Early on in my career, an agent asked me for a full outline of a novel I was working on. This person wanted to know what was going to happen, in what chapter, and to whom. This request was not intended to annoy or cause anxiety, it was so the agent could see how the book might compare to other similar books in the marketplace, and perhaps to get a sense of how they might be able to offer some editorial feedback if, in their opinion, there were weak spots in the story. It was a thoroughly professional request.
However, from my point of view—if I knew what was going to happen in the book, I would have
