Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006
12:50:20EST
Hi Virginia,
TITLE made me laugh..and I really do need to read more of it right this very minute so could you please send me the next fifty pages as a .doc attachment?
Is anyone else reading this? Of course they are, they'd be fools not to.
Best,
Janet
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006
09:31:48 EST
Hi Janet
I'm just delighted with your reaction to TITLE. I've attached the additional pages you requested. These pages start at the beginning of chapter two so there may be an overlap of a page or two. I just wanted to be certain I didn't leave you missing a page.
I hope you enjoy them.
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006
10:22:54 EST
got it, downloaded it, will read!
tks
J
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006
16:21:19 EDT
Hi Janet
I received a letter from you today saying that you'd emailed me March 10th requesting that I send you the first 50 pages of TITLE, and that you hadn't received the pages. Below is an email that I received from you on March 11th saying that you had received the pages, downloaded them and were going to take a look.
If you find do have the pages, great. If you don't, I'd be glad to resend. Just let me know. I can get them to you right away.
I was just delighted by your initial response to TITLE, and would love to hear what you think of the first fifty.
Thanks
(author)
>got it, downloaded it, will read!
>tks
>J
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006
17:03:33 EDT
oh argh, just tie me up to the brain machine, I clearly need a lube and oil.
Yes, here it is. NOT where it is supposed to be but here nonetheless.
Try to forget I'm a nincompoop.
I'll be here, reading.
J
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006
16:33:51 EDT
Can you send chapter one?
It got tossed I think.
Don't you just LOVE it when people say "I'm really NOT this disorganized" cause truly what they DO is a much more persuasive statement than anything they say. I'll just leave it at this isn't how I like to think of myself.
J
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006
20:01:21 EDT
Hi Janet
Here you go - chapter one of TITLE is attached.
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006
08:12:08 EDT
excellent, received and downloaded.
J
(I can just hear you saying 'yea right')
------------------------
So, after all that, it ended up being no. A no with regret but no.
Then, today, guess what turned up. The AUTHOR! Querying again!
Even my crazed, disorganized clearly off plumb state of being does not deter you all! And thank god for it!
I love this job, I do. I'm so grateful for you all.
14 comments:
Well I'm feeling better about MY perpetual brainfog LOL.
I'm not surprised she submitted something else to you; at least you replied to her and were honest. There are so many writers living in NO-REPLY land, would go to Flakeville any day for a response and genuine feedback.
(NOT that you're a flake, but this exchange WAS funny!)
Good luck with this new query!
Janet, you're lovely. The fact that you have e-mails from 2006 tells me you truly are a woman after my own heart.
Even the uber organized have dark moments. Stay amazing.
I think the blog helps a lot. Readers of the blog get to know how you are as an agent aside from an occasional screw-up with the email. If this had happened pre-blogger days, the author might have gotten a different impression of you because the only contact would have been via the mail.
I've been impressed by what you (and other agents) say on their blogs. Some agent blogs have been a turn-off. It helped me target my queries back when I was looking for an agent.
i agree with margaret yang. Your blog is very helpful and helps me feel less threatened/intimidated by agents. Thank you for writing this lovely blog.
Ok, this made me laugh.
I think it's good to get a glimpse into the real world and realize not all agents are like omnipotent beings.
"Even my crazed, disorganized clearly off plumb state of being does not deter you all!"
Well that's what we like the most :)
So she queried you again with a different project? Good for you both, and I hope this one is the gem you're looking for!
I'd have queried again, too, if I'd been her, because you are humble and funny in your emails.
Ah, see, agents are human too.
A well organized office is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Great minds are known by their surroundings being in disarray.
I just made that up.
Nonetheless, I do not understand why, if the book was that great, you did not ask for and read the whole thing before rejecting it. Now you may have to wait a year to get it in the stores and - ugh! - pay for it. Unless the editor sends you an ARC.
You can borrow from my supply of legal, over-the-counter herbal tranquilizers if the strain of waiting gets to be too much.
Incidentally, I really appreciated the generous comment at the end of your blog post. You may be in a tough business but you obviously have a heart of pure gold.
Steve, I did ask for and read the whole thing. It was good. I just didn't think I could sell it.
The new query is for a new novel.
I think I've spotted the poltergeist at work here. Quite obviously forces were aligning to bring this to a head around April 15th, an anti-chi date if there ever was one.
Face Washington DC, say "Hail 1040" three times and you should be free of such mischief until next spring.
Oh and most certainly do keep blogging from the heart. It's inspirational as well as enlightening.
I am so relieved when I see posts like this!
I'm like, professionally, expertly scatterbrained. I send out one query at a time because I'm so sure I'll screw something up if I try to send in groups. It's a constant struggle to keep up, get it together, remember how many kids I have...
Yet I somehow manage to get things done! I'm kind of amazed at what I get done in one day!
Reading this proves that I'm not the only one. Thank you!
(And it's good to see that there are other manuscripts out there that get rejected because the agent doesn't think she's right for it. Not because they're "Bad" but just for purely practical reasons.)
"If you find do have the pages"
Thank Dog I'm not the only one who screws their grammar responding to an agent.
I just sent an e-mail saying "the first 30 pages IS attached."
Where'd they hide my sackcloth?
I would guess that even omnipotent literary agents put their pants on one leg at a time...just like the rest of us!
:) Terri
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