Funny You Should Ask: Oops! I sent the wrong attachment to a literary agent. What now?

Funny You Should Ask is a humorous and handy column by literary agent Barbara Poelle. In this edition, she answers a reader’s question about sending the wrong attachment to a literary agent.

Dear Bytes,

Let me begin by saying that I am not a computer expert—I only play one on TV—but in this age of viruses and malware masquerading as attached documents, I would bet that your pages weren’t opened … and, in fact, if the agent noticed that little paperclip icon in an unsolicited email, there’s a good chance he deleted the query outright without even opening it. I advise you to re-send with the correct adherence to agency guidelines. You probably are telling yourself this by now, but I’ll repeat it for the rest of the class: Attention to detail when querying is an important tool at your disposal to convey professionalism, so always double-check the guidelines before clicking Send!

I kid you not, as I was typing this, my computer crashed and had to be restarted. I want to blame a virus attachment, but it might be all the Benedict Cumberbatch GIFs that I … I mean, someone … downloaded to my desktop.

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