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How fun! Love your snail mail! And your carrot car is a hoot! Yes, more traveling animals for sure!!

Thank you for visiting my blog and for your comment-- much appreciated! Yes, I love Jayme McGowan's work too!

he's really great jen! so cute as a postage stamp or sticker on an envelope...have you looked into zazzle or vistaprint for your designs?
xOx, sUz

I just wrote a letter to my parents in Florida. They do have a computer and can use e-mail but attachments get them all fouled up so I wrote the letter and included photo’s of their brand new great grand daughter. I actually promised myself for new years I was going to send a letter to someone once a week..I’ve been slacking!

That’s great I’m sure they loved the pics too. My dad and I have been writing back and forth since my trip to see him and my mom and its been wonderful. Handwritten notes are still my favorite form of communication. I just love getting letters in the mail.

Way to go.

I think its a good move. Easier for you and for us. No more postage! Yay! (starving writer and all that)
And I think we should always reread the guidelines when we're ready to send regardless if we think we know them as wants and needs do change.
:)

You're right. If anyone did the least little bit of research on NLA they would know what you represent and how you like to receive submissions.

I do have a question though. Those darn spam filters --- what happens if you email someone because you're interested and you never hear back? Do you try again, or with the amount of email that you handle do you even realize it?

Curious,

nlnaigle:

I had that experience (not with Kristin, however). I had queried an agent, who requested a partial. I sent the partial, but never heard back. After a few months, I e-mailed her, but still nothing. Then I tried e-mailing from a DIFFERENT e-mail account, and I finally got her response to that. The other account wasn't filtering her e-mails even though my main one was. (This was, by the way, an agent who didn't explicitly state that they only respond if they are interested.) The agent, as it turned out, had requested the full!

Gah! I hate doing snail mail queries. I try to be very environmentally conscious, buying recycled paper, etc, but it gets very expensive! Then I worry it got shuffled in with the wrong person’s mail, or someone in the mailroom spilled Mountain Dew all over it and threw it away…it just creates more stress.

And for those that may be weary of email queries; your submission system is, by far, the best I've come across so far. It's very user friendly and the response times are dead on.

Nice. It's past time to take the paper out of this industry. Except where printed books are concerned, of course.

Good. I hope this trend continues, and all things considering, i'm positive it will!

"We do not accept snail mail queries."

From your website. Clear but perhaps needs to be in bold? In a line by itself so it stands out more? Just a suggestion.

But there are always folks who fail to follow instructions not matter how obvious.

Me? I consider snail mail more reliable than email and RyanBruner
and nlnaigle explained the reasons why. But we scribes gotta follow the stated guidelines and hope for the best.

Good for you. If someone can't be bothered to do the research or follow the directions like the rest of us, they don't deserve representation.

I agree with you that email queries are a much better method. BUT! What about those dorks who still send snail queries with a SASE? It won't be killing any trees to simply return the query in the SASE with a note "We do not accept snail mail queries." If you're trying to save trees, well, the tree that the SASE was made from is already dead. So, I think, to simply ignore the query with a SASE, is rude. And this is from an Environmental Biologist.

I think it all comes down to READING THE GUIDELINES. If a writer were to do that and still send a query or proposal snail mail, they deserve to be ignored, SASE or not.

I just got back from CA this morning (I live in NJ) and I'm tired and grumpy. ;)

I'm gagging on the sense of self-righteousness emanating from this blog. Smug much?

I guess those poor folks with bad internet connections (or none at all- there are still areas of the country without broadband or even the excellent phone line service we enjoy in the major metropolitans... no 56K for them) will be doomed to research their queries the old fashioned way-- with market/agent compilations and the ads in the back of Writers' Digest.

Once again we are exposed to the inflated ego of another agent whose time is "too valuable a commodity to be wasted" doing something as pedestrian as opening mail. You would think that agents have the hardest job on earth, rather than what it is... a nice, cushy office job where the main goal is too communicate with other people, via phone and e-mail, with an extensive amount of reading. There's no supervisor waiting in the wings to take credit for your successes or to blame you for any failures-- there's no quota of tiny things you have to assemble or of giant things that have to be moved from one place to another-- there's no standing in extremes of weather trying to figure out just what the hell the problem with that bunch of wires is, because a thousand people are without power and getting cold-- there's no chance that the next car you pull over could have a crackhead with a pistol behind the wheel, one who doesn't plan on spending a night in jail.

