You can sure fool honest people into giving you money for nothing.

Yep. They prey on people who have dreams of publishing, who've invested a lot of theirselves into writing that (frankly) isn't usually very good and will get rejected anywhere legitimate. So the writer feels validated and the publisher makes a mint of people willing to shell out $75 repeatedly for thick books with a zillion poems in tiny type.

I did it when I was fifteen. But I didn't buy any books. Felt like a sucker after, though.

So it's like the Who's Who in American High School Students of poetry?

Yarg. Students bring me similar mailings all the time; they're all "Look Ms. G! Look, I won something for being a decent student!" -- and then I get the fun job of telling them -- and their often thrilled, I-will-pay-even-though-I-make-$2 perhour-cleaning-houses parents -- that's it's a scam.

It's not a fun part of my day.

Sounds like it, Erin. We missed most of the mailings afterward cause I moved, iirc.

I HEART MY AGENT!

I'm a little behind, but I just read the new essays. That is some awesome stuff, my friend. Seriously. The Internet Wants Your Daughter should be read out on high, and/or This American Life. And I am particularly fond of your "Cut A Bitch" header. Really, I feel like you've come a long way from the first essays you showed me--your prose is tighter, your jokes funnier, and your themes and theses punchier, deeper, more resonant. Way to go. This book is going to be great. And that's not just your agent talking.

Yay, Allyson!

Yay, Allyson!! I'm totally not surprised, but it's wonderful that your agent loves it as much as it should be loved!

Yay Allyson!

That is wonderful encouragement, Allyson.

raises pom poms

Gooooooo Allyson!