Today I made my final selection of the first five agents to receive my query letter. With the selection finished, my work had just started. Sometimes I think it would be easier if we owned a typewriter. The process of getting the letters out is a long one. First, I had to write the letter in Word. That wasn’t too hard. Second, I had to check each agent on the Internet to make sure they were still in business and their address hadn’t changed. I’m using the 2004 edition of the Guide to Book Publisher, Editors, & Literary Agents. The book’s three years old so I didn’t want to take any chances. I just read about a guy that sent his query letter to an agent and he got a call from another agent in the office. The guy asked the agent how she got his query letter and she said that the agent he sent the letter to had passed away. In the end, she got him a million dollar advance on the book and a movie contract. Wait, maybe that’s what I should do, only send my query letter to agents that have… No that wouldn’t work, with my luck I wouldn’t hear from an agent until I got to…well you know where.
Third, after verifying all the addresses, I opened Excel and put the name of the agents in one column and their addresses in another. Fourth, I went back to the query letter in Word and attempted to do a mail merge. A mail merge takes the data from the Excel file and places it in the Word document. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I found out after my first attempt that the first and last name had to be in separate columns in Excel and the address had to be split into separate columns for street, city, state, and zip code. I got that done and after a few more changes I got it to work. Hurray, one letter turns into five with the correct name, address, and salutation on each letter. That only took about three hours. Now where was I, oh yeah, fifth, I had to perform the same mail merge in Word to produce the envelopes. That took a few tries. Now I’m done but I discover that I have some business paper but no envelopes. By that time, it was nearing dinner time so I stopped, ate dinner, and went to the store for envelopes. I now have paper and envelopes that match.
It’s now 8:10 PM and I have to wait for Cheryl to finish working before I can print the letters and envelopes. I haven’t set up our computers in a network; another very long process that neither of us has time for. Because we aren’t networked, I can’t access the laser printer Cheryl’s connected to. I want to print the letters and envelopes on the laser printer because the ink from ink jet printers can smudge. Just what I need, send out the letters and the envelopes get a little damp and the addresses smudge (not possible in this humidity). I think it’s time to stop and print in the morning. I would ask for a vote on this but I’m too tired. Tomorrow the letters go out; then the long wait. Reading the web sites of some of the agents I see that it takes them four to 10 weeks to send an answer. Maybe I should take a walk while I'm waiting.
Third, after verifying all the addresses, I opened Excel and put the name of the agents in one column and their addresses in another. Fourth, I went back to the query letter in Word and attempted to do a mail merge. A mail merge takes the data from the Excel file and places it in the Word document. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I found out after my first attempt that the first and last name had to be in separate columns in Excel and the address had to be split into separate columns for street, city, state, and zip code. I got that done and after a few more changes I got it to work. Hurray, one letter turns into five with the correct name, address, and salutation on each letter. That only took about three hours. Now where was I, oh yeah, fifth, I had to perform the same mail merge in Word to produce the envelopes. That took a few tries. Now I’m done but I discover that I have some business paper but no envelopes. By that time, it was nearing dinner time so I stopped, ate dinner, and went to the store for envelopes. I now have paper and envelopes that match.
It’s now 8:10 PM and I have to wait for Cheryl to finish working before I can print the letters and envelopes. I haven’t set up our computers in a network; another very long process that neither of us has time for. Because we aren’t networked, I can’t access the laser printer Cheryl’s connected to. I want to print the letters and envelopes on the laser printer because the ink from ink jet printers can smudge. Just what I need, send out the letters and the envelopes get a little damp and the addresses smudge (not possible in this humidity). I think it’s time to stop and print in the morning. I would ask for a vote on this but I’m too tired. Tomorrow the letters go out; then the long wait. Reading the web sites of some of the agents I see that it takes them four to 10 weeks to send an answer. Maybe I should take a walk while I'm waiting.
5 comments:
Congratualtions on completing this step!
That mail merge thing sounds like fun. You'll have to teach me how to do it. The wonders of Microsoft Office....
Mail merge is so simple after you learn how to do it. Most of the advanced functions in Word and Excel never get used because it takes a lot of time and patience to learn. We just don't have the time or take the time. I'll show you and you'll be so surprised how easy it is.
Good job Gig, always learning.
The younger (ha) I get the more time it takes to learn. Actually I'm not sure that's true. I'm beginning to think what I learned in the past was too shallow. Now I want to learn more about every subject. English was always my weakest subject but now I want to learn everything I can about writing which means leaning about sentence structure and what word best conveys the message that I want to deliver. I wish I did this when I had more time.
"Leaning about sentence structure," now there's an example of using the right word to convey my message.
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