I havent submitted - but surely using AI to detect AI defeats the object of not using AI !!

Best form rejection of my life. I was not aware of their usage of AI when I queried in April- not sure when they added it but I would have NEVER queried this agency had I known they would run my materials through AI detection. I would much rather send all million versions of my drafts to prove no AI was used.

mushlymush — I wouldn’t be too concerned about the irony of an AI detector — hey, AI. Honestly, it doesn’t really know — I suspect the intention is mainly to discourage AI slop and save everyone a lot of unnecessary queries. Sure, if it’s a ten-page sample littered with a hundred em dashes — not that anyone here would ever abuse an em dash — it may look suspicious, but in general it’s not easy to tell from a five- or ten-page sample. And plenty of samples probably never get read anyway because the agent has already passed on the query over genre, word count, or — more likely — something in the pitch itself.

So chill and query whoever you want — and, in honour of the AI detector, I’ve added a few entirely human-generated, ethically sourced em dashes for reassurance. If that alone trips the detector — well, I suppose we’ve accidentally proved the point.

Like you, my query is getting pretty old now — about the same age as yours. Unfortunately, unlike fine wine, mine isn’t getting any more refined with age — although at 77 days I’m considering giving it a cork and moving it to the cellar.

What i can tell you that may be helpful, is that this agents backlog is fairly static over the summer.

Q: 6/5/26
Contemporary Romance, 96k
No response yet as of 8/23/26 (79 days)

Yes, this agency is stating they reserve the right to run your manuscript through an AI detector to see if anything flags as AI. The contention is that the AI detector is also AI, which means the manuscript is being analyzed by AI, which many writers don't want, hence the hesitation to submit to this publisher in general.

@nbcarroll, the previous commentors don't want their manuscripts given to an AI detector because that's still putting one's manuscript into the world of AI analysis, it's still an AI system, there's still a lot of conflict with AI using words submitted for training the AI. A lot of people don't want their manuscripts given to the machinery in any way, shape or form and want their written words to be seen by human eyes only.

Form rejection after 143 days