Henshaw replies
So… I emailed Mr. Henshaw to advise him that his replies were generating mild concern here. We had an interesting exchange, and he agreed to my suggestion that I post it here. FWIW, despite the fact that he already rejected my ms, if he were to change his mind and suddenly want to read it, I’d be happy to send it to him. I don’t think anyone who he’s interested in here needs to worry.
- Arquebus
From: Arquebus
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 10:13 AM
To: Rich Henshaw
Subject: Re: historical crime novel query
Dear Mr. Henshaw:
Thanks very much for your consideration and your timely reply. I hope I am not impertinent if I give you perhaps the gentlest bit of advice: on Absolute Write, in the forum about you, people are generally positive, but there is some discussion of your use of the phrase "This sounds like fun," with multiple submissions. I understand you probably don't have time to spend all day thinking of incandescently descriptive adjectives, but I thought you'd appreciate knowing that.
Thanks again for taking a look at my query.
Regards,
Arquebus
From: Rich Henshaw <submissions [at] henshaw [dot] com>
To: Arquebus
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 6:16:12 AM
Subject: RE: historical crime novel query
Thanks. I recently stumbled upon that. The truth is that most of my business is in commercial fiction and the object of commercial fiction is to entertain and often for me that means it’s fun to read. When a query sounds like it has that quality I often ask for it and while it may sound like a generic response it is in truth what caused me to ask for the sample. While I do frequently use that phrase when asking for a look at a partial, I’m a bit surprised that my sincerity is being questioned. The truth is that these days I would be surprised if I ask to see more than two or three samples of first novels a week out of around 500 or so queries that we get in the same time period. I guess the quality of query writing is high on Absolute Write.
Sincerely,
Rich Henshaw
From: Arquebus
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:33 AM
To: Rich Henshaw
Subject: Re: historical crime novel query
Dear Mr. Henshaw:
Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply. I’d be happy to post that reply on AW, if you like… For what it’s worth, I don’t believe anyone is questioning your sincerity, merely your unbridled devotion to their as-yet-unseen manuscript. I think we all hope for an agent’s reply along the lines of “MY GOD THIS IS GOING TO BE A BEST-SELLER I CAN SMELL IT RIGHT NOW.” A certain baseless narcissism comes with territory, I guess. As for myself, of the eight agents who are reading fulls or partials of mine, the one who wrote to say she was really enjoying it and could I please be patient is the front run-runner for me, in the unusual and happy event that more than one agent makes an offer. We all want to feel special, writers perhaps more than most.
And yeah, I was surprised at the level of discourse and ability on AW. At first, I was expecting it to be more of a forum for the bitter, disaffected, no-talent dork contingent. But with the possible exception of myself, it really doesn’t seem to be.
Thanks again for your nice note.
Regards,
Arquebus