Thanks Chrono. Seems like a cool idea.

Just checked out their guidelines and it says they're looking for "science fiction and fantasy, horror, young adult fiction, and romance" so I guess my crime novel won't be appropriate for them.

I just submitted a query to her - thanks for the link Chro
I'll let y'all know what kind of personalised rejection I get. I can see it now ...

'Dear Ms Reed,
NO!

Well - that's personalised!!
Stop the sketch - it's too silly

You're on! How much you want to bet?
JR

Stop the sketch - it's too silly

Sure - you're on Only is it the winner or loser who gets one By the time we hear back I'll have my edit uploaded ready
JR

Stop the sketch - it's too silly

reminds me of Mat(t)... agents are not as busy as they want us believe.

A publisher (small) talked about how to find talent at a conference. It requires combing through thousands of submission to find the one diamond; however, small and new companies/agencies struggle to get this attention. Keep writing.

A PS - a quick look at P&E gives the Lori Perkins agency as legit and highly recommended, so maybe worth a passing query?
Stop the sketch - it's too silly

Hmm. There seems to be some misunderstanding here, so I'll clarify.

The vast majority of agents (or at least the vast majority of American ones, I don't know how it is across the pond) only send out form rejections, for a number of reasons.

First, the number of people sending in queries necessitates it -- if they didn't send out form rejections, they'd never have time for anything else. Secondly, when they do make comments on an author's work, inevitably they get one of those idiots who sends them hate mail back and promises to strap dynamite to their dog, and that just doesn't encourage them to give out comments anymore. And lastly, for the people that are REALLY bad, it's hard to put down, "Please, do yourself a favor and stop writing.", so the form rejection is most polite.

The deal is this: one of this agency's interns (who sorts through their queries anyway before they get to the higher-ups) is going to go through the slush pile as normal, but for the next two weeks, if she does reject something, she will reply back with a personalized note saying why. This is quite valuable to those of us getting nothing but form rejections, because it gives us a clue as to what is holding us back. While critique sites like YWO are helpful for developing your writing, most of us here can't say for certain why someone's novel keeps getting rejected, at least not from an agent's perspective.

It's just another form of feedback, much like the professional critiques received by the top tenners here. If you find that sort of feedback patronizing, then by all means, don't bother taking advantage of it. But regardless of how you perceive it, they are going above and beyond what they need to do, and I think they should be commended for that. -----------------------------
-Chro
Author of Blades of the Fallen and The Spirit Shifter
And blogger of Journey of the Scribe