Confession: We have over 600 blog comments lingering in our inbox. Whenever we open the folder, we say a little prayer that the other sister had 24 straight hours over the weekend to respond to each and every comment and visit all the blogs we know and love. A single tear falls down our respective cheeks when we realize that this has not happened. The comments are still there and we still SUCK.
Time is tight, friends. We are spread too thin. We barely acknowledge our children, rarely have time for showers and Lisa is almost three full episodes behind on Real Housewives of New Jersey. Not. Pretty.
But we saw an opportunity yesterday when we read through all of your amazing one sentence pitches. We sat on Skype for about an hour arguing about which to choose. We figured we'd critique three queries since there was no way we could choose just one, but we kept finding more that we had to read and then we began fighting. Since there was no time for an arm wrestling match we had to get creative.
It didn't take long to remember the 600+ comments weighing heavy on our hearts. And idea whores that we are, we wondered, what if we did a little something-something on the blog once a month to make up for our inability to make it around to all our favorite blogs? What if we critiqued ALL of the amazing entries we received yesterday?
Done and done.
Okay, so we know it doesn't make up for the fact that we have been royally sucking at blog surfing and comment responding, but if you entered the query contest yestereday, consider your query critiqued! If your pitch made it in before the comments were closed, please email your complete query to us here using the subject QUERY CONTEST.
Warning: We like to rearrange and sometimes even rewrite lines of queries. We can't help it. It's our curse as Query Queens. Also it's going to take us a bit of time to make our way through the entries, so it might be a few weeks before you get our critique. Finally, we'd love to feature a few befores and afters on our blog, with permission of course. So, please let us know if you want your query to be featured and rest assured we will NOT share your query without your explicit permission.
And if you happen to have any suggestions about other ways we can pay it forward to our fabulous commenters, please let us know. Our plan is to randomly do something fun for you guys once a month and we are open to suggestions.
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38 comments:
My gosh! That is SOOO generous!!! :o)
Wow, you guys are great. Thanks for the fun contest :D
Geez, behind on Real Housewives of NJ? What kind of people are you? Just joking, of course. Alright girls, stop apologizing. Are you crazy? We totally understand. Generous gesture on your contest. Hang in there, you two. You do a good thing everyday.
Marissa
I would have to argue that the fact that you can't quite make it through 600 emails in a single day doesn't actually mean that you suck. It means you're human, awesome humans yes, but still human.
OMG. You girls seriously rock!
And no one expects you to visit all of our blogs and comment to our comments. It's easy when it's only a few individuals, but not so much when it's thirty plus. Just keep up your highly entertaining posts and that's good enough. :D
I missed all the hoopla, but that's awesomely generous of you girls.
Happy Tuesday!
WOW...um with 600 COMMENTS, send them over to my contest page where there's a few query critiques they can win! I'm struggling over there!!!
You guys are like, cuckoo CRAZY! But very sweet crazies--how very nice of you to do that for other writers! xo
I seriously think you deserve some chocolate today ;)
Thanks girls - place those tiara's on your pretty little heads and wear them proud - you've made A LOT of us ecstatic today :)
You think you suck at blog surfing lately. I didn't even see your contest yesterday, so I missed out. :sigh: Oh well, I wasn't quite ready to think about submitting anyway. Have fun with your query crits and congrats to everyone who was on the ball enough to be here for it. =o)
It is not humanly possible to answer 600 comments...kids, edits, KIDS, EDITS ahhhh! You should hit delete, start over and go watch your show lol! Thanks for offering the critiques. That is super generous.
You girls rock! And are you serious? If we submitted our pitch, we can send you our query and you'll critique it? That's way too cool.
I'm totally making up a fake query to send.
Does this mean you're holding me to the chocolate and Bieber hair?
YOU LADIES RULE!
BTW, I read all of the entries, and there's no way I could have picked only 1.
wow- that's so nice of you gals! Glad you figured out a way to avoid arm wrestling AND give back to your adoring public!
