End of an Era

Miss Snark is finally calling it quits. Her blog was a regular read of mine.

I can understand how appealing it is to not have to have a blog hanging over your head, what with all your normal work responsibilities. She had been getting the same questions over and over again. Literary agents must really feel frustrated after a fairly short amount of time. With such a high volume of "writers" clamoring to be published, there must be a high turnover rate. With high turnover comes lack of continuity. With a lack of continuity come the same mistakes over and over again, innocently (or sometimes not so innocently) committed by people who are blissfully unaware of what they don't know. The more happy they are, the less they know.

I don't envy the job of the literary professional. It's a thankless job that ends up on the receiving end of a lot of crap from people who can't separate their art from themselves. People that take criticism personally because no one has taught them otherwise in their life.

That's got to be tiring.