T.G.I.F.
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Apr 09 2010
The last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy and of course I love every minute of it. I’ve been catching up on a lot of reading, unfortunately for those who have sent me submissions most of it has been for clients. I’ve been brainstorming with clients, spending literally hours on the phone to come up with new ideas or help take current ideas to that next level, and I’ve been negotiating contracts (yippee!!).
So where do I stand on submissions? Here’s the count:
Queries: Unfortunately I’ve fallen very far behind I again. A few weeks ago I actually reached the 300 mark, fewer then 300 sitting in my inbox. That is such a faint memory. While I’ve made it my goal to read at least one day’s worth of queries each day, I still can’t seem to keep up. At this moment I have 584 queries in my inbox. By the time you read this I’m sure the number will have grown. I have read every query submitted up to and through March 20. If you submitted before March 20 and haven’t received a reply I haven’t received your query.
Requested Proposals and Fulls: I have been requesting fewer, but, thanks to my intern, I’m also getting through them faster. I do believe I have fewer then 25 waiting to be read and responded to and, unless I’m missing something, I have responded to everything sent to me in 2009.
I’ve loved the Summer-like weather this week and am hoping to find time today to finish one client’s proposal, another client’s manuscript and maybe, just maybe, I’ll find time this weekend to finish House Rules by Jodi Picoult. Rumor has it though that I should be expecting more client submissions in the next week.
Have a great weekend!
–Jessica
Same to you Jessica. But I have to ask, how do you *relax* on the weekend knowing there's still so much left undone?
584 queries?????
My mind is numb… how could you possibly sift through them all?
Actually, I think you must be grateful for all the stupid/rude/inappropriate/loony ones because they would just be plain faster to reject!
That is a ton of queries! You amaze me. Truly, you do. Take them as they come; you can only do so much. Oh, and remember to have a great weekend!
Without people like you, where would writers be? Keep up the good work and enjoy your weekend.
Sounds like you need one person just to read queries.
Maybe you could find someone you trust and pay them per query.
That way you get what you pay for and it gets done… or at least it gets whittled it down for you.
Perhaps this person could just weed out the horrible grammar, wrong genre, or ones not following proper format or whatever you want them to weed out to make it more manageable for you.
In fact, now I think about it–I would do that if asked… so I am sure you could find someone relatively easily.
Just my thoughts on the matter, best of luck…
Love your honesty in talking about that amazing load and how you're doing with it, Jessica. Totally cool, shows a lot of confidence and spirit to be so upfront, and helps writers understand the pressures on the other side. Thanks for it. – Porter Anderson