Comment Etiquette
It is understandable that authors can have a love/hate relationship with agents. Being rejected hurts and people want to vent. But the QT comments are not the place for it, because it can quickly get out of control and become a shouting match. And that doesn't help anyone.
For this reason, certain rules have been implemented to help keep the agent comments informative without degrading into unproductive criticisms.
To better depict what is acceptable and what is not, here are some examples of comments that were placed on QT and later removed:
Example 1
"This agent took ten months to reply to my query. She is crap. Do not query her." This comment was removed due to childish name-calling.
Better would be,
"This agent took ten months to reply to my query." A short and informative comment without conjecture or name-calling.
Example 2
"Avoid this agent at all costs. He sucks. My friend told me that he once requested a full, then never got back to her."
Again, remove the conjecture and name-calling, and have your friend post the information directly.
Please do not post hearsay. If you know of an author who had a negative experience with an agent, that author should post first-hand information. Hearsay (especially internet hearsay) can be highly unreliable.
Example 3
"This agent has never made a sale. Ever. She's bad news. Avoid her."
This comment contains too much speculation. It's fine to say you found no record of her ever making a sale, but the rest is unnecessary and may not even be true.
Final Points:
- No Politics. It doesn't belong here.
- Stick to the facts and avoid name-calling.
- Do not post direct messages (especially queries) to the agents in the comments. It is unlikely the agent will see it. Exceptions are made if an agent posted a comment and you are replying to it.