Hi,

This'll probably seem a really stupid question - so I thought I'd ask it now when I'm way off sending anything out - but how should you address letters to literary agents, and other industry people?

ie:
Dear John Smith,
Dear John
or
Dear Mr Smith
?

In the acting business, you'd write Dear John Smith, which always feels a bit rude to me, but it's the convention.
Poppy x

I do the same in publishing - you never know if the women are Ms/Mrs/Miss, someone might have a doctorate, not so long since, some of the older gentleman publishers thought of themselves as esq.. You can't even be sure if some are male or female...

I don't think anyone's offended these days.

Emma

Dear John.

Why not? On the rare occasions that rejection slips/letters were addressed to me, the majority used my first name - "Dear Colin, thanks but..."

Agents are more like partners than employers, so you might not need to make yourself sound so formal. But don't go too far the other way,

"Hey, Bud, howsit hangin'? Got a hell of a book for ya here!"



Colin M

I have to say I'm in the opposite camp. I'd always put Mr. or Ms. Smith the first time.

I'm afraid that to me 'Dear John Smith' still jars as not only going against the polite conventions that were drilled into me at school, but also as sounding (frankly) a bit cheeky and, what is worse, awkward and inelegant. This is a context where elegant usage and how words come across are all-important. I think 'Dear John Smith' sounds crass and, well, just wrong.

(Now I am going to retire behind the twitching pages of my Daily Telegraph to mutter about falling standards and bringing back National Service...)

Rosy.

<Added>

Sorry, Poppy! Three replies, three different answers!!

I'm with Rosy in feeling that 'Dear Emma' from someone who's never had any contact with me is too familiar - I think you need implied permission to use someone's first name on its own.

But with Mr/Ms the problem's the women: in publishing you're probably all right with Ms, regardless of what she prefers, but in other industries blood can boil - and you still could get an old battleaxe editor who feels her husband's being insulted if you don't call her Mrs. I dislike it when I get addressed as anything other than Ms, mind you.

And what with PhDs calling themselves doctor, but surgeons calling themselves Mr (yes, I do know why, historically, but it's too tedious to go into). I actually think it's high time we got rid of the whole honorifics nonsense - why not first name and surname - that's who we are, after all. And what do you do with someone who's called Hilary or Alex or Kay or - these days - Sam?

Who would know how to address Bru Docherty, after all, without a search for pronouns on The Bookseller's website?

Emma

Ah - that's interesting, so there's no completely set-in-stone convention at any rate - which makes it all the more difficult!.

Yes - Dear John Smith is so logical, and covers all bases I suppose.(although it doesn't feel quite right to me yet)

Thanks for the advice!
P

It's worth checking - Curtis Brown the agency get tons and tons of unsoliciteds addressed to 'Dear Mr Brown' and then they know it's someone who can't be bothered to do the most basic homework...

Emma

And what with PhDs calling themselves doctor, but surgeons calling themselves Mr (yes, I do know why, historically, but it's too tedious to go into). I actually think it's high time we got rid of the whole honorifics nonsense

I REALLY agree with this, Emma!
I worked for an organisation with a lot of horrible snobby people attached to it and the FUSS they continually made about how their letters were addressed. It was as if they thought people should be putting hours into researching their status rather than doing the work they were employed for. I began to really hate the insistance on this sort of stuff. I also noticed people who were really status-secure didn't give a damn.

it's high time we got rid of the whole honorifics nonsense

I agree too! I hate it! Why does anyone care if I'm 'Miss' or 'Mrs', and then why do they get all sniffy when I say 'Ms'?! It's so sexist anyway. Men don't get raised eyebrows, in fact they don't even get asked, they just get addressed as 'Mr' by default. Why does this system still exist? It's nonsense. I have a name and a surname - what more does anyone need?

Phew. I've been wanting to rant about that for ages.



<Added>

Just to add, though, that Miss Snark insists on being addressed as 'Miss', and she moans if anyone puts 'Ms'. I'm pretty sure it's her way of illustrating that authors should do their research when submitting.

Apparently, rumour has it that AP Watt won't look at a submission addressed to Mr AP Watt, cos there's no such person.

Dunno if that's true.

I think the full name thing is fine.

Just to add, though, that Miss Snark insists on being addressed as 'Miss', and she moans if anyone puts 'Ms'. I'm pretty sure it's her way of illustrating that authors should do their research when submitting.

I hadn't thought of why she does, but I'm sure you're right. Good on her!

Glad other people feel as I do about this. What makes me absolutely furious is when online forms don't have the option for Ms, or for no title at all.

I actually have no option but to use Ms, as I tell anyone who quibbles: I'm divorced, so I'm not Miss Darwin, but I use my birth surname for everything, so I'm not Mrs Darwin either. And most publishing women (most professional women I know, come to think of it) I know use their birth surname (no, I won't say maiden name - ugh!) for work even when they are married. Besides, I can never remember which are married and which are cohabiting...

Of course if/when I get my PhD, I could be Dr Darwin, just to confuse things. No, I can't give you a sick note, sorry.

Emma

<Added>

But if we're going to have titles, I wish they'd come up with a more attractive way of pronouncing Ms. than 'Muhz'!

but I'm sure you're right. Good on her!

No, not good on her. Get people to research the important things, not get them all screwed up about the petty ones.

<Added>

I think it is also unfair to penalise people who are trying their best not to offend (through Ms for example). People, on the whole, are not actually trying to get it wrong. I would never be offended if someone calls me Ms or Miss - even though I prefer the former, if the letter was polite and they were making an effort. People are usually trying their best. What's wrong with a bit of generosity?

The trouble is, the slushpiles are full - really full - of stuff from people who don't even research the important things. While I agree that it's daft to care about titles, I can understand a fiction agent, wading through the poetry and the cookery-book proposals and the paedophile porn written in green ink, who has a more jaundiced eye for any work that looks as if the author hasn't bothered to check out the simple - if minor - stuff.

In the case of Miss Snark, of course, it's artificial, because you have to use a title, not knowing his/her first name, so he/she pushes the writer into jumping one way or the other. In real life that isn't the case. If I thought A P Watt was the person I should be adressing my MS to, then I'd just put Dear A P Watt... But a moments study of WAAYB (which is presumably where I got the address in the first place) would have put me right on that one.

Emma

'Dear John Smith'

I said, "Dear John," - not the full name.

However, one point yet to be raised is that in the bigger agencies, say for example, Christopher Little, you might not get the man himself to read your sample. Instead, it will be directed to a "reader", so if in any doubt, there is no shame in addressing your submission, "To the Reader" and heading your letter the same way. If anything, it shows you have at least some understanding of the actual workings of the agency.

Once you start getting regular feedback, and see the same name again and again on the letter, you could direct the letter to that particular reader - it might make them feel a little brighter on a murky Monday morning.

Colin

At the risk of causing an argument, I think it's a basic courtesy to make sure you get someone's name right, whether that's the spelling or the title, or the preferred version of their name (eg Mike vs. Michael). It annoys me slightly when people put something other than Dr for my title, but I really grind my teeth when they use the long version of my name, despite the fact that I always introduce myself with the short version. Now maybe all agents/publishers are a whole lot less grumpy than I am first thing on a Monday morning whilst looking through the mail, but maybe they're not.

I don't usually sound this stroppy by the way!