snail mail vs. email (for queries)

In my experience, both don't work equally well.

caw.

An agent should be happy to receive your query even if you wrapped it around a brick and tossed it through their window.

I have a list of about 30 agents that I'm working through right now. So far two have specified they'd take either e-mail or snail mail queries. Both have stated they will only respond to e-mail queries if they are interested. I opted for sending a snail mail query in both cases as I'd rather have a response (even a form rejection) than never knowing.

My snail mail response rate has been 100%, while my email response rate has been slightly greater than 50%, but every request I've gotten has come from an email query I sent.

I prefer email queries, and I treat them just as I do printed letters. I make them look as close as is reasonable to a printed business letter.

DeadlyAccurate said:

My snail mail response rate has been 100%, while my email response rate has been slightly greater than 50%, but every request I've gotten has come from an email query I sent.

I prefer email queries, and I treat them just as I do printed letters. I make them look as close as is reasonable to a printed business letter.

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This is my experience.

Has anyone ever gotten a snail mail reply in a SAS asking for more material (not rejecting)?

I have gotten replies to my email queries asking for partials several weeks after they were sent.

If an agent says they accept both, I just assume they accept both. I don't see the benefit on their end of saying they accept both when they really only want one or the other.

If they accept both, but say they only respond to email queries if interested, I'd probably spent the 39 cents just for the peace of mind of knowing it didn't get lost in the pipes somewhere. Even though I know rationally that that's silly.

And I would assume that if someone wrapped anything around a brick and threw it through anyone's window, the recipient would be pissed off, not happy, and well within their rights to have the 'sender' arrested. Agents are in fact people, so how about knocking off the bashing? It reads like sour grapes, and boy do they smell rotten.

LeeFlower said:

Agents are in fact people, so how about knocking off the bashing?

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So were Nazis.

kuatolives said:

So were Nazis.

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Yeah, but they'd usually respond.

caw.

kuatolives said:

So were Nazis.

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Yeah, but they don't represent your work so well.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Yeah, but they don't represent your work so well.

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As of now, they'd represent it as well as any of the others have.

caw.

Let's take this outside, guys.

For my part, I hate snail mail. I've sent about four queries out that way where I've had no other choice. I got one request for a full, two rejections, and one no response.

As far as emails, I hardly ever get an email rejection and I've gotten many requests for partials and fulls. The no response rate is growing, but I kind of like never hearing. That way I can resubmit after a while, or even send the query snail mail one day.

I tried snail mail a few times, but have to admit I never got used to the concept. When I was living in California and had a few short stories to submit, I'd wait until after it rained because there were plenty of snails hanging around my front door. I'd snatch one off the ground and glue a query letter onto their backs then drop them into the mailbox for pickup.

After a few weeks or months, I'd get my query letter back with a red stamp on the front "Postage due" and a note from the mail man "Try using a stamp next time, it'll get there quicker."

I always wondered if the post office didn't hold up my query while they tried to figure out the postage for snail mail.

I've had more almost-sales with email than I have with paper. I don't think I'll bother with snail mail anymore, unless I exhaust every market and agent that accepts email queries and submissions.

kuatolives said:

An agent should be happy to receive your query even if you wrapped it around a brick and tossed it through their window.

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Definitely better than my Molotov cocktail method. I've never gotten a reply that way.

Homer said:

Has anyone ever gotten a snail mail reply in a SAS asking for more material (not rejecting)?

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Yes, but I've gotten more feedback about what wasn't working via email. (Of course, if you write a good manuscript, you don't need to worry about that.)

I actually prefer snail mail queries. I love walking to the post office with my letter in hand, feeling like, "Wow. I am officially a struggling artist now."

Email, only because I'm a lazy bum and snail mail takes forever.

Plus, the thrill of seeing Inbox (1) drives me over the edge.

E-mail, because it's quick, cheap, and easy.

So far I have sent out only email queries, and my response rate is exactly 50%. But sooner or later the list of agents that accept email queries (and represent my genre) will dwindle (unless someone accepts me, of course), and snail mail will be the only option.

We'll see.

I love e-queries because they are cheap, free, and hassle free, not to mention I'm dirt poor and I can't justify the cost of the ink, paper, envelope, and postage, when it comes down to budget time during the harder times, so I try the equery first and then when I run out of places to query by e-mail, I'll bite the bullet and skimp and save until I can afford to send out paper forms. Not to mention my printer is giving me fits.

So far I've had pretty good response with equery, at least with the read, response, and request. But I can't seem to get past the "This is good, well written, well-paced, intriguing, I couldn't put it down" type of comments and to the "We'll take it!" I am really familiar with the but's and the Althoughs. When you see those you know it's a rejection, generally followed by "It's not right for our slate at this time." I guess I'm terrible at matching my work to companies, either that or they are being extra nice.

Anyway, I do equery, it all comes down to personal preference really, but I have never had a company complain that I have sent it to them via e-mail when they said it was okay to do so.

I got better response overall with email.
The agent I signed with asked me to email the full as a word attachment forty minutes after I sent the query and signed me in three weeks.
To be honest I think it doesn't matter but I will tell you that in agentquery.com it said my agent preferred snail mail but because it listed her email address - I sent the email anyway.
Go figure...

I like to know that someone's replied, so I prefer snail mail, and it seems that the majority of the agents I'm submitting to do as well. But I know what the fans of e-mail are saying about getting comments on a rejected partial or full, because the only time I've ever heard anything useful was by e-mail, and when I wanted to clarify a point, I could get an answer.

There's also nothing like the speed. I once had a request for a partial in one hour, and another time, a rejection in forty-five minutes.

Queries

Most of the agents and editors I know who accept both receive far, far more e-mail queries than snail mail queries. I don't think this is a very good thing for the writers involved.

I know a couple of agents who are seriously considering doing away with e-mail queries because they can't keep up while still giving each query the attention it deserves.

E-mail queries are easier, cheaper, and more convenient. These things are not always advantages.

Jamesaritchie said:

Most of the agents and editors I know who accept both receive far, far more e-mail queries than snail mail queries. I don't think this is a very good thing for the writers involved.

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I happen to think that this is what's responsible for the great leap in "no answers" I've seen this year.

But with email it's more of an impulse buy; agent goes, "What the heck, I'll take a look." With regular mail it seems much too easy for the agent to reject. Not only that, if one does ask for pages in response to a query, your joy is way out of proportion to the situation. You're only on first base and the odds are still strong that you'll be stranded there when the inning is over.