Yeah, you've got it tough. Maybe you should knock off early and go to On the Border for a marguerita... you're the boss, after all.

Loutish & crude, funny but true.

Hurray for those anxious to label themselves pioneers. Savers of the world, savers of the forests, protectors of the environment. The electronic elite. The technocrats.

Huzzah for those who so willingly agree. Commend away, ladies and gentlemen. Cheer for a whining rant without calling it so; instead clap your heroine on the back and tell her that she's right. "Excellent choice, ma'am, every move a good one, everyone should do what you do, stay ahead of the curve."

All the old agencies in faraway places like Manhattan (the ones that have been successfully agenting for scores of years) should hang up their fountain pens. Give up. How stupid they are to hold fast to a system so futilely ancient as "mail." I would imagine that Writer House is closing the doors (that have been open a ridiculously long time) and bowing out in favor of those technologically savvy enough to be Kristin.

Oh well. Out with the old, in with the new. Just imagine, it only took six years for Kristin to change the world of publishing. Bravo!

Samantha Dayne.

Anonymous 12:40pm: Bitter much?

Agents, like other people, want to have lives after their job is done. Why make the job longer and harder by opening mail when the policy is clearly to send all queries ELECTRONICALLY? Agents don't owe you anything. The problem with the 21st century is that for the first time in human history, people feel they're owed something. The government OWEs me this, my emplyer OWEs me that, agents OWE me a chance using snail mail.

Get over yourselves.

This bitter b-fest is good stuff. Rant on my fello' malcontents! Rant on!

-cindiindahaus!

-Anon 12:40

Kind of laying it on thick, don't you think? Yes, let's take the worlds hardships out on all the canniving agents bent on excluding the computer illiterate users ...via snail mail.

Give me a break!

If an author is serious about this business or most jobs for that matter, computer skills are essential. From typing your manuscript on word to communicating through email. Especially when its a quick question when it would be too time consuming to get wrapped up in a phone conversation.

So ya, maybe some people don't have a home computer. Well, then go to the local library. Since your already there researching, right. Email is free through hotmail, google etc. There's just no excuse.

Plus it saves you postage.

So sir or ma'm, maybe you should knock off early and go to borders for a marguerita...with you know, all the worries of crackheads, bad weather, supervisors and all those crazy wires.

Cause you sound like you need a breather. Seriously. And if after some needed quiet time you still feel strongly about the use of paper, then query other agents and stop reading this blog. simple.

Geez, it's her business and her blog. At least she answers all email queries. Some agents don't even do that.

-Kristin, please ignore the crazies.

"I guess those poor folks with bad internet connections ... will be doomed..."

Even small towns have libraries with internet access. I'm in rural Indiana, and while I don't have internet access myself (because it's not available here), the library does. And even if the library didn't, I would drive the two hours to Indianapolis if I had to. The point is, it's up to the writer to follow the submission guidelines.

And many of the agents at Writers House accept submissions via email and prefer them...

Do the research people. If you can't be bothered to fight for your novel, why the hell should the agent?

Anon @ 12:40, I see the light! There should be equal access to all agents and all publishers for all writers! I presume that you'll be starting a snail mail campaign to insist that all those agents that only accept snail mail queries and submissions should also accept email, right? After all, no one should be excluding poor technocrats, either! And then there's that ridiculous insistence that correspondence and submissions should be typed out, via computer printer or typewriter, rather than written longhand. I mean, longhand was good enough for the likes of Swift, Dickens, and their publishers and agents, right? Why should anyone be forcing people to use new-fangled technology like typewriters?

After all, what right does a business person have to tell his or her customers how he or she wants to run his or her business? Writers of the world, unite!

Drat, my tongue just got stuck in my cheek again...

I'm sorry, but I still can't see what's so difficult about using the SASE to send a polite note that you no longer accept snail mail queries. It only takes a second. You can have a bunch of slips printed up and have your assistant do it for you. If you get 100 queries a day, it wouldn't take more than 10 or 15 minutes to send them back to the writers who haven't read the guidelines, or ins some cases don't have access to the internet (libraries or not).

To me, it's only polite to at least respond with something and where I come from, it's rude not to.

