A new personal best!

[Albert Tucher]

I sent an agent an e-query yesterday evening. I clicked Send at 7:23 and got a rejection at 7:39, which beats my previous record of eighteen minutes. I'm wondering, though, whether the record deserves an asterisk. Such a fast reponse on a Sunday evening strongly indicates an automated reply. If my query was untouched by human hands, does my speed record count?

[John McFetridge]

Ha, that's funny.

My memory is hazy, but I think in the old days of snail mail I used to send a story or query and the rejection was waiting for me when I got home from the post office.

Hey, asterisk or not, go for the record, let the Hall of Fame worry about it ;)

[I. J. Parker]

Well, look at it this way: at least you don't spend weeks and months waiting for a letter or call. And in the days of snail mail, you lost at least a week.

[Albert Tucher]

Thanks, guys. :-)

[D.R. MacMaster]

I have that beat. I literally got a rejection in the time it took to click from the "Message Sent" page to the "Inbox" page. Less than ten seconds.

The greater irony was that it wasn't even a query. I had communicated with this agent socially for over a year, and he said I should write him for advice over a situation with a publisher, but when I did, I got the instant auto-rejection.

[Garry L. McLaughlin]

I think It would easier for everyone concerned if certain agents would just publish a list of who they will accept and then we wouldn't have to be bothered with them.

Garry-

[D.R. MacMaster]

The one who instant rejected my non-query is on every social networking site making a big deal about how open he is to new writers, it's how we met. That little incident taught me that he seemed to be more interested in getting his butt kissed by desperate unknowns than actually discovering anyone new.

[Albert Tucher]

The agent I queried had also just appeared in a prominent venue, claiming to be open to new writers.

[Clark Lohr]

Man, that's funny. Thanks.
Clark Lohr

[Stan Cutler]

Wow! That's terrible. That's why I decided to skip the middleman...