I didn’t respond to a stranger’s unsolicited manuscript for 48 hours, so his angry response was probably justified. Right?
/On Wednesday of this week, I received an email from someone who I don’t know. This is the entirety of his message, minus his name and the Word document that was attached.
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I play poker in las vegas, and not a week goes by that someone doesn’t say your the politest poker player.
Poker is a nasty brutal game but it doesn’t mean I have to be like all the others.
most people mistake politeness for weakness.
I am not a writer and doing this hard for me
I have attached my personal project on winning, poker, aggression, OODA LOOPS, women, the marines, alcohol, loneliness, insanity, hell and my 2 cents on all of the above
enjoy the quotes
back to my cave of darkness
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Two days later, the same person sent me this email:
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I know how extremely busy you are - so to take time and reply with such an awesome and considerate e mail is something I will always remember
OH I FORGET- YOU COULDN`T EVEN BE BOTHEREDT TO HIT REPLY AND SAY THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST OR DROP DEAD--
I know it would have taken maybe 2 seconds
Oh well just another dick
will ignore you in the future
I’d like to say I was surprised, but I really wasn’t. I receive messages from people like this from time to time. Sadly, I’ve become fairly accustomed to this level of surprising vitriol when I fail to respond to someone in what they perceive to be a timely manner.
A couple years ago, I was in the process of reading the first 30 pages of an unsolicited manuscript that I actually liked a lot when the writer emailed me and told me to delete her manuscript from my computer immediately. I had taken too long to reply to her unsolicited request, so she called me a bunch of terrible names and demanded that I never read her story.
I can’t imagine what these people are thinking when they do this kind of thing. Is burning a bridge really going to help?
Nevertheless, I replied to my most recent attacker, hoping that perhaps he would reconsider such actions in the future.
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Seriously? You sent me something on Wednesday, and two days later, you send me this?
Listen, man. I'm an elementary school teacher. An author on deadline. The founder and producer of a storytelling show that has three shows in the next two months. I was teaching a storytelling workshop on Wednesday night. I’m have six pages of a comic book due on Monday and an entire musical that should’ve been finished a month ago. I had parent-teacher conferences this week. I spent the week reviewing report cards. I'm the father of two kids ages six and two. Both of them are sick. Oh, and I’m a husband, too.
Yeah, it's true. Your email was sitting in my inbox, waiting to be opened. 48 hours later and I hadn't had a chance to reply or even read it yet. You weren't exactly my priority.
Are you kidding me?
Your email was insanely rude. I can't believe how rude it was. I hope, with all sincerity, that you learn from this mistake going forward. There’s no need for this level of rudeness. It gets you nowhere.
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Less than 24 hours later, he replied.
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I DID NOT READ YOUR RESPONSE-
I can only hope that is how your are treated
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I replied instantly.
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I don't believe you.
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No response from him yet.