Sunday, December 16, 2007

Does this really need to be said?

I surrendered to the modern age only after a great deal of whining, moaning and complaining. Yes, I now take queries by email. Yes, I like the ecology of saving paper. Yes, I love the speed. Yes, I love the time savings.

No, I don't love the queryworts who haven't figured out "auto respond."

More correctly, I don't love the people who can't figure out when NOT to engage their vacation message.

Or why anyone would send out queries before leaving on vacation. And why they'd set auto respond for queries.

THIS is the kind of craziness that makes agents only respond to things they want to follow up on. I used to think it was rude to not reply to all queries. I've had enough auto respond this weekend alone to start rethinking that.

5 comments:

DeadlyAccurate said...

Most likely their auto-respond is set to simply respond to every email, and not just a white-listed group.

As for sending out queries and then going on holiday: writers are so used to dealing with non-responses and long response times than a prompt, courteous agent who actually answers the query in a short time span, so when a writer sends out a query just before going on holiday, it's because they aren't expecting an answer so soon.

Mags said...

Nooooooo! No, no, no.

Your simple reply to my query of "Yo, crack smokin' writer- d'ya got a plot shoved in this thing, or what?" was, you know, helpful. (I may have added some color, actually I seem to recall you very kindly pointing out that many good writers actually forget about plotting...)

So now there's a plot evident in my query and response to it is going well. That doesn't help you any, but if I saw you in the street and you were about to drop all your money out of your back pocket, I would totally tell you.

Gina Black said...

How about the people who go on vacation and don't set themselves to "nomail" on loops but have their auto-responder on so that every time the loop sends them an email they send one back saying they are on vacation. This can get ugly (12, 20, etc. responses) before the list owner jumps in and sets them to moderation.

Michael Carr - Veritas Literary said...

Yes, I get that too. I run an inn and people send requests for room availability and when I try to respond with helpful info, they tell me I must go through a spam blocking verification or some such.

Sorry, I'm busy enough without wasting time on fools. (Oh, and these are invariably the guests who are a pain in the ass when they do arrive. They're probably the same as clients, too.)

Sandra Cormier said...

I use auto respond only for my work email, and for God's sake I don't query from it. I use my home email. If I'm on vacation, I use webmail and check my emails regularly. From an internet cafe if I have to.