Becky Says...

May 2002

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May 15

Well, well. After almost two years of the existence of this site, I have received my first piece of truly ugly mail. And dammit, it wasn't even about me! Well, not really about me.

Last night, my client, Erika Karres, was one of the guests on a cable television program that I didn't see (I don't have cable). The comments she made angered someone, who did two things: wrote a particularly bitter note to her, then searched for contact information on Google. And we know Google loves me, so sure enough, I was up there in the top ten, since I've mentioned working with her.

He sent his piece of ugliness to me, and asked that I forward it to her, since he could not find an e-mail address for her. My reply was no. I suggested that he send any correspondence to her through her publisher, and that he could find the publisher's contact information at an online bookstore.

This morning's check of e-mail brought me a reply from him, in which he said he should have known I wouldn't forward the mail to her, because I was "gutless." I would have taken offense at that except it was so funny. I didn't reply at the time, and really wasn't planning to do so at all.

Then I thought about it and decided I wanted to know what on earth Erika Karres had said on that show that set him off. So I called her, after I got home from work. She told me about her appearance on the show, and I went on to tell her why I wanted to know. She asked me to forward the correspondence to her, which I did.

And I wrote to the correspondent, to apprise him of this, and to tell him that it was a time-honored thing to contact an author through the publisher. I told him what I wrote above about the gutless comment, then went on to write that what I was not was either his secretary nor hers.

For the record: it is entirely possible that had the note been something filled with high praise for her, I would have forwarded it, because I really enjoy passing on good news. But it is much more likely that I would have told the writer how to reach her publisher, and suggested following that route.

I'll end this with a request: if you want to get in touch with Erika Karres, please go to one of the online bookstores, search her name, and get the information on her publisher's address from the search results. If you want me to know what you've sent her, send me a copy.

Text � copyright 2000-2002 Becky