I absolutely despise people who post their idiotic ranting under the protection of "ANONYMOUS."

Have the nads to post your name.

And it's just another example of writers acting like precious little darlings.

Those are the guidelines. This is the real world. Deal with it.

"I guess those poor folks with bad internet connections will be doomed..."

Are you kidding me? The tiniest backwater villages all over the third world have libraries and cyber cafes.

Stop being a malcontent just for the sake of it.

Anon 12:40

I'm reading and re-reading Kristin's post, and I can't seem to find the part where she claims to have the most difficult and important job ever in the history of time. I must be getting distracted by the enormous chip on your shoulder. Silly me.

Your blog is full of information and fun, thanks for a great visit!

Can we, the collective readers of Kristin's blog, please kindly agree not to feed the troll?

Judging by style, there's only one of him (or her). He'll get bored eventually.

If we just ignore these anonymous rants attacking strawmen, maybe they will go away.

Must. Ignore. Troll...


When I was choosing between agents, I gave a special nod to those that worked electronically. The publishing world works that way. Why not the agent side of the biz too?

Paul:

I see your point. And it may be rude. But that's business. As a small business owner, I can tell you, every 15 minutes counts. I'm not sure how detrimental 15 minutes would be to Kristin, but considering she only has the one employee, I'm sure it's significant.

However, I will admit that I always respond to letters/inqeries for my business. But I don't get hundreds of misdirected fools a day...

Anon 2:39

re: not feeding the troll

My apologies. Normally I avoid doing that, too, but I've been so distraught since I found out that no one accepts cuneiform tablets anymore...

I just realized how funny my earlier post looks amidst the debate going on.....here I was posting such a "cheery" comment, lol! Nonetheless, my comment still stands, I love the blog and fully support electronic submissions!

signature, don't worry about it. Most of us agree with you to a greater or lesser extent, or we wouldn't be here. Some argue about specifics now and then, and we do have this one little troll problem lately, but overall there's some reasonable information exchange here.

Don't get me wrong. I love this blog too. I just think it's kind of petty to not respond to a snail mail query if a SASE is provided. I mean, after all, it's already stamped and everything, so a quick insertion of a rejection note CAN NOT be a huge deal.

I mean, really!!!

These people who are submitting to her snail mail address must be getting it from SOMEWHERE. So the question is, where are they getting her snail mail address that doesn't specify that she only accepts submissions through email?

Some agents I know who only accept submissions through email don't list their mailing address at all.

And let us not discuss the irony of people posting on a blog in order to complain about how hard it is to get internet connections!

I also don't agree that it's petty to not respond to the equivalent of junk mail. I throw out all those credit card offers and catalogues without opening them. I don't bother opening them, checking "not interested" and mailing back the postage paid envelope. Just toss. I didn't solicit it, I don't want it, and I don't even have a posted policy on my mailbox stating as much! Is that petty of me, to throw out junk mail?

I wonder if all these people who are so insistent that they not follow submission guidelines walk into Starbucks, cut the line, go behind the counter, attempt to pay with hazelnut shells, and then complain that they aren't serving Pepsi. That's pretty much the same behavior.

Follow directions. It's not rocket science. I didn't base what I sent to agents on my personal preference, I based it on theirs. If they wanted snail mail, I sent snail mail. If they wanted email, I sent email. If they wanted partials, or queries, or synopses, or whatever, that's what I sent. Same way I don't order a pepsi at starbucks, and don't complain that they don't have it. I really don't get what the big deal is.

You are all right. So right. So so right. Congratulate each other.

One of you thinks that writers have to be technologically inclined... that's just sad. Do you really believe that just someone shelled out a grand for a laptop they are a better writer than some poor schmuck forced to use legal pads and a twenty year old typewriter? Our greatest works of literature are by people who had to spend years scratching away with pens, quills and pencils. Some were written on mechanical typewriters. All I can see is that now, technology has sped up the rate at which agents like Kristin can slap a cover on 100,000 words and call it a 'novel'. The level of commitment to 'being a writer' has shrunk. You get over that, friend.

Someone also said that nowhere in KN's post does she mention how hard her job is. You must be a newb. In the two or three years that I have been reading this drivel, it has been one of her favorite topics-- telling everyone just how busy she is, how swamped with work she is, and much of a sacrifice it is for her to look at unsolicited queries.

