Getting a name right.

Querying today, and my attendance at a local business owners luncheon yesterday, has got me thinking about how to treat people.

At this presentation, a person from our city gave a nonsensical powerpoint talk about wanting us (the people in the industry) to build 10,000 houses in the next few years- despite the fact that no we cannot get the supplies in Alaska, lack the infrastucture and workers to do so much work, that one can afford to compete with state projects (that people can’t even afford the necessary construction on their already existing and crumbling homes) and forgetting that the reason we can’t go over a certain number of floors is because of our constant earthquakes.

There were many other reasons why this person’s presentation was downright insultingly uniformed, and now this is becoming a rant, but what clinched it all was that during the other presenters’ speeches, this representative for my government was constantly on his phone.

It was noticed by everyone, and extremely unappreciated. My daughter attended with me and was shocked, apparently anything like that in her fifth grade class gets you in trouble.

And it got me thinking.

Isn’t it wild how just a little common courtesy, for example paying attention to someone’s work instead of your phone, can make all the difference?

I keep reading these agent blogs, and what they would like, and I find it suprisingly upsetting that one of the first things being asked for again and again is that whoever is submitting makes sure to address their query to the person they are currently querying.

Basically, that the query-er use the name of the person they are querying.

What?
I get it. Querying is tedious and repetitive and stressful. Like presenting. But I believe in us hopeful writers, that we can address our queries to the correct people.

We can do it. Let’s lift ourselves up to the basic level of getting someone’s name right- right?
We can do that?
I can do that.

So with each query I write, I will imagine the person on the other side getting it. I am writing to a person after all, and not some filtering machine.

I want to write for my life, right? So I can take the time to get it right when I address the person I am hoping will help me along the way.

I really can’t believe that has to be asked for. I guess that’s the entire point of this blog post.