Cathy C. Hall Writes

I love Two Things Tuesday–they always remind me of the Doublemint commercials: A double pleasure’s waiting for you!

So Thing One, the SCBWI Southern Breeze conference, coming March 13th-15th in Decatur, Georgia. It’s our Springmingle event and we always have a great time, with a great slate of kidlit professionals. Take a look at the brochure to see the wonderful folks who’ll be presenting and speaking this year. (There’s still time to register!) And new this year is a portfolio reception, book launch and book signing on Friday evening.

We’ve always had all of these events, actually, but we’re doing things a little differently this time around. We’ve invited industry professionals, like librarians and book sellers, reading teachers and literacy advocates to attend the Friday evening activities. It’ll be a fun opportunity to get to know our Southern Breeze authors, both the new ones who’re launching books, and the…er, ones who’ve been around for a while. If you’re attending Springmingle, you’re invited, too. And if you’re one of those kidlit professionals in my neighborhood, and want an invite, please let me know!

But if you’re not in my neighborhood, then I hope you’ll take a look at Thing Two, our Southern Breeze blog. And not just because yours truly happens to be plastered up there, with a post about schmoozes and how you can orchestrate a great workshop event like that in your region. There’s other interesting stuff on the blog, too.

But yeah. Mostly because of the schmooze thing. (And now I’m sending the Beneficent Mr. Hall out for gum. Dang if I’m not craving Doublemint now!)

Finally.

A What Not To Do that doesn’t star the writing foibles and/or missteps of yours truly. But still, I feel qualified to expound on this topic of email addresses as I’ve very recently found myself sending and/or receiving a ton of emails.

I’m the PAL Coordinator for the Southern Breeze region of SCBWI, which sounds very la-ti-da, but really, it just means that I handle a couple of fun events or projects that benefit our published and listed members. And so I’m always emailing people, and they’re always emailing me back. It’s a hot mess of emails to keep up with, let me tell you. And amidst the most recent flurry of emails, I thought about editors and publishers and other industry professionals.

Specifically, I thought about how important it is to have a professional email address.

Your email address is the first impression you make. When you’re sending out queries or manuscripts or other professional communiques in the business world, that dot com address succinctly says everything about you. So let’s think a little about what an email address says:

Take, for example, yourname@email.com. It’s simple, direct, professional. And when someone is looking for your email in order to respond, they find your name. Quickly. You don’t have to have your own domain, either. If your name’s in an email address, it’s golden.

Now let’s consider the cutesy writer names. Like therightwriterforyou@email.com. If a person has worked really hard to brand themselves as The Right Writer–and there’s immense name recognition–then that kind of address would work. But if you are just starting out, clever is not always as clever as one thinks. Be careful using a “brand” name.

Next, let’s take a look at what I call “email addresses that make no sense.” That’s when some iteration of a person’s name pops up in an inbox. Maybe the initials of everyone in the family, the year they bought the house, and the word LOVE…so something like JLJCD1997love@email.com. The receiver of that kind of email rarely has a way to make a connection, and thus likely ends up annoyed. (Or maybe that’s just me. But I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure everyone’s annoyed.)

Finally, there are the inappropriate email addresses. The ones that should only be used for family and close, close friends. Because honestly, if I don’t know you, and spawnofsatan@email.com pops up in my inbox, I am not amused. In fact, I’m a little scared. (Okay, I’m very scared. Go away.)

So, grasshopper, before you send out another email, take a moment and consider your address. Sure, you want folks to know your name. But make sure it’s in a good way.