The Twitter Persona

fourlittlebees

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This may be more of an agent vent, but why is it that authors (and especially prospective authors) have to maintain a squeaky-clean Twitter image, but agents often have a free-for-all, especially when it comes to queries? Do they not realize that the very authors querying them are probably following them?

There was one agent I queried early on, and I am so thankful she rejected me, because having seen her on Twitter since I queried, to be honest, her behavior horrifies me. Every other post is complaining about how bad the queries are... how ridiculous the authors are who are querying her... and I'm secondhand-embarrassed every time she does this. Honestly, she could come begging with a six-figure advance and I wouldn't sign with her.

Do editors not pay attention to this, or is it simply accepted? Agents can say whatever and the writers are the lowest caste, watching their every move lest it be the one that kills any chance of publishing?

P.S. The reason I don't simply unfollow is because I really am hoping for a public karmic retribution.
P.P.S. Do they think this is helping authors? Only thing it helps me with is knowing who not to query.
 
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fourlittlebees

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:ROFL: You obviously don't follow the same authors I follow....

Okay, well, I mean, in talking about other industry professionals. I regularly horrify my colleagues with stuff I say. But like... bashing queries with fairly specific tweets. It sounds an awful lot like schoolyard bullying when I see it.
 

taylormillgirl

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I know exactly what you mean. A few weeks ago, an agent confessed to sharing a bad query during chat. I was horrified at the lack of professionalism and immediately took that person off my "to query" list. I see a lot of hashtags (#querytip, #pubtip) that are really just useless bashing in disguise.

Conversely, I've seen some agents shine on Twitter (Jenny Bent, for example, always impresses me with her positive attitude.)
 

shaldna

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Honestly, while I get what you are saying, if your query was a good query then you have nothing to worry about.

And instead of assuming that it's all 'bashing' authors, why not consider that it's the result of years of bad queries that have culminated in a humourous look at the really bad ones, rather than stew over them, share them, it helps other people to understand what is good and bad in a fun way.

Unless they are going 'OMG. Writer X sent me this tripe, she's so effing useless that I wouldn't line the cat's box with her book. Just listen to what she said.....' then I really don't see the problem.
 

fourlittlebees

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Honestly, while I get what you are saying, if your query was a good query then you have nothing to worry about.

And instead of assuming that it's all 'bashing' authors, why not consider that it's the result of years of bad queries that have culminated in a humourous look at the really bad ones, rather than stew over them, share them, it helps other people to understand what is good and bad in a fun way.

Unless they are going 'OMG. Writer X sent me this tripe, she's so effing useless that I wouldn't line the cat's box with her book. Just listen to what she said.....' then I really don't see the problem.

a) wasn't my query, and that doesn't prevent me from feeling bad for other authors
b) one agent in particular hasn't been doing this for "years" of bad queries
c) It's not even a specific query. Entire THEMES are rejected (and often mocked) out of hand. It's not people making horrifying mistakes (like Slush Pile Hell points out), it's things like how DARE you query me with... ghosts, vampires, characters drinking banana smoothies? SO GAUCHE.
 

shaldna

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a) wasn't my query, and that doesn't prevent me from feeling bad for other authors
b) one agent in particular hasn't been doing this for "years" of bad queries
c) It's not even a specific query. Entire THEMES are rejected (and often mocked) out of hand. It's not people making horrifying mistakes (like Slush Pile Hell points out), it's things like how DARE you query me with... ghosts, vampires, characters drinking banana smoothies? SO GAUCHE.

I'm not giving reasons, i'm just saying I don't think it's such a massive deal if no one is addressed personally or can be identified.
 

Amarie

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Good thing about twitter- it allows you to get a sense of someone's personality. I can figure out who I wouldn't want to work with.
 

Kitty27

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My Twitter persona would scare an agent to death. I have friends that are Pagans, Wiccans, Luciferians,self identified vampires,Gothic musicians,and some who are patiently waiting for the mothership to beam them back up. Going by my Twitter,one would think that I am insane and require an agent that is well versed in dealing with such folk. Which is true.

It is by no means clean,lol. But friends are friends. I couldn't imagine being different. Being a horror writer,I think it suits me quite well.

I understand what you are saying. But I don't get too worried about it. If they are simply being humorous,that's fine by me. So far,I haven't seen any agent savagery.
 
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kellion92

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Fourlittlebees, I hear you. I follow some agents even though they rejected me or don't even rep my genre because they have interesting insights on the industry. I also unfollow other agents almost instantly if they offend me on behalf of all the other unagented writers out there.
 

