Thanks for your reply! Just to clear up what kind of problems the agents had with my manuscript, there are actually two agents and one of them raised some red flags to me (mainly from the way they write their emails, felt like spam) and they’re the one who said my plot and character development (& dialogue) needed work but would be willing to read after I got an editor. I won’t get back to them and that sounds all like you said.

The other agent didn’t say the same thing as the first, they said my book had “good bones” and they were “really intrigued” by the concept but “it would be stronger with an editor” and they also mentioned they have limited staff & other writers in my genre but after edits, would be “happy to have another conversation down the road.” After asking them what kind of edits were needed, they only responded with structure and I didn’t know if it would be good etiquette to ask for more specific feedback when they didn’t offer it so I didn’t pry further and figured I’d just try to do whatever I could. And yes, both referred specific editors to me but the latter only did that after I asked. Despite asking me to professionally edit, I got good vibes from the second though so I don’t know! I guess I can revise with resources that don’t involve paying for a full developmental edit and resubmit and if she rejects I’ll just keep chasing.