Hello! Long time no see.
So what did I miss?? The economy is back on track and the book business has completely recovered, right? Um. Please tell me it has recovered.
And for those of you participating in the “how many e-mails will Nathan have in his inbox upon his return” office pool, whoever had the lucky number 650 wins a big ole cigar.
Needless to say, if you queried me in the last couple of weeks I’ll be getting back to you when I get back to you.
Thanks again to the intrepid guest bloggers, and… now I’m going to go wade into that inbox. Wish me luck.
Anonymous says
Good to have you back, Nathan!
::smacks head:” 650 queries?
No wonder I can’t get published.
Ugh… my work would seem a lot more interesting, I think, if there were less competition.
RW says
I’m doing my part for the industry–all my shopping done, and every gift that isn’t a specific book is a bookstore gift card.
Brigita says
650? That number is scary!
Anyway, welcome back.
Josephine Damian says
Congrats on your wedding and welcome back!
Kristan says
G’luck!
PS: Married?
Kristan
kristanhoffman.com
TJ Brown says
You mean you’re not going to be calling my cell in the next few minutes to talk to me about representation? What?
Teri Brown
Madame Lefty says
Poor Nathan, lol!
Hope you survive the onslaught of e-mails.
Lots of luck!
Keri Ford says
Yuck. I don’t even like it when 20 emails back up in my inbox. I could never be an agent, not having all my mail checked would drive me bonkers.
Welcome back!
Marilyn Peake says
Welcome back, Nathan. Best of luck with your emails.
The economy? The DOW went up for four straight days last week – the biggest advance since 1932 during the Depression, but now is headed back down. I’m hoping it makes a speedy recovery by closing bell. Hmmmmmm, are you perhaps a superhero, Nathan, working behind the scenes to fix the stock market during your absence?
Ang says
Great to have you back Nathan. Good luck with all those emails.
Dan says
So what you’re saying (or what I’m hearing) is that I should stop by your office to drop off my 1,500 page manuscript since your inbox is full?
Miss Viola Bookworm says
Um…what did you miss? Well, Heidi and Spencer eloped, but I’m sure you are aware of that. I admit to being bummed that it happened while you were away; I was so looking forward to a funny post about those two. 🙂
Enjoy reading all those emails! And congrats on the wedding!
Cat Moleski says
Welcome back. I read your blog first thing every morning. You were missed. Although, your guest bloggers were great!
jo says
That felt like the longest absence ever. Thanks for returning to us!
Good luck with your email (you’ll need it).
Furious D says
I contributed to the publishing industry by buying my nephew the Lord of the Rings trilogy he asked to get for Xmas. And I’ll be buying more books in the coming days! I’m ramming books down everyone’s throat this Xmas!
Good to have you back, and recovered from your turkey coma. And good luck sorting through the e-mails. Just remember, the ones offering you business opportunities in Nigeria are not queries.
lotusloq says
So how many queries of the 650 emails were actually on T-day? Just wondering how many would chance it.
So glad to have you back. I’ve missed my NB fix every day.
Nathan Bransford says
lotusloq-
Good question! Twelve this year on Thanksgiving. Lets hope they were from international writers and weren’t just neglecting their families.
nomadshan says
Welcome back, and thanks for lining up your guest bloggers — they were awesome.
Anonymous says
Excellent. I am glad to hear you had 650 queries, and even more glad to see you were updating the blog this morning, for two reasons:
1. You are alive, and my query is therefore more likely to be read (I tried querying the dead before. It was counterproductive).
2. If you were still blogging after 11am, the silence in my inbox still has a chance to have resulted from your not reading my query yet, as opposed to wondering how best to craft a reply which discourages me from ever writing again.
Welcome back!
kumhianoa says
ummm… 650???
welcome back somehow doesn’t seem appropriate, but i’ll say it anyways.
welcome back 😛
Juliette Dominguez says
Welcome back, Nathan and hope you had a great TG. And 650…that would, actually, scare me 😉
How many of those were queries?
Elyssa Papa says
Welcome back!!! My mind boggles at 650 e-mails.
