and publishers."

To which my first thought was: So why not just open a free account email box with Yahoo or someone and put that up as your inquiry/synopsis email address?

I decided right there and then that I'll probably not bother with this agent, I mean I'm not going to go to the trouble of writing an inquiry and outline on the computer, then print it out, then post it from Australia to the UK. That really is just a waste of my time and money.
(Yes they know I'm in Oz.)

I'm baffled quite frankly.
I mean this is a professional literary agent who only wants to be communicated with via the postal service until they take you on board as a client.

It's like life before the internet.

I just don't get it.

Cheers: Jaq.

[tchernabyelo]

Email can be a huge timesink and I can entirely understand why an agent would only want to deal with email that, in effect, they have solicited. If they do otherwise, they risk being swamped - no matter what address they might be using.

[erazmus]

OTOH, e-mail is cheap and fairly reliable. Post is not cheap and not particularly reliable.
I'd probably post an inquiry, once, if I valued the recommendation of the editor. And if you really need an agent in the UK.

Mike

[Jaqhama]

Email can be a huge timesink and I can entirely understand why an agent would only want to deal with email that, in effect, they have solicited. If they do otherwise, they risk being swamped - no matter what address they might be using.

But doesn't it take longer to open an envelope, read the letter inside and then post back a reply?

[Mike Griffiths]

I Agree with you Jaquama. People out of the loop like this are beyond belief these days. I think some people make things harder so they cut out some of the masses. If they are a pain in the ass, then less people will bother with them. Also, and I'm not sure it is the case with this guy, but some people just won't change. They think that this is the professional way to do things period. and that' have they should be done.

MDG

[Ramon Rozas]

e-mail is cheap ....

That's the point. The agent wants to filter out 90% of unsolicited inquiries, and his first line of defense is to require you to pay postage to contact him.

Same thing many magazines do.