Agent Interest/Wishlist: Accurate or Tease

[MelanieLang]

Before querying, I study the agent's wishlist, comparative titles/authors, and general trends. I have noticed (more often than not) an agent will describe in detail how much they would love genre X that focuses on Y. I query, wait, and...then discover the data export button. Here I discovered I can see how many submissions they have received for genre X in like-forever, and guess what? They haven't requested or accepted genre X either ever or in 2+ years.

Here is my question: How do you know if the agent is REALLY looking for your genre if they have rejected every submission (or CNR) so far? I mean, why place the genre on the wishlist? Is this a requirement of the agency rather than the agent?  What am I not understanding here? Not a rant, just really confused.

[chellebelle24]

I'd say it's more likely to be that the agent hasn't received a submission in that particular genre that's really piqued their interest enough to ask for the full manuscript. All it takes is one submission to grab them and that submission could be yours!

[MelanieLang]

  One can only dream.

[damdamdam]

Remember too that they receive submissions from people who aren't using QueryTracker. They might be requesting those. But I've had the same thought!