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Jessica Ferguson

Author, Writing Coach, Speaker

R is for Respond, Response (A Rant)

April 21, 2014 By Jessica Ferguson Leave a Comment

I’m blogging through the alphabet. There are many others participating in the 2014 A to Z Challenge too, which is the brainchild of Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out. We post every day in April except Sundays. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. My weekend wasn’t long enough.

I’ve struggled to come up with an R word. I thought about it all weekend. I played around with the word Rewrite but since I’m not doing any rewriting, I figured my words might sound forced. Renovation certainly plays a huge part in my life right now, but I’ll save that discussion for another day, with before and after pictures.  I thought about doing a Review of a book I just read but felt no passion for that either. When I finally crawled into bed with nothing to show for R, the word RESPOND flashed into my mind. It felt right.

I have a pet peeve. I absolutely detest getting NO RESPONSE from people I send gifts to, or articles or manuscripts. In this day of email, an acknowledgement is a breath away. There’s no need for someone to totally disregard a stack of new towels, some mixing bowls, a hundred dollar bill or 200 pages of my heart and soul.

What are they thinking? Or are they thinking? Of course, I always hear “the parents didn’t teach them to write thank you notes… or be responsible… or care… or work, or love… or RESPOND.” And to that I say, I’m so tired of everything being blamed on parents. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s true to a certain extent but at some point these young adults have to take responsibility for their own actions.

As for not acknowledging a manuscript, sometimes a paragraph stating If you have not heard from us within three months, you can submit elsewhere is included in the submission guidelines, but that’s just a CYA kind of thing. I think it’s a terrible policy. It gives them free rein with the delete button.

I remember always sticking self-addressed, stamped envelopes (SASE) in with my manuscripts. Those were the good old days. Doing so almost always guaranteed a response. At the very least, there was a certain amount of responsibility on the part of the editor/agent/office manager to acknowledge our stamp. I miss those days.

Email makes everything so much easier: easy to delete. easy to ignore. easy to say we never got it. But hey, just as easy to respond!

Writers everywhere deserve a response regarding that novel they slaved over, the article for which they interviewed three professionals, the query letter.

Aunts, sisters, moms, cousins and friends deserve a response to the gift they spent time choosing and mailing. So much for sharing in the joy, huh?

I realize I probably sound like my mother (and I’ve always fought that!) but I accept it now. I don’t accept rudeness and inconsiderate behavior. I don’t accept being ignored.

Do you send thank you notes? Are you an editor or agent who prefers not to respond? How do you feel when you don’t get a response and why do you feel that way?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: A to Z Challenge 2014, agents, editors, Respond, Response, thank you notes, Uncategorized

Bayou Writers Group presents 2013 Bridge To Publication

October 23, 2013 By Jessica Ferguson Leave a Comment

Next month–Saturday, November 9, 2013–is our Bayou Writers’ Group annual conference called Bridge To Publication. It’s a small, cheap conference but we always have quality speakers.  Just look at this line-up.

 
DiAnn Mills – Keynote Speaker: award-winning writer of Christian fiction and writing coach to authors in any genre. First published in 1998, she currently has more than fifty books in print, which combined have sold more than a million and a half copies.  http://www.diannmills.com/

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jessica Kirland – Agent with Blythe Daniel Agency: She is acquiring and representing adult fiction, young adult fiction, and some non-fiction. She will be taking pitches. http://www.theblythedanielagency.com/jessica-kirckland-joins-as-marketing-literary-agent/
 

Jill Marr – Agent with Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency: Jill is interested in commercial fiction, with an emphasis on mysteries, thrillers and horror, women’s commercial fiction and historical fiction. She is also looking for nonfiction by authors who are getting their work published regularly in magazines and who have a realistic sense of the market and their audience. Jill is looking for nonfiction projects in the areas of self-help, inspirational, cookbooks, memoir (she especially loves travel and foodie memoirs), health & nutrition, pop culture, humor and music. She will be taking pitches. http://www.dijkstraagency.com/meet-the-agents.html

Stella Riley – Aquisitions Editor for Soul Mate Publishing – She will be taking pitches. http://www.bayouwritersgroup.blogspot.com/2013/07/more-conference-news.html

 
 
 
 
 
Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit – Screenwriters. For more information: http://www.bayouwritersgroup.blogspot.com/2013/07/2013-conference-update.html
 


If you want to drive to Lake Charles, LA for this one-day event we’d love to have you. Go to our blog where you can download the registration form.  Did I say cheap? Just look at these prices!

 
FEES:

_________ $35 for BWG Members (Must be received by Nov. 1)
_________ $40 for Non-Members (Must be received by Nov. 1)
_________$50 At the Door on Nov. 9
_________$25 Students— with ID

Filed Under: News Tagged With: agents, BWG, Diann Mills, Glen Pitre, Jessica Kirkland, Jill Marr, Michelle Benoit, Stella Riley, Uncategorized

Reality Faith.
Reality Fiction.

"As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Acts 4:20

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