I’m sorry I haven’t answer your email yet. Now you’re asking Why Don’t Agents and Editors Email Back?
Can I share my excuses first?
Here’s the problem. Writers write a lot. They send a lot of emails. Just sorting through those emails takes an enormous amount of time.
Also, this one: Editing is deeply relational. Relationships take a lot of time. I do my absolute best to email back, but sometimes it takes me weeks. The oldest email I have to still respond to is from 10/8. That’s you, William. I’m sorry. It was the last in a string of exchanges we had.
Every time I email someone, I get another email back–which expects a quick response.
Believe me, this is not the way I would prefer to work. I wish I had time to answer everyone promptly. But this month I’ve been in budget meetings and marketing meetings and strategy meetings about building readership. Sometimes we even have meetings about the meetings we’re going to have later. My calendar tells me that meetings mean “none of us is as dumb as all of us.” That’s funny in a cynical way, but most of these meetings are really important. They are about stewardship. They are many heads in the room so that we can make wise decisions.
Forget all of my excuses, though. Here’s the real problem.
Agents and editors need grace. We really do have your best interests at heart. We really want to see your work succeed. We really want to take you out for coffee and ramble away with you all afternoon until the sun goes down and we feel jittery from all of the caffeine.
But our desk phone is ringing. Our email is dinging. Twitter is buzzing on the cell phone. Our families are waiting at home even though the work day ended 30 minutes ago. We’re running as fast as we can.
Sure, the system is broken. Sure, we are broken too. The whole world is broken, but we’re doing the best we can.
