Too Busy?

[Dana King]

This is a question primarily intended for the agents and editors out there, but, of course, all opinions are welcome.

E-mail submissions have become much more prevalent, which is a good thing. Saves trees, quicker for submitters and recipients both. No down side to it.

Another trend that seems to be on the rise is that of agents and publishers who do not reply to queries. "If we like your query, you'll hear from us. If you don't hear back from us, wee..."

Since most queries are via email now, how hard is it for an agent/editor to create a few Autotext entries. Three basic ones would suffice:

1. No thanks and good luck.
2. Pass, but please keep me in mind for a future project.
3. Send a full.

Once those are created, all that has to be done is to click Reply, enter the appropriate number, hit F3 to inflate the Autotext, then click Send. Done. Everyone knows where they stand, and common, professional courtesy has been observed.

I read agent and editor blogs. I know they're busier than single parents working two jobs (accountant at tax time and air traffic controller) while taking in laundry in their spare time. Still, how long can the above take?

[Benjamin Sobieck]

As if it even matters. What's it their business if you are querying someone else? Put an offer down and we'll talk. Otherwise, get real.

My other favorite is the "We want you to be exclusive with us" bit at the query stage. Not the full request, the query. Am I supposed to hold off querying everyone else for 9 months while you figure it out?

[Benjamin Sobieck]

I just received a rejection letter a couple days ago from a publisher I queried last October. Only took 9 months.

So what's better? Not getting a reply or that?

[I. J. Parker]

Well, they sprang for a stamp. That means something. Respect?

[Dana King]

I can beat that. Last spring I received a request for a full from a publisher that had rejected the query nine months earlier. Please doing business with those kinds of folks.

[Dana King]

This should pretty much settle it. You don’t have half an hour to invest in making a handful of these to be used at your convenience, you probably don’t manage your time well enough to manage my career. (This is the Gmail example; I think all email programs have something similar.)

1. Open your Gmail
2. At the very top left side, click on the "more" link
3. At the bottom of that menu, click on "even more"
4. A new window opens
5. Click on "Labs"
6. I the column on the right, click on "Gmail Labs"
7. The first selection is "Canned Responses"
8. Click on enable
9. It will open another Gmail window, but I just closed that one
10. Go back to your Gmail window
11. Click on Compose Mail to start a new email
12. Underneath the subject line, see a selection for Canned responses
13. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN ABSOLUTELY CLEAR SCREEN. NO SIGNATURES. NOTHING.
14. Click on Canned Responses
15. In the box that appears, give your new canned response a name
16. Type in the text of your canned response
17. Click on Canned Responses again
18. Click SAVE to save your new Canned Response
19. Discard that email
20. Open a new email
21. Your canned response will always appear at the very top of any new email.

Thanks to The Beloved Spouse for putting that together for me.