Husband Poppins My dear loyal and absolutely devoted, not to mention handsome husband (Is that better dear?) and I got in a chat about recommendations. He's big into Linked In. I like the site too, though it's not twitter. (Just sayin...)On Linked In you put your resume up and connect with former/current employers and/or employees and/or co-workers. As you connect you are able to leave each other recommendations (As long as you have worked together in the past) and boost one another's credibility. It's an awesome feature and I don't doubt it helps in the hiring process.
Our conversation began when we started talking about agents I like and how I know some of their clients via blogging/twitter.
He said, "You should get recommendations!"
Now I think this a great idea, but I felt like 'eh'.
I explained that to me it seems like an unspoken rule between writers that we don't cross that boundary. Kinda like the unspoken rule that you never date your best friends ex. Or the one where it is mandatory to tell a good friend that they have food in their teeth.
Nobody flat out makes these rules, they are just kinda there.
OR maybe it's just me. I love my bloggy friends! I would never want them to think I am stalking following them just to earn me some recommendations. That is totally NOT the reason I stalk follow/read my favorite blogs and chat it up with my twitter folk! (Now in twitter language would that be Twolk? I'm totally trade marking that one!)
So what are your thoughts? Would you ask a friend for a recommendation before you queried their agent? If you have an agent, have you ever had anyone/everyone ask for a recommendation?
Please share your feelings. I am incredibly curious! (And I'd love to prove to the man that I am right about my unspoken rule that I may or may not have created all on my own)
6 comments:
I don't see anything wrong with it, Marybeth. I have a number of agented pals..but I never ask them. I let them ask me. At the very least, said agent usually makes a point of reading your query. But honestly, I don't think in the long run that it matters a bit. Agents read all their queries. And if it interests them, it interests them.
I have a writer friend (who I know personally, not a blog friend) who landed an agent and she said I could mention her when I queried her agent.
It got me a read, but in the end, what I had written wasn't what that particular agent was looking for.
So I do think recommendations will help get your query to the top of the pile and possibly your work read, but in the end, the agent still has to love your work.
It can't hurt, can it? :)
I agree with Lisa. I wait(ed) for my agented friends to say, "Hey you should query Chris and tell him you know me." You know? And I don't think I would do it (as an author or a recommender) unless my book has been read by the other person. Otherwise, how will they know it would be a good fit?
It's kind of an unspoken rule for me too. I would feel weird asking a friend for a recommendation, almost as if I were using them. Does that make sense? But if they said, you should sub this, or let me give your chapt to my agent, I'd be totally cool with that. More like jumping up and down. LOL
Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels there seems to be an unspoken law.
Granted I agree with Jill, it couldn't hurt. But at the same time I wouldn't want to hurt the relationships that I have built.
I do think that a recommendation is a foot in the door, but you are all right, ultimately they have to like our stuff!
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