Monday, August 20, 2012

Checking the Ol' Email

I don't know how the rest of the world goes about it, but I've heard people talk about 'checking their email' constantly through this query process.  Personally, from the moment my computer goes on in the morning - before I've even had my first cup of coffee* - to the moment my computer goes down for the night, both my email programs are open.  (Okay, maybe not the exact moment, because I have to wait for Outlook to load and then I have to wait for my Firefox to load so I can access my gmail - but you get the gist.)

I'm never not connected.  All I have to do is walk by the 'puter to see if I have a little envelope in my tray or if there's a new number next to my Inbox tab.  Easy peasy.

Now, I do have Outlook set up in such a way that query responses go into their own little folder**, which for some reason doesn't put a little envelope in my tray.  In that respect, I do have to click over to Outlook and see if there are any shiny numbers next to my Agents folder.  (And yeah, I'm doing that every few minutes like some kind of junkie waiting for her fix to arrive via the interwebs.)

It's only been a week since the first queries went out, so I'm not totally spazzing out yet.  I've been sending a couple here and a couple there - no big carpet-bombing strafe for me.  Slow and steady. 

I'll spazz later.

How are things in your world?  Checking the email boxes or just chillin'?  How do you handle the juggling of email?

* Speaking of coffee - check out Lydia Kang's Medical Mondays post about caffeine.  (Really.  It's okay.  She's not a coffee hater.)

** I had to because the stupid program was throwing all my query responses last year into the Junk folder.  Nothing like mixing rejections with offers to enlarge a penis I don't have.  :shudder:  Thanks, Microsoft.  Dorkbutts. 

4 comments:

  1. Sooo glad I don't have to deal with Outlook. I have email accounts with ATT and gmail. The majority of ATT emails feed into my gmail account so I just have to look at it. I do have specialty folders on the yahell/ATT accounts but that's a tab in Firefox so I can just glance up at the numbers. I have so many distractions when I'm writing I try very hard to downsize the FF window and just have my WIP open. Sometimes it actually works. LOL

    Happy Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the shout out, BE! I also am one of those people who keeps my email open constantly. And Twitter. And FB. It's horrible, but I can't stop.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I only query through Yahoo, and it's not on all the time, so yeah, when I have queries out, I have to manually check it and I check it often. Like now, I have a ms out to a publisher. But they said to wait 4-6 weeks. Once the 4 week period passes, I'll be checking a lot more often (and yeah, I still check it everyday)!

    But I always add the agent/editor's name to my contact list, just so it doesn't end up in spam. And then the next time I need them (for the next book), they are already there. Guess that doesn't say much about my positive attitude, though, does it? Hmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I must admit that I'm a compulsive email checker too. I actually have to disconnect my router for a couple of hours per day so I can get my actual writing done, lol.

    ReplyDelete