I'm telling you what. You guys are frawesome! But ditch the guilt, okay? Your primary focus should be your family, then the book, and then blogs, which should be way down low on your list of priorities.
P.s. No one gets mad that you don't respond.
And if they do, oh well...
Now go and press, "select all" on those 600 comments, and then "delete."
Then breathe and make a fabulous dinner, cuz we all still love you.
WOW! That's SO nice of you guys! And yep, I'm pretty sure if I had 600+ emails to respond to, I'd just sigh and leave the computer, hoping some magical entity would take care of them. :)
Can't wait to send in my query! Thanks again!
P.S. I read through all of the pitches as well, as did E.J. Wesley, and I totally get why you couldn't pick only one! =D
You are sweethearts! I'm so impressed by your generosity. I've had the same thought lately. I can only get around to blogs about once a month, so it seems like I should be doing something else to compensate. I don't think query critiquing is my forte though, so I'll have to come up with something else.
Good luck with all those queries!
Wow! You both are wonderful to do such a thing. I know everyone will appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Wow, I can't believe y'all have the time to do that. Damn, now I feel bad for commenting because it's just gonna be another email glutting up your inbox. ;)
You two are amazing!
What a cool and generous offer!!
That's so generous and sweet!
Fantastically generous.
Wow, you two are incredible! I mean, my blog is teeny, I'm not agented or anything, and it's summer, and I STILL have difficulty finding time to do anything. You're definitely an inspiration. :) Thanks so much for this!
wow, this is very kind of you ladies. And no feeling guilty! nobody is a superhuman here...at least not that I can fully admit in a public forum. kidding. I'm super excited though, must go get my query ready to email.
And I totally sat around reaching people's one lines and it was hard for ME. I was like "I want to read this" "and this" "oh, that too actually..." hahaa
-Lauren
You ladies are sweeties :)
As to the comments - sweep 'em all out and start again! We'll never tell :)
Thanks, ladies! So cool! :D
So cool. Wish I'd had something ready to query, which reminds me, that I totally agree with Katie's comment re: priorities. Don't sweat it re: getting back to every single commenter. Don't sweat it if there are seasons you can't get back to even one. Having an online community is amazing, but sometimes your other life needs you. :)
YOU LADIES ARE MADE OF CHOCOLATE.
sweet and irresistible.
YAY! You ladies rock!
Thanks for your generosity and expertise!
WOW. Y'all are awesome. I wish I'd had a query ready to submit for your consideration yesterday. Alas, my WIP isn't quite ready for that. So, you know, if you'd like to do something like this again in the future (hopefully after I have something ready to query), that would be incredible. :) In the mean time, congrats to all you lucky writers!
I can't imagine how that's less time consuming than emails!! :)
When I get really behind on blog comments, I just leave a blanket, "Thanks for all the comments guys! You're awesome" in the comment section and hope people understand. Honestly, I don't think most people sit around waiting for the reply. Well - at least not from me. :)
Have fun with those queries. I'll look forward to reading!
Very cool, guys! I feel like I'm totally out of the LiLa loop. I read back through your posts from last week and I saw LIAR SOCIETY and cover in very close proximity to each other. Dudes -- I can't wait for that!! Hope you can share soon!
You guys are gluttons for punishment. And we love you for it!
Query on the way.
That is so generous! I shouldn't have deleted my pitch, but I got nervous, you guys are just so great that is such a great thing! As for paying it forward, I think you should do something like this again, not the exact same thing but similar. I have faith that you guys will think of something just fun and amazing!
You gals are so publicly-minded. It's endearing. We should hang out and drink Prosecco and critique queries together. Okay, you can drink Prosecco; I'll drink vodka. It'll be fun.
You know how to get hold of me.
Wow. I go AWOL from the blogosphere for a while and I miss all the fun. You two are awesome - always!! :-)
Wow, you guys rock. My friend emailed me the other day and said, "Why do Lisa and Luara have to live in Ohio? I wish they lived near us so we could meet them out for drinks!"
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