What was it?

The mysterious package turns out to be not one but two rejections. For some reason the post office had taped them together (!?) so they would not fit through the letterbox. These two were polite, standard form letters with the usual encouragement, but both managed to get name and story title right so that's a step in the right direction.

I did stumble on something in my research which got me thinking. I've seen several blogs where they say that if you get a publishing deal you should go back to one of the agents that rejected you and ask them to handle the contract. Now with some agents I can see doing this, but with others I think I'd rather go to a new agent who hasn't seen it. There are three reasons I would not go back to an agent I can think of:

1) Unprofessional: If they can't get the right rejection slip in the right envelope, for example, are they really likely to be paying the attention to detail that I want from someone working on my book? More importantly, what about the attention to detail for anything involved with a contract review? Working in e-commerce has given me zero tolerance for this type of mistake, since sending the wrong order form or credit card details to a user is an absolute no.

2) Rudeness: "How dare you send your piffling little manuscript to our great and glorious agency?" Personally I haven't run into this one, although there are several online horror stories you can find. Nerves, and total lack of self-confidence, do make me wonder if it's just a matter of time before I get one of these. The problem is you have to wonder who else they've insulted or alienated along the way. If you won't date someone who's rude to a waiter, why work with someone who's rude to aspiring authors?

3) Wrong skillset. One of the most common rejection letters states that the agent doesn't "work in that field" / "handle that type of manuscript". Just because you now have a publishing deal for them to negotiate doesn't change this, or suddenly grant them expertise in a field they've stated they don't know. It would be like hiring a PHP programmer to review Java source code: both programmers know the same logical structures, but the nuances and specifics aren't there.

That said, not going back to one who has rejected you just because they aren't looking for new authors, or aren't taking submissions at this time, would seem rather like cutting off your nose to spite your face. There are a few I'd happily turn round to if I got a publishing deal. Unfortunately the interested publishers are US-based which really narrows my options on UK agents since I'd need one that knew the US market and law.
 
On a side note if I resurrect my own imprint I'm not paying a third party to negotiate between myself and myself - that contract and licence already exists and the publisher and writer are both very happy with it!