Friday, May 20, 2011

what she said

yea, this.

I'll expand the advice to include this:

Keep your query process off your blog.
Keep it off twitter.
Keep it off Facebook.

Talk about what you love to read.
Talk about how much you adore Game of Thrones.
Talk about the weather.

Do not talk about your query travails in public.

No one cares, and it could will come back to bite you in the tail.


20 comments:

Matthew MacNish said...

I REALLY adore A Game of Thrones. The TV show is pretty good too.

Unknown said...

Love the pic - adorable


oh, good advice as well.

jen said...

Great advice. Sometimes it's tough to remember social media is one giant cocktail party - and everyone in the room can hear everything I say.

Laila Knight said...

Thanks for the advice. I love the pic. It is too cute.

LorelieLong said...

I know it's tempting to do, because especially if you're friends/followed by a bunch of fellow aspiring authors, you'll get that immediate hit of sympathy that helps so much.

But I've found private email loops are much better. You still get the support but it's classier. Of course you *still* have to remember that nothing on the internet is *truly* private.

Also funny as heck: My captcha is "whine." Yes. That.

Valerie Keiser Norris said...

My blog is humor, so the query process, at least in my case, doesn't usually fit the criteria. Now, if my blog was about patience and frustration, BINGO!

Travener said...

Oh, I agree, except that I talk about my querying travails a lot. That's why I use the fake name and all...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link and the addendum, Janet.

Wise words for the writer. Another trinket going into my mental rolodex.

Christine Rains said...

Thanks for the advice! I love the books, but I don't have HBO. I'm missing out on the series!

Marsha Sigman said...

I LOVE Game of Thrones. And I do not discuss query hell with anyone. I'm saving it for my future therapist.

Kristin Laughtin said...

I was actually considering discussing my love of Game of Thrones and the challenges of adapting text to screen, etc.!

But once I start querying, yeah, only people I'm close to will know. I won't discuss it on my blog. I'd probably be embarrassed if it took me a while to get signed, even if that's not uncommon! It would just seem that way more because my updates would all be "Sent more letters because I haven't gotten any requests!" or silence, which could prompt people to ask. The horror.

December said...

Off to google Game of Thrones

Unknown said...

Yes ma'am! Will do.

Melinda Szymanik said...

Its not just about posting up 'too much information' - its also that you cannot predict or control(or possibly sometimes even imagine) how others might interpret it.

Amy Tripp said...

Oh, heck, I haven't even started querying yet. But my last couple of blogs have been about the weather (Flood!!!), and what I've been reading (Orson Scott Card and, of course, George R R Martin).

So, yeah, I've got this covered. :)

Unknown said...

Thank you - I have read too many negative tweets/posts/blogs about the query process. Keep it private - best choice.

Unknown said...

Writers who are querying need all the support they can get. And seriously, are you really going to turn down an awesome book just because of kvetching comment on Twitter?

Cyprith said...

I don't like the idea of there being topics I can't talk about on my own blog.

Not that I DO talk about querying, but something about the whole "we will find you, and we will know you found our submissions page confusing and thus reject your submission post haste" rubs me the wrong way.

Though I do understand how an unprofessional blog will keep an editor from wanting any further dealings with a writer. I guess it's a two way street.

But, me personally, I'd rather be Harlan Ellison and make myself heard, than be Miss Meek and be overlooked.

Kat_McL said...

Writing is 50% artistic and 50% business. Why don't people get that? You just can't teach common sense to some people. A person needs to generate two facebook identities, one for business and one for fun. Another sorry state of affairs is one acts desparate. Its a turn off. -- Kat

Terri Coop said...

Agree 100%. My writer friends started a private group where we can beta read,compare notes and commiserate in private, thus protecting our tales (and tails).