- Joined
- Jan 27, 2007
- Messages
- 471
- Reaction score
- 110
- Location
- Oregon Coast
- Website
- www.catherinebusinelle.com
I've sent out 39 queries on this book, and gotten five requests for a full (three of which ended in rejection and two that are pending). I was feeling particularly down about the project because it's getting hard to find agents whose past projects have similarities to mine that I can highlight in a query. That's the only way I can explain making an idiot mistake that has always flabbergasted me when I've heard of others making it.
I addressed the query's greeting to the last agent I had sent it to. For some reason utterly beyond my comprehension, this new agent wants to look at it anyway. In her place, I would have assumed the letter-writer was a twit and sent a particularly frigid rejection. Instead, I got:
"Catherine: I'd be happy to take a look at a proposal, but I don't think the book is going to work if it's 200,000 words long--it needs to be about half that length. Is that possible?
--(Super Cool Agent's First Name)
(P.S. Who is Ms. -----?)"
I'm the psycho who rechecks the punctuation every time I send out a query to make sure some crazed computer fairy didn't tinker with the cut-and-paste function and remove a comma. I've never come close to a goof of this magnitude.
So, what the heck do I say to the P.S.?
P.S. Of course I won't mind making it half that length, if you're wondering. I'd throw in my eyeteeth to sweeten the deal at this point if I thought it would help.
I addressed the query's greeting to the last agent I had sent it to. For some reason utterly beyond my comprehension, this new agent wants to look at it anyway. In her place, I would have assumed the letter-writer was a twit and sent a particularly frigid rejection. Instead, I got:
"Catherine: I'd be happy to take a look at a proposal, but I don't think the book is going to work if it's 200,000 words long--it needs to be about half that length. Is that possible?
--(Super Cool Agent's First Name)
(P.S. Who is Ms. -----?)"
I'm the psycho who rechecks the punctuation every time I send out a query to make sure some crazed computer fairy didn't tinker with the cut-and-paste function and remove a comma. I've never come close to a goof of this magnitude.
So, what the heck do I say to the P.S.?
P.S. Of course I won't mind making it half that length, if you're wondering. I'd throw in my eyeteeth to sweeten the deal at this point if I thought it would help.