Query peeves

I've been sending out a few query letters lately.  Mostly fresh blood . . . er, agents who haven't rejected GNOME yet, or those silly, silly agents who say no response is no, but then state to re-query them if you haven't gotten a response. 

Huh?

Note to agents: If no response means no, then send out an auto response that you received the query so the freaked-out, query-happy author doesn't keep querying you.



Right.  So, if I'm confused, oh-she-who-has-been-querying-and-getting-rejections-for-YEARS, can you imagine the poor newbies?  Queries are stressful enough without forcing authors to jump through various hoops, but then again, this might be the way agents seperate the chaff from the grain. *shrugs*

From my agent blog stalking, I've discovered that many agents are going NO QUERIES  during August.  I can't say that I blame them.  They need a break just as much as the rest of us.  Time for vacation and catching up on their requested material, their client's material, and the "other" stuff they do to earn their dime.  So if you want to get in before the deadline send your queries now.  Better yet, would be to tweak your query/synopsis/manuscript in August and press send the day after Labor Day.

Another phenomena that I noticed are androgenous--I was going to say hermaphroditic--names.  Now, I've run across Kevan vs. Kevin and Carol vs. Carroll, but what about Logan or Uwe?  Yep, I sent out a query to a Mr. Logan XXX only to find out Logan was a girl.  Well, crap.  Do I send a note or just write off the agent?  I wrote off the agent, she doesn't need another email crowding her inbox.  Sucks, but there it is--DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST! 

Oh, btw, Uwe is a dude and a Dr., discovered my error on his rejection letter. . .

--but realize that sometimes you can't find out everything about your mark so make your query as professional as possible.

Here is another interesting tidbit from Agent Kristen Nelson's blog, Pub Rants, titled Another Reason to Nail Your Query Pitch.

Well, that's all I got for today.

Write on!