pro tip.

[karenthology]

I cannot, cannot, cannot say this often enough.

If you are a writer submitting your work to a market -- any market, no matter how new or small -- and your cover letter ends with "I appreciate you're time," you are shooting yourself in the foot.

Comments

[cathellisen]

But I always appreciate that editors and agents are time. It's one of their super-powers.

[karenthology]

We're all from Gallifrey!

[cathellisen]

Does that make said writer a dalek?

[karenthology]

Nah. DALEKS WRITE IN ALL CAPS. DALEKS WRITE IN SHORT SENTENCES.

(Except when they are squeeing over something awesome, like the Harry Potter trailer.)

[momebie]

Oooh, how about 'best wishes'? :p

[karenthology]

Yes, or 'sincerely,' or 'thank you,' or any number of kind phrases. Or, you know, 'your.'

This was not just in one cover letter. The you're error shows up at least once a week.

[momebie]

*snort* You'res, KL. No, the 'Best Wishes' is something I get a lot from people in publishing that I never got from people in PR or Advertising. It reminded me of this:

[lutraphile]

don't you mean "your shooting yourself in the foot?" :P

[karenthology]

If that's all your going to say...

Hey, I miss you. How's married life?

[skylarker]

You aren't time? So, who should we be thanking?

[karenthology]

Well, God's pretty much beyond time, so zie might count. Although I could really use some time-manipulation superpowers right now...

[skylarker]

I suppose zie does. And, lacking such super-powers of our own, prayer makes sense.

[galladia]

I imagine there/their/they're must be a problem, too. Do you take time to read through stories with a lot of spelling errors and typos?
(I know, speaking for myself, I'm positively bedeviled by typos. I'll have sentences where the word "the" is obviously missing, and I won't even notice during proofreading.)
And, ummm... (blushing here)... what's a dalek, exactly?

[prettymuchpeggy]

Poor dear. It is sad state of affairs that your Dr Who-fu is lacking. Let me enlighten you with this handy link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalek