tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4780642520803074770.post681225814160963896..comments2014-06-19T05:46:57.630-05:00Comments on How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?: Jay Has Some ThoughtsJay Montvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07165174061380427178noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4780642520803074770.post-59011052333750164452008-05-19T21:42:00.000-05:002008-05-19T21:42:00.000-05:00Yep, that's about all I'm asking for, my name. Ins...Yep, that's about all I'm asking for, my name. Instead of "Dear Person" or "Dear Human Being" or "Dear ______." Anything, please! Heck, I even like it when I get the form rejection as long as they scribbled on it in some way. They care!<BR/><BR/>Now, I know they're busy but they're not THAT busy that they can't master a simple mail merge on their form letter. Then again, given the linguistic quality of some of the rejection letters I've received, perhaps this IS expecting a bit much of these overburdened folks.<BR/><BR/>Hmmm, let me think about this. Which is worse: receiving rejection after rejection or having to wade through one horrible query letter after another? Tough call.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4780642520803074770.post-40548581056583501222008-05-19T04:27:00.000-05:002008-05-19T04:27:00.000-05:00I guess it depends on what you mean by "personaliz...I guess it depends on what you mean by "personalize." I would love it if they actually typed the author's name on the letter, but I'm willing to overlook the fact that the rest of the letter is a form.Jay Montvillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165174061380427178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4780642520803074770.post-4427734471922141992008-05-18T10:30:00.000-05:002008-05-18T10:30:00.000-05:00Many "authors" are thin-skinned, especially the ba...Many "authors" are thin-skinned, especially the bad ones. This happens a lot more than you think, especially with the internet. There are sites devoted to authors who just RAGE against agents. Granted, some of them are quite amusing.<BR/><BR/>That said, I find the use of a form rejection to be offputting. I took the time to research agents, put together a nice letter tailored to your needs, etc., and all you can do is send me a form rejection? I don't buy the excuse that these agents have so many queries to deal with that they can't afford to "personalize" rejections a bit. With the software available today, it wouldn't take much to personalize a rejection at all; these folks are just too lazy and rely on the excuse that "all agents do it this way."<BR/><BR/>It gets worse: I just read that one of the big publishing companies is thinking of eliminating the slush pile by having other people read through the pile, people who volunteer for the task and are not hired by the publishing company. Now, this is an interesting way to get rid of the slush pile problem. I believe it will lead to lowest common denominator publishing as more and more books get published based on their "appeal" to a broad audience, as determined by a bunch of yahoos reading the slush pile for diamonds in the rough.<BR/><BR/>I take some small solace knowing that there isn't a chance in hell that Faulkner would get published today. I'm not comparing myself to Faulkner, mind you, just noting that most of the literary greats wouldn't get published today because of their minimal appeal. Great writing is no longer in demand. Challenging writing is no longer in demand. Why? People are lazy: they just want to go to the beach and read and not get hung up on complex ideas and difficult sentence structure and vocabulary.<BR/><BR/>There's plenty of blame for this problem to go around but the primary reasons are that people are just lazy and stupid.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com