After all, to an agent, looking at the unsolicited query of an unpublished writer is the ultimate act of benevolence to a species undeserving of any regard.

In all my life, I have NEVER heard anyone bitch about how difficult and demanding their job is. And I grew up between a free-market clam fisherman and an air traffic controller.

Go forth and bend thyself. Since I consider your intelligence to be wanting, the vernacular for that is, "Get bent."

*Diana P, me love... some of us care about the rest of the world, hence the reason for someone with an obviously good internet connection speaking for folks with none. You're brighter than that, dear.

There are plenty of agents with huge clients who only accept queries by referral; whether by e-mail or post is irrelevant. These agents don't take anything unsolicited at all.

Why don't unpublished writers have a problem with these guys?

Here's why: The real power agents don't suffer from the need to blog about what they do every day. They don't spew their opinions to the ether. They are quiet, more than competent and easy to respect. Kristin Nelson has a very obvious inferiority complex, stemming from the fact that she's a new agent in a city literally nineteen hundred miles from publishing's mecca. She needs to do this to convince all of you that she's just as good as the people who've been doing this for decades, and only a few blocks from where the publishers are.

For all you blogging heroes out there with a problem over people posting anonymously, one of Nelson's own heroes was an anonymous poster. Remember Miss Snark? Hmm, I don't think that was her real name, do you? Why didn't she try and claim credit for all her wisdom? Because saying bitchy things is easier when you don't have to worry about demolishing your career over something you've said in a vapid blog. Miss Snark presumably worked in a much larger shark tank than Nelson, and any one of the bigger sharks would have had her junior-agent ass for lunch if she was caught venting to the heavens on this industry.

Samantha Dayne.

Personally, I'd just be happy if Nelson would admit that having a blog at all is just what it is... advertising. Cheap, easy to maintain advertising. She isn't helping anyone. You people who think she's helped you are kidding yourselves. Answer this; published yet? No? Didn't think so.

SD.

I know, I know...don't...feed...trolls. Ugh!

Agenting is a cushy job, huh? If that were true, anyone could do it and do it successfully. Alas, that is not the case. Clearly, these people you grew up between were not self-employed. I, however, grew up in a family that runs a small business and I can tell you my parents (and now my brothers) work harder than anyone they employ. If they didn't, the bills don't get paid. Same with agents. And writers, for that matter. We're self-employed and only take in cash when we MAKE A SALE. Luckily, sometimes we can make sales over a margarita. It's a perk. Get over it.

And if a writer isn't working on a computer with an internet connection in this day and age, they are at a disadvantage. Sad, but true. Maybe not for the creative part of what we do, but definitely for the business part.

There's nothing wrong with living in the 21st century. Most of us are doing it without much hardship. It's all about priorities.

Julie- did your parents constantly tell people how hard their job was? Do you? Do you feel the need to make sure everyone knows how valuable your time is, and how honored you should feel that they have deigned to speak with you?

Probably not. No one wants to hang around with someone who does that.

Oh, and the free-market clam fisherman was by very nature 'self-employed' (this solitary breed of fisherman goes out rain or shine around three AM, where he shovels a thirty-foot rake back and forth in a foot of mucky sand for about ten hours. Then he gets to bag the clams he's caught and sit on a dock until around six PM selling the clams to local restaurants). My neighbor did it for as long as he lived next to us... and Mr. D never complained once.

I happen to know a few writers who struggle every month with money woes, and the only way they ever get onto the web is when they head to the local library and wait in line to get on at a blazing 56k connection. To use a popular election term, I feel that Nelson is disenfranchising writers in these straits. The high and mighty attitude suggests that all agents should take similar actions.

Okay, okay, I'll admit it. I'm a bitter, jealous ass-wipe who thinks agents are here not to spend the majority of their time selling their clients' work, but to give non-published writers a helping hand (especially non-published writers living in the Dark Ages without internet, and writers who don't follow guidelines).

Samantha Dayne.

I'm all for this. I wouldn't feel bad about it at all! (but perhaps I'm a peculiarly heartless person).

That wasn't me... forgive me for not having some lame blogger identity to 'legitimize' myself in all your loser eyes. Whoever copied me above missed the point. I'd rather not hear from Nelson at all, I'd rather her just sell her clients' books and stop pretending to give a hoot about unpublished writers at all. THIS IS ADVERTISING. You are all just a bunch of lame-no-thought-suck-ups who think she'll look at your Harlequin rip-offs.

