Email Etiquette for Authors

Best practices for getting the replies you're looking for from agents, editors, and industry people

Last week I was more or less off email for four days while I drove across the country from Detroit to Berkeley (home). Of course, I occasionally checked my phone (even while driving) to watch the emails roll in. There’s freedom in an OOO message, and I felt the lightness of my autoresponder doing its job—letting people know I wouldn’t be getting back to them till next week.

I complain a lot about email. It’s too much, frankly, and I often lament that email is a full-time job on top of everything else it takes to publish 150 books a year. My authors (and others) have a terrible habit of treating email like texting, and it’s not uncommon for me to receive a firespray of emails, one after the other as their thoughts roll in. I also confront people’s annoyance when I don’t gotten back to them in a timely way. Ghosting goes against my nature, but I am physically (and emotionally) incapable of answering every single email I get.

Writers and authors get frustrated, understandably, by the communication (or lack thereof) within publishing circles. I get frustrated, too. I have been on the receiving end of not hearing back—from potential podcast guests, from writers I want to teach for me, from blurbers I’m reaching out to on behalf of my authors. It’s a thing. And . . . how we email and how we follow up matters.

I feel I’ve earned enough badges in the “recipient of troublesome emails” department to hopefully support writers and authors to be better senders, so here goes:

Use specific and helpful subject lines

This one is big. I can’t tell you how often I receive emails that tell me absolutely nothing. They may say things like: For Brooke (the worst); hi! (hi back!); or checking in (about what?). Good subject lines help your receiver to categorize what your email is about before they even open the email. And, IMHO, a good subject line is likely to get you a more timely response.

Employ the forward function and update the subject line

I get many emails that say something to the effect of: “Following up on my last email.” Herein, the author then tells me that they’re following up, no context for the previous email, and I have to go hunting for it. This is what “forward” is for—and I encourage my authors to escalate their issue in the subject line. Great escalation notices include: [Bump], [Escalating], and [Urgent]. I don’t even mind: [Trying again], or [Second email]. These signal to your recipient that you’ve emailed before, and here you are again, and the original email is in the thread, not something they have to go find.

Avoid the firespray

This is by far my least favorite author behavior. It causes the receiver a lot of anxiety. At least, it causes me a lot of anxiety. If I happen to be on email watching the flurry of messages come through in real time, it’s an assault. If I see them later, say the next day, I can only wonder: Why couldn’t these have been in a single email? I understand that the firespray is an emotionally reactive behavior, but it’s also unconscious behavior. If you feel charged up, that’s not a good time to start emailing. Stop and collect your thoughts, and send a single thoughtful email later.

Bullet-point / streamline

One way to ensure you won’t hear back in a timely way is to send a too-long, multi-paragraph email about something that could and should be condensed. It’s a tough ask for some writers—to be concise. However, the more you can harness your thoughts into lists, and help your reader organize their response, the better you’re supporting good communication and the sooner you’ll get a reply.

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What follows may or may not fall under etiquette per se, but I want to include a few pet peeves I have as food for thought for writers engaging in correspondence with publishers, editors, reviewers, blurbers, book buyers. I get that emotions run high when you are: 1) waiting for responses from agents and editors; 2) trying to lock down blurbs; 3) wanting bookstores to carry your book. It’s hard to be a writer/author wanting something from someone and not hearing back. I feel it. And . . . here are a few things to avoid:

ALL CAPS subject lines

I can’t imagine I’m the only person who finds ALL CAPS subject lines irksome. There’s a flavor of alarm, and very often when I receive ALL CAPS emails, they’re accusatory. Recently, I wrote about some of our challenges with Bookshop. My inbox was being flooded with messages that read: BOOKSHOP BACKORDERED, or STILL HAVING PROBLEMS WITH BOOKSHOP! Not a bad subject line to get my attention, truthfully, but ALL CAPS rubs me the wrong way. I wanted to write back: I KNOW!!!! If you’re using ALL CAPS to shout, consider its impact, that’s all.

Blaming

I mean, obviously . . . right? If you’re upset or charged, type up the email and wait to send it. I am on the receiving end of a lot of authorly emotions, and I’ve had to build up a thick skin over the years. I try not to react or be reactive to authors’ anxieties and frustrations, but sometimes I fail. I interface with author unhappiness if and when: 1) I don’t get back promptly enough; 2) authors don’t like their cover designs; 3) orders or distribution channels are clogged or books aren’t available; 4) feelings get hurt, usually specifically around not being acknowledged or honored in some way; 5) authors not understanding things about the publishing industry, to which I empathize because it’s complex and difficult. This list could go on . . .

This week I got an email from a writer whose project we didn’t accept for publication, who’d apparently emailed me a couple times to ask a follow-up question about her submission. Her email read:

This is my third attempt to communicate with you after submitting my manuscript and waiting the requisite months for your response, then getting the funnel letter. Is there any reason I should keep reaching out to you? I happen to be a fabulous person, so I know with all the good I put out into the world, I deserve better than this. You have a reputation of being a good person too. So, what gives?

Um . . . This is what I call an unhinged email, but it also flooded my entire body with adrenaline and it took me a long while to calm down after reading it. I tried to put myself in this writer’s shoes and practiced my own advice of not responding from a place of reactivity. When I wrote back, I let her know that all she had to do was let me know this was her third attempt to reach out. She was right, of course—it’s not cool to have to email people three times. But, I also get a deluge of email. I miss things. And I prioritize my authors who are in the publishing funnel, by necessity. I’ll say, too, that ghosting sucks. It's the worst. But if you write to someone three times and they don’t get back to you—yes, move on. I try to remember when I don’t hear back from people how completely unreasonable and unhealthy it is what we expect of people in this modern age of communication. The end.

Texting or DM-ing for confirmation

In the early days of email, my dad had a habit of texting me immediately following sending me an email to ask if I’d gotten his email. Yes, Dad, it’s in my inbox. People like confirmation. We like to know our stuff has been received. Modern life for writers and authors is therefore shitty on this front because you might not even know if your email arrived, and there’s also such a thing as an email hole into which emails fall, never having been seen by their intended recipient, even though they did in fact land. Still, resist dual communication, and instead use the [bump] or [escalating] tags as the best means of getting the attention of a busy person. I don’t like it when people text or Facebook message me for work-related stuff. It’s too many channels of communication, and if it’s to follow up on an email correspondence, it will feel pestering at best.

Day 2 of 4: Getting pulled over in Nebraska—for speeding, not for checking emails while driving. 😅😇