That thing I call a job is still demanding my attention, so just a few quick links from others on querying.

First. agent Rachelle Gardner on Should You Send that Quick “Thank You” Email?

She basically comes out on the side of it being ok to say thank-you.  I’ve actually tried really, really hard not to say thank-you when I get a query rejection.  It’s ingrained in me to thank people, but I also know how frustrating it can be to get meaningless e-mails, too.  So, every time I get a response on a story or a query I have to almost sit on my hands to not thank the person (even though I’ve already generally thanked them in advance at the bottom of my e-mail.)

I did send a thank-you on two of my query rejections.  One was an agent who doesn’t always respond and gave me a good reason for the rejection and after a day and a half I just had to write back and say thank-you for sending the response and fair enough on the reason.  (Adult speculative fiction is a hard sell without writing credits.)  With the other there were hints that a thank-you wouldn’t go amiss.

But it’s hard not to thank them all just out of years of inbred courtesy.  And, I guess, really, at that point it doesn’t matter because they’ve already rejected you and if they put you on a black list for being polite, well…

The second link is from agent Janet Reid: Wednesday morning Question Buffet.  It’s a good discussion of why you don’t want to query editors if you’re still trying to get an agent.  You don’t want to do anything that ties your agent’s hands.  (Hence my earlier post about why I didn’t do the Harper Voyager open call.)  It’s tempting to just find someone somewhere who wants your book.  Agent, editor, guy who runs the local grocer…but do it in the right order if you’re going to do it.

And with that I turn back to the mind numbing review of hundreds of documents written by someone who has an interesting notion of how to spell.  Fortunately, this is not near as bad as trying to read the “English” version of Japanese regulations.