I stopped by a friend's home today. I had referred him to a proofreader I know, who, while turning in his work 60 days late, did it at a tremendous discount.
My proofreader friend, like everyone else in life, has strengths and weaknesses. If you can avoid getting your panties in a knot over his tardiness, you can benefit from his good work. If you know a good person, and you can live with their weaknesses, then live with them and don't kick up a fuss when they are who they are.
So this afternoon I got a long friendly email from a friend detailing marketing tips for my books. I know this is an important matter, particularly for Americans. They're constantly asking me, how are you going to market your books? Well, guess what. I'm not going to market my books. They are going to sell themselves while I move on to write further books. I could spend my time marketing my books or I could spend my time writing. I choose to write.
So I sent back a perfunctory "Thank you for the tips. Good stuff" reply email.
And a few minutes later, I got back this: "I'm never writing to you again. Your emails are perfunctory and unfriendly, bordering on rude. Your writing is stupendously funny and good, your personality at other times, maybe not so."
Look, I am not a good email correspondent. Only on occasion. I spent most of my day sitting at a computer and writing. I'm not into exchanging chatty emails. I'm sorry I am not who you want me to be. As long as I acknowledge your email, I'm not going to berate myself for lack of length and chattiness.
I only exchange long emails with a lover or a couple of close male friends.
