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Jay Is Not On Vacation

Despite my absence from this blog, I am not dead and/or on a beach somewhere. I wish I were (on a beach, not dead), but I am not.

I would sing a song about how busy I am with work (true), and how busy I am with teaching (also true), and how busy I am with working on the new projects (true dat), and how busy I am with life in general (double true), but the real reason why I haven't been posting here is because I've been querying.

For some reason, querying has made me especially leery of posting here. I've seen posts from agent blogs that talk about how they don't want to know that the author they're considering representing has been rejected by everyone else in the world. Likewise, I don't think it's good form for me to post about the responses I've received when the agents haven't given me permission to do so, although some writers do it. I know I wouldn't want to see my query letter posted on someone's blog and commented on, although some agents do it.

I will say these three things:

(1) the response to my querying has been good. I don't have any news to report at this early juncture, but I'm pleased with how things are going so far.

(2) All of the agents I've had interactions with have been very professional. Some are funny, some are personal, some are formal, some are stiff, but none of them have been mean or rude or jerky in any way. So if you are an author who is scared of querying, don't be. No one is going to point and laugh. Or, at least, not to your face. :)

(3) Querying takes a helluva lot of time. Every agent has different preferences and different criteria and doing the research, and doing the assembly (yes, even for electronic queries), and making sure that the letter works for each agent can take, literally, hours.

Of course, this is no excuse for me not be posting about other things besides querying. So...see the above excuses for that. :)
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Comments

Mary said…
I agree that it’s not a good idea to mention responses from agents and editors on one’s blog. But, from the comment you posted today on Nathan’s (which had me in stitches) -- I’d say you’ve mastered the art of the query!!! :)
Monday, March 31, 2008 at 3:53:00 PM CDT
Jay Montville said…
Heh. Thanks, Mary! Normally, I don't try to be funny in comments (especially in Nathan's blog - chill as he is, he's still an agent and he handles what I write), but ... come on! He set me up! I couldn't resist.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 6:23:00 AM CDT
Anonymous said…
Jay, I snickered alone in a room while reading your query on Nathan's blog. A fine use of buzz words!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 4:16:00 PM CDT
Jay Montville said…
Gracias! I feel like the word "snot" is underused in modern fiction. :)
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 8:59:00 PM CDT
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