Another "this isn't really how the industry works, is it?" question for AmyLiz or anyone else who knows.

One of the bits of Conventional Wisdom I've seen floating around the internet is that you should never query an editor or agent in August or December, because August is the most popular vacation month, and December is the holidays, plus people have an urge to clear their desk for the New Year. The theory is that more form rejections go out because the editors and agents just don't feel like dealing with the mail.

That's never made sense to me. I can see how you might have to wait longer to get a response if your query arrives right after your target has left for 3 weeks in the Bahamas, but not that it would affect his/her response. I also wouldn't send an email query on Thanksgiving Wednesday or Christmas Eve, just because I think it smacks a bit of "I have no life, and as your client I will pester you at the most inconvenient and inappropriate times." But with regular mail, I figure it'll just go in the pile and get read when it gets read. All this stuff about not querying in August or December, or mailing your query/partial on Tuesday so it'll get there on Thursday or Friday and maybe the editor or agent will take it home over the weekend, just seems like so many silly stories writers tell themselves to give themselves more control over the uncontrollable.

But, of course, I could be wrong.

That is so freakin' cool, deb! That's the kind of thing I would so geek out on.

Susan, I've been told - by two of my editors past and present, and by my agent - that nothing gets done in publishing in August or December. I can vouch for August - NYC publishing keeps "summer hours" and no one seems to be in their office after about three in the afternoon. And in December, holiday hours.

But, like you, I can't see that affecting their responses to a query. I suspect the "don't send at those times" dictum is based on the "no one's around, might as well wait until they are" scenario.

Amy? Your views, ma'am?

Oh, and Susan and other writers who have stuff making any stage or level of the rounds right now, I wanted to share this - as you may know, I have a supernatural thriller, Still Life With Devils, being looked at.

Just received a rejection letter from Random House. And it begins with the sentence "This novel creates the perfect pitch of suspense..."

And yet and yet and bloody yet.

Publishing R weird, yo.

I am going to be tearing my hair out with curiosity about who nominated me for the Renaissance weekend. And then more hair to follow, as I try to figure out who on the advisory board seconded and approved me. And why and how the invitation was sent through my agent.

Gah.

Deb, the fact that it was sent through your agent leads me to believe that you were nominated by someone who read your book.

Someone whose initials are "Big" and "Dog," perhaps....

See, deb? Teppy knows the truth. I'm telling you, it was Bill. He was laid up with all the cardiac troubles and treatments. Being a voracious reader, he read everything he could get his hands on. He read your book. He said, "Damn. I remember that woman. I think the Laders should invite her to one of the Renaissance weekends." Then he called his assistant, gave her the publishing house name and told her to track you down via your agent. She can do that easily, on account of the fact that she works for the Big Dawg.

edited for apostrophe abuse

Oh, yeah -- I'm with Teppy and Cindy -- it was the Big Dawg that nominated you.

And wow!!! What an amazing thing to discover in your mail.

Actually, now that I think about it, I was just thinking that the Big Dog used Google. But I forgot he has more resources to Find Out What This Person Is All About than the normal person has. We have Google; he has -- god only knows.

A Google search turns up the fact that Deb is a writer, and a damned good one. I would imagine that the kind of resources an ex-president has access to would turn up things like her political involvement, for one thing. And the combination of the spicy braiiiiiiins that are clearly obvious from reading her books + her politics = someone who definitely belongs at a Renaissance Weekend. Totally.

But, like you, I can't see that affecting their responses to a query. I suspect the "don't send at those times" dictum is based on the "no one's around, might as well wait until they are" scenario.

That, and people really do obsess over anything they can find that'll give them the illusion of control. At least once a month some writing list I'm on has the "one space or two at the end of a sentence?" discussion. How anyone could imagine an editor rejecting a well-written and interesting story just because it has two spaces after each sentence while she prefers one or vice versa frankly baffles me, but it still comes up over and over again.

Why wouldn't it be Bill, huh? It probably happened just the way Cindy (ETA: and Teppy) postulated. And until it's proven otherwise, that's the scenario I'm going to go with. In any case, Yay! And yes, go!

And really? Honestly I think the "cooking for fun and survival" thing for teens would be much more popular and fun than one on writing. But that's just me.

Thing is, anyone can find a hunnerd and one writing classes. How often do you find a class by a first class gourmet chef and professional caterer offered to teenagers?

t nods at all that stuff Beverly just said