Margaret Yang says
What did you miss? Well, there were these brave and awesome guest bloggers….
Anonymous says
Jeez Luis, 650 queries. Just how many writers are out there…
dernjg says
650? That’s like being ALMOST evil. I’d have waited it out.
Other Lisa says
The economy has recovered, the book business is booming, and I’m getting a pony for Christmas!
No matter how tough times get, there will always be books. Here’s what James Gleick has to say…
Welcome back, Nathan, and thanks again to all the wonderful guest bloggers!
Zoe Winters says
Yes, the economy fully recovered. All it took was for you to go to the Cheney hideout and do whatever secret government mojo you guys did. haha!
Welcome back!
Cam says
Any NaNoWriMo first drafts in those 650? 🙂
Cam
who redefined “historical fiction” as “fictionalized history” in her NaNoWriMo adventure, which will not meet any agents’ eyes till after Cam edits, gets critiques, edits, edits, rewrites history again, edits and fills in gaping holes before editing some more).
Avily Jerome says
Welcome back!
Hope you had a lovely time. Best wishes with the catching up part of life!
Just_Me says
650??? Poor, Nathan!
Josephine….Wedding?
Nathan…. wedding? You got married? Sweet! Congrats.
Other Lisa says
Well, HMH may be in the pits, but Hachette is doing well…Publishing roundup from the NYT.
Vieva says
*throws a rope into the email pit of doom*
Make sure you climb out every so often for a breather. And, y’know, food. 🙂
650? About how many of those do you expect to be anything other than run-screaming?
Stacey says
Wow! 650! I wish I was that popular! 🙂 Good luck!
Wedding? People are mentioning a wedding?
Gay says
One evil agent, who shall remain nameless, returned from vacation last year, announced they were jettisoning their entire inbox and starting over from scratch–and too bad for the luckless souls who happened to be caught in it when said jettisoning happened.
Glad you’re not heading down that road, even if I’m not one of those luckless souls. The world is demoralizing enough as it is. (Your new wife may disagree with me, however. Did she plan on seeing you before Christmas?)
Adaora A. says
Welcome back and good luck digging through that mountain of queries!
Adaora A. says
OT: Anyone else who lives in Canada go to York University? Yea…we’re still on strike (and it leaves me with more time to re-read Nathan’s blog as well as other books I left for the end of trm).
Tumblemoose says
Hey, Welcome back.
It’s ok to take that time away. I mean what with running Virgin Atlantic and being a multi-million dollar mogul and… Wha? Oops! You’re not Richard Branson! I’m always getting you two confused.
Darn.
Oh well, welcome back anyway!
Cheers
George
Ryan Field says
Hope you had fun.
Bethanne says
Good Luck.
Pamala Knight says
Welcome back Nathan. I hope that your vacation was all that you wanted it to be.
Lady Glamis says
Good luck!
Raethe says
Yes, welcome back.
Haha, what I’M wondering is, how many of those 650 emails we’re “omg I just finished NaNoWriMo!!11oneeleven” queries?
Or at least how many of them were Dec 1st queries, since I’m sure people would at least be smart enough not to advertise that “I finished this at 11:59 last night” in their query letters. Right?
…
Right?
Diana says
Yaaay! Welcome back. Thanks for keeping us busy while you were gone!
Scott says
I wonder what percentage of those 650 emails are Nigerian bank account scammers. Probably half. Don’t fall for their crap, Nathan!
Welcome back, and congratulations, I think.
kitkat says
Delurking…
And here I get annoyed when I see more than 50 emails in my inbox when I walk into work in the morning! (and that was just overnight!) Good think you like reading….right?
Welcome back!
Adaora A. says
I hope you’re fixing to put up some ‘query stats’ again. We want to know how many were short stories, poetry, how many queried based on physical appearane…all the funny stuff.
Kristan says
Whoa, incoming news:
https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_en_ot/books_publisher_quits
Melanie Avila says
Welcome back & good luck!
Jean says
Congratulations! A wife who makes homemade eggnog–everyone needs a gal like that! 🙂
Best wishes,
Jean