Obsessive Email Checkers

Define obsessive.

I use MS Outlook. When I receive an e-mail, a little box pops up on my screen and tell me what it is, so I don't have to worry about checking while I'm at the computer. And when I'm away, I just don't care.

No. You're not the only one. I promise. ;-)

You are not alone. I cringe when I see a little message flag, can't wait to open it, and am relieved and disappointed when it's just a friend. If it is a big R, I'm relieved and disappointed too. If it's a request, I send it off and wait, relieved and anticipating disappointment. And so the cycle begins, again.

Dear god I'm so like this. Even when I'm not querying I obsessively check my email, get mad when nothing's there, then remember I haven't started querying yet.

Yes, I am a dork.

There are two obsessions I used to have: 1) looking at my web page hits, and 2) checking my e-mail.

Over a week ago, a gatekeeper for an agency with my full said, "I love this and I'm going to pass it on for further reads. We'll be in touch next week." Published Author Friend said to me, "I hope they don't get back to you next week. If there's a message in your Inbox from them tomorrow morning, it's a rejection. The longer they take, the better your chances."

I realize it's something of a superstition that delay=depth of consideration; the agents could take a whole year and still cut me off. But PAF did get me to ease off the Inbox. Now it's once in the morning and I'm on my merry way.

As for the website hit analysis, as soon as I started checking my hits against IP blacklists and banning the bots, well . . . a lot of my hits disappeared! Russian, Romanian, and Bulgarian e-mail vampires were more interested in me than New York agents it turns out.

I spend a lot more time at AW now, enjoying the company of my fellow Hellions, whether contributing or simply reading. I'm still obsessed, mind you; I just don't have many places to go now for those missives of doom or salvation.

Oh yeah, I'm an obsessive email checker. You're not alone.

Not alone- definitely not alone- wait I have go check my email---

My first week or so I was like that, but now I'm really not. I check a couple/three times a day and I'm okay with that. But yeah, when I first sent off a few I checked a lot. Every once in awhile I forget to check for a day or two and then it's like "oh crap!"

Actually, I probably check my rep points here more often. That might be kinda sad haha.

Reading this thread made me want to check my email.

Unfortunately, nothing.

I haven't been as bad about it as I was when I first started querying (about a month ago). Then it was every five minutes.

Now it's every hour or so.

Hold on... Let me check my e-mail.
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What was the question?

No, my F5 key isn't beginning to stick from refreshing webmail... oh, wait.

If I'm online, Gmail is open.

Twice a day on weekdays. Usually don't check it at all on the weekend. I'm thinking that puts me in the unobsessed category.

I would have answered sooner, but I've been checking my e-mail.

I have mail rules set to funnel queries into a specific folder, so I don't have to do anything to check for replies other than flash my eyeballs at the folder. Which I do whenever I hear that e-mail chime. Which happens all day. So, um, yeah.

Honestly, while I know people who do this, I have more of a "fire and fall back" approach. Things go out, and I move on to other things until I get a reply - usually a rejection - back. Maybe if my ratio of acceptances to rejections was higher, I'd check more often, but I figure once or twice a day is really enough.

I have enough other things to obsess over anyway.

Published Author Friend said to me, "I hope they don't get back to you next week. If there's a message in your Inbox from them tomorrow morning, it's a rejection. The longer they take, the better your chances."

Click to expand...

Not in my experience. I've never found length of time a submission spends with an agent to be any indication of anything at all. They can reject you in minutes, or they can reject you six months from now. No correlation whatever.

I probably would be, if I had the time. But lately my job and my personal life just keep me too busy to check more than once a day. So I guess that's a good thing. But they're also keeping me too busy to make much progress on the Next Great Novel I'm trying to write to take my mind off the slim chances of the one I'm querying, so...

6 of one, half dozen of the other. Pick your poison.