Recently, I mismarked a rejection from Agent A as being from Agent B in my spreadsheet. As a result, I sent a query to Agent C, who is from the same agency as Agent B. According to their website, this is a big no-no.
When I realized the mistake I made, I sent a follow-up to Agent C to apologize, explain what happened, and withdraw my query.
My first question is: was that the proper protocol? Is there a better way to handle this (obviously, not making the mistake in the first place is ideal, and I have reworked my spreadsheet to try to keep this from happening again)?
My second question is: if I receive a rejection from Agent B (Gosh, I hope I don't receive a rejection from Agent B), could I query Agent C again, or only in the event that I am querying a different project?
Thank you very much for all your resources, I stalk them regularly.
I feel your pain on this.
When my software needed upgrading last week, I was petrified I'd lose bits of data in the transfer/s. I was lucky; I didn't. But honestly, I live in fear of this.
And all of us on this side of the query desi are aware of how easy it is to make this kind of mistake.
You handled it correctly; you let Agent C know what happened, you apologized.
If B says no, I'd wait a while befory querying C. Let enough time pass that your email address isn't associated with "oops!" in her mind.
Mistakes happen. Even to the most careful of queriers. It's not a deal breaker until you do it more than once.
UPDATE: So, can I blame this blog post for my recent snafu? I'd like to blame anyone but myself of course.
I'm doing follow ups this morning, and I managed to send not one but TWO "hey! what's going on with this!" to an editor.
I'm hoping, like you are, that she realizes I'm just askew this morning.
(I'm going to blame it on learning how this new mail management program works!)
7 comments:
A bit off-topic, but Carbonite supports both Mac and PC operating systems. I think you can back up software using it, too.
Guess that answer ruins my idea of starting your second query with "Yo, look who's back!"
Once again, follow the Queen's advice; take mine to the shredder.
(Makes one wonder, how many did I lead down the road to perdition before finding this blog?)
Mail management system?
What's so hard about an envelope and a stamp?
My own personal update: Per my wife...I had to bonfire my in-laws' twenty-year-old tax forms because crosscut shredding isn't good enough.
Draw your own conclusions.
I feel your pain. I've done this on short story submissions. I had two markets with similar names on my list. I was rejected by Market A, marked it down as Market B, and promptly sent the story off to...Market A again. At least I caught it in time to hastily pull from the submission manager.
Lemme say, all hail submission managers. No embarrassing string of emails going "here you go! - here you go again! - no never mind!" Just pluck it from the reading queue please and let me be on my way...
Kregger
It's a changing world out there and you're assuming the new world works the same as the old one.
A friend recently told me she gave her son pre-printed "thank you" cards to send to people who gave him presents for his graduation. She also gave him stamps. His job was to sign the card, place the card in the envelope, and put the stamp on the envelope.
When he handed the cards back to her for her to mail, she saw he had put the stamps on the upper left hand corner of the envelopes.
Joseph S,
Yup, I made a comment on the days of yore.
I made reference to a busy signal on the tell-e-phone.
Somebody asked me, "What? No voicemail?"
Not on a party line.
Carrying the OT chat...I had to explain how a rotary phone worked to my Barbarians when they saw it in a movie recently.
(((hugs))) OP, I feel your pain. It's so easy to accidentally tick the wrong box. We've all been there. Good luck with Agent A.
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