Re: Subsequent emails
Oh UGH--I can tell you why most of those editors don't answer you.
It works like this, get query. Don't need article/story, or it doesn't fit with needs, or it does not meet our guidelines or it simply sucked. Send rejection.
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
What am I waiting for?
I am waiting for the I am brilliant e-mail and you suck as a person and an editor and then the well if you didn't like that how about this.
Now, not every follow up e-mail (I'll call them that to be nice) is a you suck and I curse you for not recognizing my brilliance, e-mail. But most of them are. Do I feel like being sworn at? Do I feel like being told I suck sh**?
No way.
But I see an e-mail show up within a day or two of a rejection from said rejected author---(I used to open them) now I just delete them unread.
The majority are of the I am great and you suck variety. (I don't need those in my day) Unfair? Maybe. But most editors I know don't subscribe to the send me another proposal school of queries. If we wanted to see more work by you we'd ask.
There was an article a few years back that said if you flood an editor with queries (and what a flood is depends on the editor) that they will relent just to shut you up. All those multiple queries do is annoy.
Now, if a week, or better two go by and I get another query (say for the next months magazine) I will open it and treat it as a new query. Too close to when the last rejection went out--no way, I delete unread.
If you are querying for articles or stories, I would suggest a different sort of dance. Send to several a month (in your genre) then at the start of the next month, send queries to the same places again--this way there is enough time in between them not to make it seem as if the e-mail may contain another rant for daring to reject the author.
Shawn