Thursday, April 16, 2009

A Whole New Appreciation

Okay, so we had our first contest on the QueryTracker blog on Monday. I think I got about 923.37 emails that day. I'm not kidding. There were roughly 575 entries. I opened every single one of those emails. Every. Single. One. I responded to almost all of them. In one day.

In addition to those entires, many people sent a thank you reply. That meant more emails. And with the crazy behind-the-scenes communication with my beloved QT co-authors, Ms. Volpe, blog comments that needed to be modified and new twitter followers, and I thought my inbox would spontaneously combust. It did stop working around 10-ish. Michelle had to go in and check if we had any more entries. Oh, we did. Many more.

That really, really, really made me appreciate literary agents more. I missed Nathan Bransford's "Agent for a Day" experience, because I was experiencing it firsthand in my own inbox. And let me just say this: literary agents are...well, I don't know what, but holy super agents. Yeah, that's what they are. Super Agents. They should wear capes and burn holes in stainless steel with just a stern look. Maybe some of them can...

I digress.

Many of you entered, and so many of you left your appreciation in comments on the QT blog. I so appreciate that. Some of you sent me emails with funky concoctions of both chocolate and bacon. That made me snarf out loud, and we all know that's a good thing. So at the risk of sounding all mushy and teary-eyed, I wanted to say thank you.

What a totally huge, overwhelming experience it was. But with such great people at the QT blog--and all of you who gave me kudos and gifts--it made the hours in front of the computer worth it. And my aching fingers. Wait. That might have been from Guitar Hero World Tour...

And to literary agents everywhere, a sincere thank you. It's no wonder you can't answer every email you receive. I bow down to your uber-awesomeness for accepting queries from aspiring authors.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow...I am in awe of how quickly that one filled up!

I didn't think to send bacon and chocolate...consider it done now, though!

Amanda Bonilla said...

You're awesome Elana! I don't think I could have sorted through all of those entries. Thanks for all of your hard work!

M. Dunham said...

Yikes on the emails! That's me when we're approaching a grant deadline. ;o)

And everyone knows that Rock Band is better than Guitar Hero. Pssh. >_>

Verification word: masms (sounds kinky)

Tara Maya said...

Thank YOU. :D

Michelle D. Argyle said...

That's fantastic you received SO many entries! It will make for a great contest.

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

My e-mail account was screwy that day. I don't know what was going on; I wasn't getting some of my e-mail.

I'm sure glad I wasn't in your shoes. That would have been major fail.

Thanks for your work!

Oh yeah, and M. Dunham -- the Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero, the real thing can't hold a candle to either of those games. :-)

Michelle McLean said...

I agree on all points. It was an awesome contest, and yes, agents are just beyond awesome..and so are you!!

Alex G. said...

Thanks for the contest. Win or lose, it was a good exercise.

Authoress said...

((((((HUGS!))))) I've meant to email you big gobs of empathy. Now you know why my guidelines state, "PLEASE don't send me a thank you email!" It sounds all unfriendly and that, but really it's about sanity. Good ol' sanity. =)

Congratulations on a very successful contest! Now go eat some chocolate.

Annie Louden said...

Dude, I can't even keep up with emails from my own family.
You are awesome.

lisa and laura said...

You rock Elana!

Anonymous said...

You are just amazing...I sincerely hope you know that!!!

Danyelle L. said...

Amen! And thanks again!

*virtual chocolate with bacon bits*

Rebecca Knight said...

Holy frijoles, that's a LOT of emails! I'm amazed you weren't struck blind!

Another HUGEMONGUS thank you! Thank you for taking over 500 for the team!

Elana Johnson said...

I think I did go blind for a few minutes. And, yes, Authoress, I should have said that. It was sort of fun to interact with a few people though. We chatted about bacon and chocolate and sleeping pills.... Good times. ;)

Thanks for the tellings of awesomeness! I don't always feel awesome, but I do right now! Woot, woot!

Stina said...

I'm scared to think about the response for your next contest, Elana. ;)Something tells me the guidelines will be a lot tougher next time. So any idea that the word count was for the longest sentence?

Can't wait for the next one . . . once you've recovered from this one. Hope you have a restful weekend!

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