Enough Advice for Writers, Already

Just looked at twitter saw the umpteenth tweet from an agent or editor whose ostensible purpose was to give friendly advice to writers but whose pretty thinly-veiled subtext was "a writer just did something to annoy me."

Look: everybody gets annoyed at work.  I totally understand the urge to sound off on this stuff publicly.  But here's what bugs me.  Agents and editors never sound off on stuff they do to annoy each other.  And I'm sure that agents and editors annoy each other just about as much as writers do.

So what's the deal? Well, agents and editors need each other and don't want to burn bridges.  They need writers too, but there are a lot more writers than agents or editors, so burning a slush pile bridge here or there is not going to hurt an agent or editor's career the way a thinly-veiled dis of a colleague they're trying to sell something to or buy something from will.

Here's my plea to agents and editors on twitter:  Continue to sound off on stuff that annoys you.  It's part of what makes twitter fun.  I even get that you're going to sound off on people who have less power than you but not people with more power than you.  That's just career smarts. 

But for the love of God, can you please stop framing this stuff as helpful advice?  It's carping, and that's cool--carp away!  But please stop pretending it's a public service.  Thanks!