Samantha Dayne.

There. Now I'm one of you.

Fantastic! As a publisher I too have stopped responding to snail mail submissions and request that all enquiries be sent by email. The amount of paper sitting around my office that's just going to be shredded after I've read one or two pages makes me want to cry!

Samantha. Don't you find it ironic that after all your anonymous ranting, you don't allow anonymous comments on your own blog...

Just opened the blog, professor. Never had a use for one. Haven't been on it since I opened it.

That, and I wasn't anonymous. I signed my name all the time. I felt forced to become a blogger because one of your cleverer friends signed an idiotic post in my name. I can't have that, now can I?

“Do you really believe that just someone shelled out a grand for a laptop they are a better writer than some poor schmuck forced to use legal pads and a twenty year old typewriter? Our greatest works of literature are by people who had to spend years scratching away with pens, quills and pencils.”

But people are not scratching away with pens, quills, and pencils anymore, are they? The ones who are, languish in the minority at a huge disadvantage, as has already been stated. And it’s not “sad but true,” it’s progress; very necessary and beneficial progress. You seem to be romanticizing this image of the noble and reclusive writer who slaves away in obscurity for decades because this wacky modern world is obsessed with technological advances he cannot understand nor afford. That writer doesn’t really exist. People who slave away in obscurity for year after miserable year with nary a publishing credit are not diamonds in the rough, they’re unpublished for that long with good reason. Furthermore, business changes. All business. Not just our precious, precious writing world. Those who do not keep up get left behind. Are you suggesting that the vast majority should slow down for the few? That makes no sense.

Computers can be bought for a few hundred dollars. I’m a freelance writer, and the majority of my income comes from that venture. I’m not rolling in money yet, but I make a decent living most of the time. If I had said to my clients that I would only be submitting my work via snail mail, they would have laughed in my face and hired someone just as capable who has access to a computer and internet connection. We’re all expendable. The Faulkners and Hemingways of this world are few and far between, and they probably have a computer.

How many manuscripts are submitted to agents and editors each year? I think it’s some absurd number like 200, 000. Are you really saying that the novel scratched out with pencil on a legal pad could potentially be some masterpiece, but alas, never to see the light of day since Author X lives in rural wherever and can’t find a computer? BS.

One last thing: Miss Snark was one of the first agents running a blog about the business side of writing in a time when it was not considered good business practice to do so. Her wanting to post anonymously is a completely different matter, and a moot point.

(And being contrary does not make one a troll. This forum doesn’t exist merely to serve those of us agreeing with the popular opinion.)

I agree, stating a contrary opinion doesn't make one a troll. Neither does stating opinions in opposition to that contrary opinion. Insulting other people for their statements and opinions is what makes one a troll. Can we all try to keep that distinction in mind, please?

Now, to my mind, what we have here is a decision by the Nelson Agency to limit its potential clients by requiring them to submit queries, etc., via email only. That's a decision that the management has made to try to improve the efficiency of running the business. If you want that changed, you need to convince management that the decision was not in the best interests of the business. Persuade Kristin that the financial benefit of responding to those snail mail queries is greater than the cost of processing them, and I'm sure she'll change her mind. Good luck doing that, though, because I don't think you have much chance of success. She knows the historical and projected numbers that she's looking at to make her decision, and we don't.

jana- you really believe that about Miss Snark, but think that people who post anonymously on these things are somehow dirty and wrong. Wake the hell up. The blinders that are the fashion around here are amazing.

Snark was Snark because she was anonymous. She would be anonymous if she picked up where she left off. Come off it.

As for the conversation upthread about writers at a technological disadvantage--- I don't think I see anything about those people being better than the technological ones. It looks more like they are talking about the fact that a significant portion of the population is not rich. That may mean everything from hand-writing to a ten year old computer and an old dot-matrix printer. To think that your way is the best, only way to do it is ignorant and incredibly narrowminded.

This reminds me of liberal fascism. "Writing is a field that is open to all, to anyone with an imagination"- the broad, benevolent statement said with a warm smile. "Now all you need to start out is a computer, a highspeed internet connection, a good printer and a website. Do not bother typing up your work, since no one takes paper submissions anymore. Definitely do not hand write anything, unless you have the wherewithall to later have it transcribed to an appropriate e-format for submission..."

