Blog Post

Can your email can keep you from getting published?

by Kristena Mears
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
5/10/22

How important is an email address?

Can you get rejected because of an email?

Yes!!

I was shocked when I first heard this, but soon saw this reality and the importance of an email.

I’m one of the first people to laugh at a cute email address. My day job is at a bank, working with credit cards, and I love some of the imaginative email addresses that I come across. They bring a smile to my face and break-up the monotony of a long day. They also tell me so much about the person who owns it. GrannysFunTimes@xxx.com lets me know her grandkiddos are top on her priority list, and tell so much about the bubbly personality of the one I’m talking to.

No funny emails

But as writers, a funny email address won’t get us far with an agent.

Why? Because an agent or a publisher has so many people sending in proposals and quarries that they don’t have time to play “match the person to the email.” I was told by an agent at a writers’ conference that they filled their last spot because of an email address.

Agents can only work with a certain number of people. Same with publishers. If they are trying to decide between two different proposals, both of which are good, more than likely they will pick the one that is going to make their life easier. The other will end up in the reject piles.

While an email like fiction4you@xxxx.com or need2write@xxxx.com might be great for a personal email, it’s not going to bring about the professional reaction we desire. It doesn’t sound like the owner is serious about their brand.

The agent can’t find you

It makes the address hard for the agent to find you.

I discovered this out on a much smaller scale while setting up a guest blogger recently. I had a question that I needed a quick reply to. I put her name into the search box in my email and her name didn’t come up. It took me fifteen to twenty minutes to find her just to send a quick email. If I had been a busy agent with several good proposals to choose from, I may have given up and passed over to the next person.

Yes, it happens!

Unlike a personal email address where it fun and even ingenious to create a snappy email, your professional email needs to direct other to you, not your imagination. Your name needs to be readily visible and easy to find.

Several years ago, I read an article encouraging authors to acquire an email that included their name.
I’m lucky that my name has an unusual spelling. It didn’t hurt that I obtained my email address over 25 years ago, when email addresses were just becoming a “thing.”
But if this isn’t the case for you, there’s still hope.

Use your last name

Both first and last name is the ideal, but at least be sure you use your last name is in there.

  • Use author before or after your name.
  • Use your first, or first and middle initial, either before or after your last name in your email.
  • Use numbers mixed in
  • Buy an email if you can afford it. Both Apple and Microsoft 365 have a free version.

Just get that last name or pen name, in there so they can find you.

Don’t let a bad email keep you from your dream.

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3 thoughts on “Can your email can keep you from getting published?

  1. I created an author email with your specifications except I don’t have numerals in my address. I keep my name including my middle initial throughout all my professional work.

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