Snappy

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Good thing about twitter- it allows you to get a sense of someone's personality. I can figure out who I wouldn't want to work with.

This exactly.
 

JanetO

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Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather have an agent who spends time selling my book (and all the other preparations that go into it) rather than frequently spewing out nonsense on Twitter, or on blogs, for that matter.
 

ChaosTitan

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Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather have an agent who spends time selling my book (and all the other preparations that go into it) rather than frequently spewing out nonsense on Twitter, or on blogs, for that matter.

This is a good point, but there are some very good agents who make good deals for their clients, and they still manage to keep up with Twitter, etc...

It doesn't have to be an either/or.
 

PinkAmy

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This may be more of an agent vent, but why is it that authors (and especially prospective authors) have to maintain a squeaky-clean Twitter image,

I'm a VERY opinionated person, but because I don't want to turn off any potential agents or publishers, I don't post things under my own name if I'm ranting about republicans politicians :D. I'm thinking about this from a business perspective. If I had written a book about politics, then I would rant away, but since my book is a memoir I don't want to lessen my chances of being published. Seems like common sense to me.
 

shaldna

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Agents are people too.
 

brainstorm77

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I think it's great that agents are on Twitter. I don't use it often myself but I do like it for promotion.
 

Saul Tanpepper

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I think the original sentiment is valid. Authors are trying to sell a product into an already glutted market, so a damaged rep scores against them. Agents are gate-keepers (you can argue till you're blue in the face about this, but I firmly stand behind this) and have the ability to pick and choose which of the products they want to sell. Of course, they're also competing against other agents for publishers, so you won't see them dissing editors and houses.
 
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There are definitely people acting unprofessionally on Twitter. And yes, I mean so-called 'professionals'.

Yep, scarletpeaches saying that. Have you seen my tweets? I get away with a certain amount given that my genre is erotic romance, but there's a difference between having a wacky sense of humour and savaging people. I take the piss out of myself more than I do other people, and most of the things I say are so obviously in jest that no-one would think I meant it.

For instance yesterday I asked my followers whether I should eat a bowl of cereal or kill my neighbour for playing his music too loud.

However, when it comes to agents and publishers getting specific about crappy queries they've received, I gotta tell ya, it looks like hypocrisy. Okay, okay, they've had years of bad queries to put up with but you know what? Us writers have years of rejections, long waits and negative reviews to put up with too. If we have to suck it up, so should you. You don't like it? Leave the job. Agents and publishers don't have the monopoly on having a bad day at work.

As has already been said, it gives you the opportunity to decide whether or not you'd like to work with this person.

But a word of warning: it works both ways. I know there are editors out there in Twitterlandia who would do anything to avoid working with this writer or that writer because of their public persona. How do I know? People talk. The internet is a very small village.

People aren't stupid. They know when you're just venting, or having a laugh...and when you're being deceitful or bitchy.

Being professional and being funny aren't mutually exclusive, but arrogance, bitchiness and dishonesty are hard to hide, especially on the internet. Word gets around.
 

Filigree

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I don't tweet, and I really don't follow anyone on Twitter. If folks can handle the extra workload of managing a professional and quasi-social life, that's great. I really don't feel it's my business to obsess over someone else's hour-to-hour activities. Even if they are talking about my crappy query, there's no good that come of me knowing about it right then. They'll send a rejection, or no answer at all, and I'll move on to the next name on the list.
 

aekap

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I can do you one worse... when I was querying my novel, I came across an agent's public blog in which not only did she complain consistently about the people querying her, but also about *her signed authors*. You know, the people she works for? I was shocked.
 

fourlittlebees

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I can do you one worse... when I was querying my novel, I came across an agent's public blog in which not only did she complain consistently about the people querying her, but also about *her signed authors*. You know, the people she works for? I was shocked.

That is horrifying!!
 

daisyb

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The worst example of this happened to me right after the Writer's Digest conference. One of the agents I met with (who I read as a bit lukewarm, but she requested a partial from me) tweeted about how she was such a softy at the conference, she was way too nice to people and asked for partials when she prob shouldnt have. Not cool! People waited in line for up to 40 minutes to meet with certain agents and were nervously rehearsing their pitches, spent their time and money to be there in NY...I really wasn't impressed with this agent after that tweet. It was just mean spirited and not necessary to share, especially knowing that many of the people who pitched her prob follow her on Twitter!
 

Bushrat

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Very simple: agents are in a position of power, and authors are not.