Mail Matters

TRIS'S BOOK US pb Say you've decided to make the big leap and e-mail Tamora Pierce. Here are a few important points:

A note about mails you send to me (or to anyone, for that matter): Please don't refer to yourself or what you say as "pathetic," "boring," "stupid," "ordinary," "insignificant," "weird," "strange," that I might be "sick of hearing" anything--you catch my drift. In this wonderful world, there will be people lining up to put you down, belittle you, and treat you badly. Please don't give them a head start by talking that way about yourself (nobody can help what we think about ourselves in our own minds [sigh]). Also, please don't thank me for "taking the time" or "bothering" to read your mail. It's my honor and pleasure to read mails. With a packed schedule, I rarely get to reply, but not because I am contemptuous of the mails or their writers. You people pay me compliments; you also pay my bills. I am always glad to hear from you, even if I don't answer.
One other thing: a number of people who write to me these days say they may be too old (16, 20, 34, 53, 80) to read my books. As a person with a library that is one-third teen books, intermediate books, beginning chapter books, and picture books, I say the only thing that matters is that the reader enjoys the book, whatever her/his age. Any decently written kids' book should be just as enjoyable for adult readers. Good stories and good ideas are ageless.
Please understand that it takes me a long time to reply to mail. I presently get 50 or more mails a day. I have no secretary: any answers that get written are written by me. I also have one book draft due every three months (200 pages, including rewriting and reading aloud). I have research trips (museums, zoos, bookstores) to make, short stories and articles to write, galleys (books set in type) to correct, and other projects to complete. This is not counting trips, school visits, and ordinary life (housekeeping, doctors and dentists, vets, etc.). Even a simple "sorry but I can't e-mail you for the moment" has to go out to everyone who mails me, which means taking time from my work load, and I still don't get to answer their mails for months. I also hate form replies, and most people who write to me tell me they don't want form replies. Please be patient, and don't send a flurry of mails telling me how impatient you are!
Don't send me Fwds: jokes, chain letters, sad stories, schemes to make money. I delete them from my mail queue: I don't respond to any of these and I don't send them on.
I am unable to accept and comment on stories sent to me by fans, sad to say. My attorney advises against it: there's no telling that an idea I see in someone else's work might not vanish into my head and re-surface years later, with me thinking the idea is my own. That's one way for authors to get sued. Since I pay this man the big bucks, I have to listen to what he says!
Are you blocking my reply or have you changed your screen name recently? Many times when I answer a mail, the Postmaster software bounces it right back to me, saying that screen name is not accepting mail from me or that the person's account no longer exists. If you write to me, make sure you can get my reply!
Links: At this point, I have an awful lot of creative fans who have made up their webpages and offered me links to their pages. To tell you the honest truth, I haven't updated my links page in over a year, and I have piles of links offered by fans which I have yet to put up. I'm going to have to do the bad thing: after May 1, 2001, I am no longer accepting links to fan sites to add to my page. The only exception to this will be to fans who link their pages to a webring: I can certainly post a webring URL which will give other fans access to the links on a ring. In the meantime, my Links page is undergoing construction: those who have sent me page links up until this time be patient, and as soon as I can double-check everything, your link will be put up. I won't be accepting any more links, though.
Guys, I am not trying to be rude, or inhospitable, as some have accused me of being. Something weird and wonderful has happened to me, and in a way it's your fault: I am getting popular! Once I was able to answer every mail promptly, read and comment on people's stories, add every link I got to my page. Now, between floods of mail, books, travel, and professional work (connections with writers, editors, publishers, sales representatives, conferences, school and library visits), I am having to give up some things in order to keep doing others. I figure you definitely want more books, and you'll get them. Until things get completely out of hand I'll always try to meet fans locally and informally whenever I post a travel schedule on my page, if my travel arrangements allow me to. And I do apologize about the links, and the stories, and the replies. The only way I can repay you for helping me to make my dream come true is to read your mail, listen to what you tell me, meet you as I can, and keep writing!