The Word Cloud

Hi all,

I'm new here and I'm finding these message boards very informative - Hello everyone :) Apologies if this has been talked about elsewhere (although from a quick scan I don't think it has)

I've been gearing up to start querying agents and I have my shortlist of agents and their various criteria and I'm nearly ready to start.

One thing I just noticed on an agent's website is that (for this particular agent) you need to put the name of your book into the subject of your submission email, to avoid it being identified as spam. In both my pitch and my book there are a few scattered swearwords, and I wondered if these would also alert the spam filters of some agents.

Does anyone know whether agents prefer you replace the swearwords with *%& etc (which I personally find grating) or is it best to keep them in and risk the spam filters? I imagine agents have this problem a lot, so perhaps emails with swearwords don't hit the spam box.

Thanks in advance!!

Assuming the name of your book isn't profanity-strewn, and that the book itself will be an attachment to any email, you'll be fine, just leave as is & never replace with *%& etc! Filters don't pick up on the contents of an attachment in the way they would the body of an email.

Thanks - that's really useful.

I know that some email programmes scan attachments as well, but I guess the agents would have to be pretty silly to choose that kind of programme, as they'd lose out on a lot of books!

It's a picture book for the under 5s btw ;)

"It's a picture book for the under 5s btw ;)"

Don't know about agents' spam filters, but I'm intrigued that a picture book for the under-5s has swear words in it, and I have to say (although I'm no expert on children's publishing) that I'd be surprised if the swear words weren't a deal-breaker..

Go the F**K to Sleep is a rare exception; I assume the publisher who bought it felt the publicity it would garner outweighed the drawback that a large part of the natural market for it would be horrified. There are still bookshops that won't sell it, especially in the US because they're so strait-laced. (International appeal is hugely important in getting a deal for anything which involves the cost of colour-printing...)

Called "Brush your bloody teeth, then get to fecking bed".

Good luck with your submissions.

I took that last comment as a joke - did I miss something?

"In the deep, dark wood

LoL Guero!

Well if I missed the joke, ;) all I can say is that there is NOTHING so crazed (but then Go the F**K to Sleep has done very nicely thank you, so not necessarily so crazed?) and/or perverted that it hasn't turned up in a slushpile in its time. And as a teacher I know the worst thing you can do to a student is to laugh at them. So my reflex is to take things straight...

Am loving the Grifflehump!
'Where's my cow' got published and that included Foul Ole Ron and Millenium hand and shrimp - Buggrit!

It was a joke :)
I'd assumed your response re Go the Fk to Sleep was tongue in cheek too....until I just googled it.

Maybe I'm missing a trick after all. I'll start working on my pornographic cartoon for 3 year olds and see if I can build up a bit of controversy (still joking!)

On the same subject, this might amuse you

LoL Ruth! I think the thing about Go the Fk to Sleep is that - if we're honest - we've all, all been there...

People are odd - my editor's comments on the Green Ink manuscripts she finds in her slushpile are educational.