Querying

[John Donald Carlucci]

How many of you query only by email? Does it turn you off to a market if they only accept snail mail?
I have to admit that I immediately jump past any market or agent that doesn't accept email queries.

John Donald Carlucci
Publisher
Astonishing Adventures Magazine

[D.R. MacMaster]

I do e-mail queries first, because they're more convenient for me because I'm in Canada, and it's a pain in the butt to do the international mail hassles.

Then I go to snail mail.

[Steve Weddle]

I saw a couple of top agencies who only took snail mail. I suppose writers need to think about this.

Do you want someone selling your book if they only use snail mail?

Or does the agent accept snail-mail queries only, but then sends out pitch letters to editors via email?

Perhaps a subset of the snail mailers would be the agencies that require that you mail a hard copy of your manuscript.

[John Donald Carlucci]

It isn't like this is 1995. It bothers me when submission are only accepted by snail mail as I really wonder if they are serious. Throwbacks are one thing and I love using manual typewriters as much as the next guy, but the efficiency of email is a hard thing to ignore.

The flipside is understanding that rejecting a story/manuscript may be a bit easier with instantaneous communication.

I was rejected concerning a submission within a few hours of submitting to a print magazine and informed of an anthology meeting its quota of stories an hour after submitting a different story. I could have wasted weeks/months waiting for it to get there and for the reply.

JDC

[John McFetridge]

I don't think I'd want to submit an electronic version of a manscrit unless I was certain whoever was going to read it regularly read books on an e-reader. I wouldn't expect a publisher to print up a copy, so that would mean reading it off a computer screen. I guess that might be a good way to find out which ones can hold your interest because after a few pages on the computer I usually can't read anymore. Most manuscripts get read after work at home, so after a day of working at the computer I know I would prefer to sit down with some actual paper in my hand.

But for a query, a one page letter, I don't see the point in snail mail. Unless there's a sample included, 30 or 40 pages, in that case, again, I'd want hard copy.

[Dana King]

It's not that I don't submit via snail mail, but the emails submissions tend to move to the top of the list, for the reasons JD cites above. Why waste months waiting for a rejection when you can get it in days? The acceptances may not come any quicker, but you don't have to worry about so many balls in the air all the time.

[John Donald Carlucci]

I like my rejections like my women - quick, harsh, and devastating.

Hm, maybe I do need therapy after all.

JDC

[Dana King]

Spoken like a hard core crime fiction writer.

[Albert Tucher]

Email queries leave no room for self-deception. They hated everything about my proposal.

My personal best-or worst, I should say--was an eighteen minute turnaround.

[B.R.Stateham]

This kind of woman seens to be a commond denominator for males who write mystery/noir detectives. Hmmm. . . it must be a sickness. Or genetics.

[I. J. Parker]

I have never queried by e-mail (until today). A wild shot into space. :) Times are changing. These days, I'd do whatever seems appropriate, and that goes for hard-copy submissions of mss. also.

[John Donald Carlucci]

Welcome to the darkside! :)

JDC

[REID JACKSON (pen name)]

It's just easier to email--I'm lazy