Agent Fail and Query Fail

I've always believed that agents are KEY to a writer's success, and that more writer organizations should pay attention to the quality of those presented to their membership. The following obviously belong to the Top Shelf of Agents:
If you haven't visited agent Janet Reid's blog (FinePrint Literary Agency), and caught her posts, you're missing gobs of good writerly stuff. (Gobs=technical term for lots) Her post on Query Fail stirred up Agent Jessica Faust (don't you love that last name?) at Book Ends. She posted April 1, 2009, allowing for anonymous posts on Agent Fail. To date, there are 301 comments.

Try to keep up with these two, plus Dystel and Goderich's blog, which I've mentioned gobs. It's great to see agents like these step up to bad with good gobs, plus Agent Kristin Nelson, who also has a super enewsletter.

Please do read Query Fail and Agent Fail. Great posts. When agents admit that they may have one or two of the problems that "Anonymous" mentioned, that raises credibility quite a bit.

Of the Agent Fail problems, the top problem I've heard expressed is non-communication. That is the writer does not know where work is going, or what is happening, and the agent does not respond to followup queries. With email so handy for agents and editors, and only queried when necessary instead of a deluge, there is no excuse for non-response.