I met Mr. Guinsler at a conference last year, where I paid $50 for a ten-minute pitch session with him. He was enthusiastic about my pitch and asked me to submit the first 50 pages of my novel, but after the next pitch session, where I sat with another agent at the table next to his, he overheard that agent’s interest in my work and then pulled me over on the way out and asked for an extra 100 pages. I sent him 150 pages that afternoon. The next day he wrote to me to say, and I quote: “I’m loving this. Do you have the full available for email?” I told him I did, made sure he wanted it, then sent it off to him...and that was the last I heard from him. A nudge a month later (a week longer than he instructed me to wait), and then three months after that, and it’s now more than a year since he disappeared without another word to me about my novel.
I guess $50 doesn’t buy as much as it used to, especially when it comes to simple courtesy. It's too bad, too, because he seemed like a nice guy and capable agent.