Oh, frickin' get over it. Mockery can be helpful. There's a subsection on it in the writer's tool manual. Also, your use of "incredible" is sloppy.
Again, no amount of "frickin' get over it" will change the sense that many, many authors have that mocking doesn't help them. It often hurts, and turns people off from writing altogether. I'm a teacher and writer by profession, and I promise you there is no better way to lose a student than to mock him/her in the interest of "education." You may find it funny; they won't. Also, my use of "incredible" was perfectly appropriate, thanks.
It was about education. It was a generous and helpful act.
Hey, what a great argument! Here, let me try: it wasn't about education. It was a nasty and mean-spirited exercise.
I guess our competing assertions cancel out. Funny how that happens. I'd rather we rely on arguments and logic instead.
I see you've never read slush.
Nope. And none of the people who would send such absurd queries to an agent are likely to be savvy enough to the writing world to be on Twitter in the first place, following a topic like #queryfail. If they are, do you think such mockery is more likely to make them change, or slink away in abject humiliation and never bother anyone with their writing again? Here, try this thought experiment with me:
And that you have no ear.
Now do you think a nasty comment like this is more likely to make me understand your point of view, or classify you as an #$%%^%^ who I'm going to ignore from now on? Fun and games aside, I'm sorry, but you don't simply get to assert the effect this has on other people as fact. I've made clear in this thread why I think #queryfail was a pointless and mean exercise in logical terms (and many others, including agents, agree with me. Do you think Nathan Bransford and Janet Reid also "have no ear"?). You've responded by insulting me. You haven't convinced me you're right, but you've certainly convinced me that you're exactly the kind of person who would like #queryfail. Good to know.
Medievalist, I have ten articles and a book published through academic presses, and have been through the peer review wringer many, many times. I've never had the experience of having someone publicly claim that I should learn how to do something from my 3-year old. If I did, that person would not be likely to review an article for that journal again. The difference is instructive.
Adrienne: I got that the agent has now tried to play this off as humorous. I also know that I've heard lots of people make off-color jokes and then retreat rapidly behind the shield of "oh, it was all a joke," "get over it," "don't take things so seriously," and so on, all while refusing to acknowledge the illegitimacy of the initial jokes to begin with. Nor do I think something which is so
educational *rumbling effect* can work that well when it's drenched in the mocking, dismissive attitude at the root of #queryfail.
Here's a thought: rather than dismissing the many, many people who were hurt here out of hand, how about we consider the remote possibility that they might be on to something, and that maybe, just maybe, public mocking of one's potential clients--over freaking Twitter--may not be the most professional and
educational *flash of lightning* way to ensure better queries in the future? I may not have an ear, but I think I can still read the difference between satire and vitriol on occasion.