Liberal fascism-- when a small minority with the power to enforce a rule takes an idea it has decided to be 'good' and forces it upon the masses under the general header of 'this is the way it is, because it is the best way', regardless of the effects the idea has on the masses.

Hilary Clinton tried it when her husband was first elected, trying to ram a socialized healthcare system down the throats of the majority, all of whom said they did not want it. Gun control groups try to do it every day-- a tiny minority wishes guns banned entirely, while the bulk of the nation thinks they are wrong... yet they still fight like cats trying to take away the guns for the good of the owners.

Pardon me for being dense, ladies & gents, but isn't our current technology doomed?

Last time I looked at my computer, it's mostly made of plastic. Isn't the current model of wisdom telling us now that there's only fifty or sixty years worth of petroleum left? Plastic comes from petroleum, doesn't it?

I guess they could make them out of aluminum, but aluminum is finite, and they'd need the surplus to make all the other things they used to make out of plastic.

Could it be that in fifty or sixty years, computers are going to end up really expensive? Prohibitively expensive for the majority to own? I keep hearing about how we're running out of gas, and how that's going to effect the world, so isn't this another effect?

You all might be arguing about something that's gonna be a moot point in a few decades. With all the sweeping world changes scientists keep promising us, our current technologies might be in the crapper before my kids are collecting social security. That is, if that's still around.

Anthony

I heard Hillary Clinton ignored a memo entitled "Al Qaeda determined to strike in US", started the Iraq war on the premise of WMDs and ties to 9/11.I hear she understaffed a war effort, and put money into fighting in Iraq while the real terrorist threat was from Afgan/Pakistan and her & her daddy's buddies in Saudi Arabia (though the vast majority of 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, UAE & Egypt). I hear she once said "good job Brownie" after New Orleans was flooded in its own excrement. I hear her staff exposed Valerie Plame. I think Hillary Clinton spent months spreading hate under the guise of a marriage amendment instead of focusing in a never-ending war with thousands of needless casualties on both sides. I hear her daddy paid to have her evade service in Vietnam and then threw mud at a candidate that actually served. I am sure it was the liberals who enabled gun purchases for the NIU, VT & Utah mall shootings

Damn I hate those liberals.

Anti-Anthony

Logic: convincing forcefulness; inexorable truth or persuasiveness.

Sorry, but no dice.

By your immense logic, doctors and lawyers, teachers, accountants, electricians, plumbers, and hairdressers should not have to go through that thing called post-secondary learning because a degree is EXPENSIVE! They, along with writers and other poor folk should be exempt from the necessary training required because it's just not fair. Oh wah!

No. Poor people; those whose parents won't be footing the bill; those forced to pay for their education and training either through loan/grant/scolarship do what is required in order to achieve the end result. And they graduate very likely with thousands of dollars worth of debt; often having to sacrifice the quality of their education by working part or full time in order to survive. Including those who get(lord help them) MFA's in writing.

Can you seriously compare that to a computer and internet connection? No. Stop digging yourself deeper into your little hole.

Writers are self-employed. Your computer, broadband, dial-up, printer, stationary and office supplies, are all required for your business. And all are tax write-offs AND cost significantly less than medical school or beauty school.

Furthermore, my comment on the nature of anonymous posters had to do with those who launch offensive and rude attacks against an individual that they would never have the gall to utter outside of that anonymous safety net. Miss Snark has never been cruel; blunt and direct, yes. But there's a fine line, and you crossed it by posting personal attacks against Kristin.

Anthony, they're already starting to make computers out of bamboo. In 60 years, who knows what else will be available.

jana, you are an intelligentsia dullard and you don't get to talk anymore. You seem like a good writer, which is why for a stupid person you sound smart. Good luck with that.

You just can't get over the idea of someone having a different opinion than yours. I would have been cool with a statement like, "To each his own" or "Well, you're entitled to your opinion"-- had that been the tack taken here in Kristin Nelson Land, I never would have said a word.

But no. You have to be right. I have to be wrong. Don't you get that every time I respond directly to you, this is my point? You are hopeless.

uh-oh, someone woke up on the wrong side of the blog today. touchy touchy. nerves jangled a little?

She needs to do this to convince all of you that she's just as good as the people who've been doing this for decades, and only a few blocks from where the publishers are.

You say this like it's a bad thing. I mean, yeah, obviously Kristin's doing it because she wants to have a bit of an edge with picking up the best new debut authors. But... uh... it appears to be working.

She is getting hot new debut authors. She is running a higher percentage of auctions than others who have years of experience on her. She does appear to have a lot of cred with editors because she can be really picky about who she represents. And if you look at the authors who have gotten these deals with her, a lot of them repeat variants like, "I chose Kristin because of her blog."

So... she's trying to set herself apart by blogging. She's succeeding. And it's making a difference for her career and for her authors.

Who in their right mind shrinks from an agent because the agent happens to be savvy about promotion?

Simple. Honesty. Be honest about the reason for a blog-- business. Don't hide under an umbrella like, "just trying to help out starting writers". That's crap. Met her once, found her rude and abrasive. Too many asskissers here making her a saint. Don't believe she's as good as a NY agent in the business for twenty years. Don't believe it's that important to be electronic only-- mags and publishers are still insisting on paper submissions with no sign of stopping -talk to some of them and you'll here the drawbacks of e-submission-, as are established agencies.

anon 12:16- says you. your source of information about kristen's track record is kristen herself; don't think that too many private contracts between writers and publishers are open for public scrutiny. blinded by the artificial light. i can start a blog and tell you i'm a friggin genius, too. this is her show & there ain't a clause holding her to the truth as she blows her own horn.

anon 12:16- says you. your source of information about kristen's track record is kristen herself.

....Publisher's Marketplace being, what, chopped liver?

really, a place that publishes details about private contracts! cool! and here I'd been under the impression that postings there were by the people involved, to build up some heat for a project. my mistake. back to the underside of my rock!

Not anonymous, not unpublished, not looking for an agent, as I have a lovely one who, like Kristin, isn't based in NYC, and yet still manages to have several NYT bestselling authors on her roster, and has sold six novels for me in less than three years to two major publishers. I have no motivation to suck up to KN, though I have met her several times (and had a book rejected by her once) and found her to be sharp and professional.

When I couldn't afford a computer, I used the services of the library, as Ray Bradbury once did (he famously would drop a coin in a slot of paid typewriters and type furiously until his time was up. Why is that? because the magazines would only accept typed manuscripts. And he wanted to get his stories published. He didn't expect publishers to make allowances for him.) Wireless internet connection? Please. How about an ancient, refurbished computer that can run a word processing program and a disk to save it on? How about writing the drafts longhand and then typing it into a computer at the library, or borrowing from a friend, or begging your employer to let you use the company computer after office hours, or just typing out a brilliant, must-have query on the email and explaining whatever mysterious hardship you may have that prevents you from typing anything ever.

These imaginary genius yet impoverished masses with their amazing, yet handwritten, books -- where are they getting their information about manuscript and agent submissions to start with? Where are they even finding the listings? They can't afford to buy the books, most likely, so I'm guessing they are getting their information at the library. that's where I used to read the old copies of literary marketplace, etc. Libraries have computers that they rent or allow the use of. Yahoo email is free. I've done it. I've been there. Scores of other writers have done so too. You aren't "speaking for anyone" here. If they are capable of finding NLA at all, no matter how impoverished or rural, they are capable of sending an email.

Sorry. I just don't buy it. That there are authors without their own computers, or regular access to email? Sure, I was one of them. But I still managed to email publishers and editors. I begged my employers to let me borrow their printers and paid them by cleaning their house. (Let me tell you, it's a lot harder to wrangle printer usage, even if you bring your own ink and paper, then a quick peek at a web based email site.) I did what it took.

this is what you DO, folks. Don't like the way KN runs her business? The fact that it's email only? the fact that it's in Denver? Fine. Don't submit. Don't complain. If you don't believe she's made the massive amounts of sales she's made anyway, then what's the problem?

Diana... go polish your prose.

I'm just a bit puzzled. If some of you hate agents who only accept e-queries and agents who blog and this particular agent...um...why are you here and reading her blog?

And then spending your time vigorously arguing with complete strangers?

Wow. It's called a life.

duuuh, no one's thought of dat one before, duuuh, good one.

And a sad life it is if you've been reading "drivel" for 3 years. Most people would walk away after 3 minutes.