STATUS: Feeling blessed to be with my family.
What song is playing on the iPod right now? No Stereo today.
My rant for the day.
Why am I receiving queries on Memorial Day?
I just fired up the computer briefly in order to decide whether I wanted to blog (even though it’s Monday, it’s a holiday). Oddly enough, I’ve received 15 email queries. Let’s take a break from publishing for one day. Tomorrow is soon enough for us to look at your story idea.
Today is about remembering those who have given their lives while serving in our armed forces.
That touches all of us.
For us Canadians, Remembrance Day is Nov. 11. Our May holiday was last weekend–Queen Victoria’s birthday. But knowing what day it is south of the border, I would have assumed you weren’t working, and waited til tomorrow.
And for those who queried you who do live stateside, well, as writers we are often lucky to know what month it is, let alone what day.
I come to do a little ranting of my own. I went to BAMM today, to treat myself to a new book. The book I had in mind was the first of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, which Miss Snark blogged about a little while ago. I go to the section, find Stroud, and…wait, where is it? The second and third book are here, so there must be some mistake. I go to the help desk and ask. No, they don’t stock that any more. “But you must,” I reply. “It’s a series and you stock the other two.” “No, I’m sorry, we had to make room for other books.”
So I say, okay, I’ll drive the twenty miles to B&N tomorrow. For now, I’ll console myself with another book I’ve been meaning to get because of the blogosphere–Enchanted Inc. Same story. i find her name, and all they have is Once Upon Stilettoes. I go to the help desk, and it’s the same story. “We had to make room for other books.”
Do agents and publishers know that bookstores are doing this, and that it hurts thei books’ sales?
My mom has the same problem. She’ll find an author she likes, and go in search of something earlier by them. At the library, they’ll have books four, five and six, but not one through three. Soon as they get old and worn, out they go, and no one bothers to either replace them, or get rid of the later ones in the series that no one would want to read without the first three.
So then, mom goes to the used bookstores–even drives 45 minutes in city traffic to visit them all, and guess what? They don’t stock anything more than five years old.
What the heck?
If the only difference between a used bookstore and your local B&N is price, why bother having them? I can get used copies of recent books through Amazon, for dogsakes! Its the earlier books of my faves that I want, and sometimes it’s an absolute, well, female poodle to find them.
Hoping that Agent Kristin appreciates what it took to clean up my language on this one, cause it really burns my, um, posterior regions when this happens.:)
I thought the same thing as anonymous. Maybe it’s Canadians. 🙂 I know Americans celebrate something November 11th– what is that if not a sort of Memorial Day? (truly interested).
Are there 2?
Cindy
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November is (I think–can never keep track of them) Veteran’s Day.
If I remember correctly, Memorial day is more to honor those who have died in service, and Veteran’s is for…well, the veterans.
Or maybe government employees just wanted another day off work.
Nov. 11, now known as Veterans Day, commemorates the armistice — end of fighting — of World War I. This is anothing to do with writing. Unless, like me, you are writing a book about World War I.
Memorial Day, for Americans, is the day we honor those who died in service to our country. Or it’s supposed to be. Now it’s mostly a time to have family over for a barbeque or hang out at the beach.
I suspect the queries received today were from authors who work a full-time job and rarely find a quiet moment to actually send something out. They probably figured you wouldn’t see the queries until tomorrow.
Being a writer with a full-time job that’s not, well, writing, I was about to say what tori scott basically just did. For me, holidays like this often provide a nice chunk of uninterrupted time to tackle the business side of writing. I certainly wouldn’t expect an agent to look at the query until the next business day, but it’s really no different than if I sent one out any random night of the week when I wouldn’t expect the agent to see it until morning (granted they’re in something resembling my time zone)
Regardless of the day, Kristen, aspiring authors still dream. Shooting a query to an agent, even on Memorial day, shows a hungry, driven, relentless writer whose passion to succeed in this highly competitive business knows no boundaries.
People (at least the smart ones) don’t expect you to read your queries on memorial day. They just happen to send them then, because they can find a hole in their busy schedule then.
And then there’s also authors that are not from the US who have their memorial day on a different date.
I don’t see any problem here.
And there’s always the possibility that after one too many barbeque beers, an aspiring author thought, Heeeey. I’ve got high-speed internet. AWESOME. Who can I email? Blooooooorr!
So it’s okay for agents to blog on Memorial Day, but not okay for writers to query? Sounds like a double standard.
I think traveling and spending time with the parents can be stressful, and it shows. There’s nothing wrong with doing what you love on Memorial Day (or Veteran’s Day or 4th of July or Sunday).
You’re going to get people nervous about sending in their queries after 5 pm, making sure they have their time zones right, trying to figure out Colorado state holidays.
Nobody would be offended if you didn’t read queries on a solemn holiday, of course, but not getting them? C’mon!
elektra, Veterans are/were government employees. Since most of us do 30 years of work in a 20 year time-period for a pension that MIGHT make a house payment, a day off is nice. But, some of us look at Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day for what they really are. Just as some of us remember what Christmas really is about. -JTC
My southern Baptist grandma used to close her country store every Sunday because she didn’t believe in doing business on God’s day. Yet, she’d go out to eat after church.
Georgia Girl
Like Tori said, thouse of us who write by candle light most of the time see Memorial Day and Labor Day as “writing days”. Don’t get me wrong. I still honor the people who die for this country. But every free moment to write, I take it.
And no, I didn’t send query. 🙂
On querying: I occasionally sent e-queries late at night and on the weekend because of my full-time job. I certainly didn’t expect agents to be in their offices. I spent Memorial Day writing.
On finding books: Don’t forget your indy bookstores!!! My local mystery store has a much better selection than my local B&N. And they’re always happy to order any book that’s out of stock.
Thanks to everyone for educating me about Memorial Day vs Veterans Day.
We call Veterans Day “Remembrance Day.” That way we get it done in one fell swoop.
My grandfather fell and broke his hip last Remembrance Day (2005) and missed his first ever Remembrance Day parade (he always walked it) as a result. He was 106 and died six weeks later of an unrelated issue (old age–no kidding, he actually recovered from the surgery!), at which time he was one of three last Canadian WORLD WAR I vets and the last in my province. Amazing, huh? That’s the Great War, before they started adding numbers.
Cindy
Three possibilities (and no, mine was rejected a few weeks ago)
– I sent off one query yesterday because I had access to an appropriate computer.
– I’m not taking much notice of memorial day because I’m on the other side of the pond and I can’t remember all those different calendars.
– My computer will send things I queued the moment it logs on, so someone might have tried to send it Satuday, queued the message, and logged on for something else and the message was sent.
I salute your grandfather, Cindy. -JTC
For us over in Europe, memorial day was on May 8th.
We don’t necessarily know all the US holidays (I didn’t query, but I’m sort of sticking my nose in here, lol)
For this full-time mom and writer there is no such thing as a holiday, only writing opportunities. Incidentally, my husband who is in the Army had to work, too. There is no such thing as a holiday in the Armed Forces. It’s 24/7/365.