- Joined
- Sep 29, 2020
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 1
I'm new here, so I pray this isn't an inappropriate question. I'm just dipping my toes in the query madness and I'm becoming increasingly terrified and I need a little bit of reassurance. Or, if there is none to be had, perhaps I should look at only querying or pursuing boutique agencies that welcome Christians. ?
I have a mystery that I was thinking about querying, and since it is not "Christian fiction", I was researching agents on Publishers Marketplace.
Several times, I clicked on the agents twitter page to see if they have those #mswl tags etc, and I was met with really hate-filled, vitriolic rantings. I'm not saying they have opinions - we all have them. I'm saying the level of rage and hate scares me.
I'm seeing this on many of their twitter pages (and I'm not on twitter for this very reason), and I understand everyone's emotions seem to be running very high right now with all the strife currently happening, but I'm terrified that I would have to walk on eggshells in order to query agents like that. lol
Is it worth it?
Is this kind of twitter behavior considered standard professional behavior in publishing? I don't want to query an agent who publicly hopes half the American population will die, when that's basically like cutting off half your potential audience for your work? Is this the norm? And maybe my bigger question is this: is traditional publishing reflected in this behavior as well?
(It's been a long time since I had an agent for a nonfic project...back in 2006-2007... and that was back before twitter was a thing, and I never faced this before. Yes, I'm a hermit.)
Please someone tell me: is this the new normal? Should I just run back to my safe place and hide? Is this a reason that some people choose self publishing? Sorry this is so long.
I have a mystery that I was thinking about querying, and since it is not "Christian fiction", I was researching agents on Publishers Marketplace.
Several times, I clicked on the agents twitter page to see if they have those #mswl tags etc, and I was met with really hate-filled, vitriolic rantings. I'm not saying they have opinions - we all have them. I'm saying the level of rage and hate scares me.
I'm seeing this on many of their twitter pages (and I'm not on twitter for this very reason), and I understand everyone's emotions seem to be running very high right now with all the strife currently happening, but I'm terrified that I would have to walk on eggshells in order to query agents like that. lol
Is it worth it?
Is this kind of twitter behavior considered standard professional behavior in publishing? I don't want to query an agent who publicly hopes half the American population will die, when that's basically like cutting off half your potential audience for your work? Is this the norm? And maybe my bigger question is this: is traditional publishing reflected in this behavior as well?
(It's been a long time since I had an agent for a nonfic project...back in 2006-2007... and that was back before twitter was a thing, and I never faced this before. Yes, I'm a hermit.)
Please someone tell me: is this the new normal? Should I just run back to my safe place and hide? Is this a reason that some people choose self publishing? Sorry this is so long.
Last edited: