Elaine's take on Twitter, and ::Gasp:: #Queryfail

Several weeks ago, as mentioned here on the blog, the Knight Agency started Twittering. I’d been hearing about Twitter for months, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and see what all the fuss was about.

These days the internet has provided us with an endless array of outlets for social networking: Blogs, MySpace, Linked-In, Facebook, Message Boards, Yahoo! Groups, I could go on with more for quite some time. Regardless of the social-network, one thing remains constant, to be successful at building a network you have to invest a good bit of time in it. For people to be really interested in you and to gain a following, you need to keep your profile updated, active, informative and interesting to read. Up until now, none of the aforementioned venues really *did it* for me. After “browsing around” Twitterworld I liked what I saw and decided to give it a try.

For anyone not familiar with Twitter, here’s the deal. The whole premise is based off of short messages called “tweets.” You log into an account throughout the day via web or cell phone and update what you are doing. The trick is it has to be in 140 characters or less, so brevity is key. It’s quick and easy. You can also browse the Twitter network and find other people you want to follow. Once you’ve selected the “Twitterers” that you want to follow, their updates are compiled into one long list. You can get up to speed in a matter of a minute or so throughout the day on everyone you are following.

So after three weeks on Twitter, I have to say that this is the one for me. There are many positives I could go into. First, like I said, it’s quick and easy, not a huge time-suck or distraction (because really, who needs more distractions on the web!). I’ve “gotten to know” tons of new people in the business, agents, editors, and authors, through a combo of following their tweets and getting into @reply conversations. I’ve found an easy way to stay up to the minute with what’s going on in the publishing world by following industry news source tweeters such as Publishers Weekly, NYTBooks, booksamillion, and even select publishers such as Harlequin Books.

But the best part for me is that I’ve found a way to make myself accessible to you, the author. I do not know 90% of the people that are following me, but I’m OK with that. Agents are here to help you sell your book and guide you in your career. I’m Twittering to try to help those that are pushing towards their dream. Over the last month I’ve answered questions from people about projects, commented on books I’m reading, talked about what I do all day, made comments about what to and what not to do in submissions, talked about my likes and dislikes, and talked about me, just me as a person, so others can get a feel if I would be the type of agent they might like to submit to.

And then last week #Queryfail happened and the floodgates opened. For those of you not “in the know” about this great debate, let me summarize. Last week another agent out in Twitterland decided to invite other agents and editors to participate in a day where our posts would focus on query letters and more specifically, what didn’t work in them. It caught on like wildfire. By the end of the day it had been picked up by GalleyCat, by the end of the week bloggers far and wide, and this week the Guardian UK even wrote an article on it.

And of course, then the backlash started. Many, (and I would even venture to say most), people thought this was a great learning exercise that pointed out common flaws in queries while giving everyone a good laugh along the way. And as many people pointed out, these queries are the reality for agents and editors. It was a great opportunity for us to show people why we stress over and over, like broken records, the importance of following submission guidelines. But then there were those that started to chime in with their commentary on how it was a cruel exercise to make a mockery out of authors that are just following their dreams. How did we have the audacity to sit back and make fun of people sending material our way when they are the very people we expect to make our living off of? Some people were so offended that they created lists of all participating agents and editors in the #Queryfail experiment to ensure that they never submit to one of those insensitive monsters again.

As you might have guessed by now I was in fact one of the agents that participated in #Queryfail. Do I regret it for a moment? No. Do I think I have anything to apologize for or defend myself for? No. Do I think everyone is entitled to their opinion? Yes. And so now I am going to chime in and offer mine.

As an agent it’s a part of my job to educate people on the business. I attend conferences, speak on panels, give presentations, participate in online interviews, do online guest blogs, speak at chapters, participate in online chats, you name it — all in the name of educating and answering questions. Anyone that knows me knows I am an incredibly giving agent to the writing community, not just for my clients, but to those that I have no personal connection to. I try to offer constructive criticism and encouragement. I point people in the right direction and tell them when they are just really not hitting the mark.

#Queryfail was no different. Yes, it had a rather sarcastic tone, but come on, that is certainly nothing new, anyone remember Miss Snark’s beloved blog? I mean how could you forget it? It has become an industry standard of where to go to get the tough love answers to what you need to know. I’ve attended many events and seen online forums where people have offered up first pages only to have them torn to shreds “American Idol” style.

Now, in fairness, the one complaint I will entertain (but only for a moment, see below for explanation), is that with #Queryfail authors didn’t know that their material was going to be made an example out of. But remember it was only 140 characters (approx 15 words) with no personal identifiers. So it was completely anonymous. No fingers were pointed and no one suffered public humiliation. It was an exercise to point out what not to do via “live” examples.

Remember how I said I would only entertain that complaint for the moment? Here’s the kicker for me personally. I was a participating agent in the experiment, right? I’m not the submissions coordinator (aka query evaluator) at The Knight Agency. As outlined on our website and all over the web, all queries sent to The Knight Agency are supposed to be sent to a special submissions address. My email address isn’t even published on the website. Follow my drift? I shouldn’t have had any random queries to comment on, no one essentially has “permission” to blind query me, nor have they ever. (Side note, at times I get recommendations and such and then of course it’s alright to query me directly) On average I get 3-5 queries a day to my personal email address. And do you know why that is? Because of people’s lack of following the submissions guidelines. People are questioning why Agents and Editors have gone to such extremes to educate people, but I’m questioning why people seem to go to such extremes to not just pop over to our website and see the proper way to do things. As a result it’s become our job to continue to try to reach as many people as possible by as many means as possible, example, #Queryfail. But I digress.

I’ve said this a million times in a million places. Publishing is a business. In order for me to be successful and make a living, I have to act like a professional and in turn I expect those that are corresponding with me to offer up the same courtesy. On our website we not only offer guidelines but we offer dos and don’ts. We offer writing resources and websites that will help make you better. We do everything we can as an agency to help you as a writer. As an individual I feel I represent the company in the same way. I really have no problem being “blacklisted” on the blogs that have compiled those who participated.

For anyone that chooses to not submit to me because of my involvement, I think there is a bit of hypocrisy involved. Think about it. You’re judging me and my character as an agent simply off of my involvement in #Queryfail. #Queryfail happened to be an exercise where I was basing your talent as a writer off of the strength of your query. If you would take the time to further educate yourself on the process (as we were encouraging in #Queryfail as a means to make you a stronger query writer), I can guarantee that any of my clients, and many others that I have worked with in this industry, would agree that I’m not in fact the uncompassionate self-aggrandizing gal that many #Queryfail critics would have you believe. And that is true for many of the other agents and editors that participated in the event that day.

Now here’s the fun part. I’ve decided that tomorrow I’m going to repost my tweets from #Queryfail. Check back tomorrow and judge for yourself if my comments were cruel mockeries or helpful insights.