In defense of the literary agent

I was briefly following a literary agent on Twitter who dispenses advice one day a month (I think it’s called #queryday). I’ve never heard of this person, but she has a substantial following.  I believe she’s addressing mostly people who are in search of an agent or a book deal.

One of her tweets hit me like an arrow –it was the last one I read before I removed myself from her followers. She said, “An agent’s job is not to handhold or coddle or boost a writer’s self-esteem. An agent’s job is to s