Funny You Should Ask: Oops! I sent the wrong attachment to a literary agent. What now?

Funny You Should Ask is a humorous and handy column by literary agent Barbara Poelle. In this edition, she answers a reader’s question about sending the wrong attachment to a literary agent.

Dear Bytes,

Let me begin by saying that I am not a computer expert—I only play one on TV—but in this age of viruses and malware masquerading as attached documents, I would bet that your pages weren’t opened … and, in fact, if the agent noticed that little paperclip icon in an unsolicited email, there’s a good chance he deleted the query outright without even opening it. I advise you to re-send with the correct adherence to agency guidelines. You probably are telling yourself this by now, but I’ll repeat it for the rest of the class: Attention to detail when querying is an important tool at your disposal to convey professionalism, so always double-check the guidelines before clicking Send!

I kid you not, as I was typing this, my computer crashed and had to be restarted. I want to blame a virus attachment, but it might be all the Benedict Cumberbatch GIFs that I … I mean, someone … downloaded to my desktop.

Ask Funny You Should Ask! Submit your questions on the writing life, publishing, or anything in between to wdsubmissions@aimmedia.com with “Funny You Should Ask” in the subject line. Select questions (which may be edited for space or clarity) will be answered in future columns, and may appear on WritersDigest.com and in other WD publications.

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