Diana Fox (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dianafox) wrote,@ 2008-04-23 13:54:00 |
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First, I’m thrilled by the amount of submissions I’ve received over the past week--I have been working my way through them as quickly as I can, but thank you to everyone who’s been spreading the word and please keep those queries coming! Before I talk about the query process, though, I wanted to answer a question from sirenecheval, who asked
There are more and more agents blogging these days, many for many reasons. What are your reasons?
I will start off with a confession:
I never wanted to blog. There are already so many great agent blogs out there, and I resisted for years because I thought, what are the odds that I am going to have anything to say that one of them hasn't covered more than adequately at one time or another? I used to joke that if I ever had a blog I would probably just end up posting about taxes and other fascinating things nobody else ever seems to write about.
However, I do think it's important to have a place to publicize what's going on with clients and the agency, and to be able to answer questions from potential clients. More than that, I realized that there were some things that were unique to me that it might be useful to share, and also that I really do love talking about myself and could doubtless get used to doing it on the Internet if I tried. (This may or may not coincide with my talking about publishing, but hopefully it will to some extent since I'm assuming that that's what most of you are here to read about.)
That said, one thing that’s a little different about me and the query process that I want to mention right away is that I almost always request full manuscripts rather than partials. That’s because I use email for everything. Even if you send me a paper query letter, if you include your email address--and you should always include your email address!--I’m going to email you with my request, and ask you to send me an electronic copy of your manuscript.
I do get that it’s exciting to receive a request for a full as opposed to a partial because it can be a way of gauging an agent’s level of interest, and I think this is still the case… when dealing with hard copy submissions. In that case, requesting partials makes sense, because it saves space as well as money spent on postage. With email, if I ask for the full manuscript, that way it’s in my inbox and I can read as much or as little as I like without having to email the author more than one request. This saves time for everyone involved.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll try to answer comments and update again soon with answers to the rest of your questions.
sirenecheval, who askedThere are more and more agents blogging these days, many for many reasons. What are your reasons?
I will start off with a confession:
I never wanted to blog. There are already so many great agent blogs out there, and I resisted for years because I thought, what are the odds that I am going to have anything to say that one of them hasn't covered more than adequately at one time or another? I used to joke that if I ever had a blog I would probably just end up posting about taxes and other fascinating things nobody else ever seems to write about.
However, I do think it's important to have a place to publicize what's going on with clients and the agency, and to be able to answer questions from potential clients. More than that, I realized that there were some things that were unique to me that it might be useful to share, and also that I really do love talking about myself and could doubtless get used to doing it on the Internet if I tried. (This may or may not coincide with my talking about publishing, but hopefully it will to some extent since I'm assuming that that's what most of you are here to read about.)
That said, one thing that’s a little different about me and the query process that I want to mention right away is that I almost always request full manuscripts rather than partials. That’s because I use email for everything. Even if you send me a paper query letter, if you include your email address--and you should always include your email address!--I’m going to email you with my request, and ask you to send me an electronic copy of your manuscript.
I do get that it’s exciting to receive a request for a full as opposed to a partial because it can be a way of gauging an agent’s level of interest, and I think this is still the case… when dealing with hard copy submissions. In that case, requesting partials makes sense, because it saves space as well as money spent on postage. With email, if I ask for the full manuscript, that way it’s in my inbox and I can read as much or as little as I like without having to email the author more than one request. This saves time for everyone involved.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll try to answer comments and update again soon with answers to the rest of your questions.
