Privacy and Social Media

So I just read this and it got me thinking. Andy Boyle was recently in a Burger King in which he watched a fight between a married couple. He tweeted the play-by-play of the fight, including pictures of the couple, and even a video of the fight. And I don't know what to think of it.

On the one hand, there is an indignant part of my brain that wants to stamp my foot and exclaim, "THAT'S JUST NOT RIGHT." I want to get all huffy and say it's unfair to broadcast their problems across the internet without their consent. And yet, another part of me is completely indifferent to how THEY feel. After all, if they didn't want their fight to be public, they would have discussed their issues in the car or at home. There is no privacy in public anymore.

In the end, I'm so torn by what to feel that I can only feel saddened for the couple, if only for Andy Boyle's last two tweets. Because whether it was broadcast all over the world or kept absolutely private, their marriage is still ending, their love is lost, and these two people have to decide how they want their marriage to proceed.

But it's a perfect example of how our views of privacy are changing. What is "private", really, when we spend our time on social media sites, telling the world about ourselves? Updating our relationship status, something extremely private (especially when break-ups are concerned), or tweeting about our ups and lows? We pour ourselves into these pages, and because it's the internet, we almost feel anonymous. It's hard to fathom that every time we hit send, enter, or open our browser, we are utterly exposed to the world. Anyone with internet access can find what we've written, read it and know us, without ever meeting face-to-face.

And that can be scary. More so, it can be just as frightening when we realize that we have absolutely no CONTROL over what we post on the internet. The second you hit "send" it exists in the internet, even as some small piece of code, whether or not you choose to delete it. People can take what we've posted and spread it in seconds. Your picture could be half-way around the world, on eighteen different websites, and there is virtually no way to undo it. And that's not counting the content about us, that's not posted by us. Unflattering Facebook pictures, incriminating tweets, maybe even downright rude text messages. Our entire lives exist on the electronic devices we carry and the websites we visit.

We are the tech age. In cyberpunk terms, we've become one with the machines.

Which may not be a bad thing. However, if we continue along this trend, and the world grows even more reliant on the internet and our gadgets, our perception of privacy MUST change with it.

There's a great quote from a recent South Park episode that reflects what I mean here. The clip is here, but since it's highly likely that it will get taken down from youtube, I'll also transcribe a bit from it.

In this episode (called Bass to Mouth, btw) a site called Eavesdropper has appeared in South Park, and is posting up gossip about the kids at school.

KYLE: I'm not looking at that.

STAN: Come on, dude, it's pretty funny.

KYLE: It wouldn't be funny if that website posted something about you.

STAN: I wouldn't care.

CRAIG: (reading) Exclusive, Stan Marsh thinks Elise Thompson has a hot butt crack.

STAN: What?

CRAIG: (reading) In an email sent yesterday to Kenny McCormick, Stan Marsh wrote, "Dude, you should have been in PE today, Elise Thompson's butt crack was totally showing." He went on to call her butt crack "Nice" and that the whole experience was "pretty awesome."

STAN: Kenny! (Runs to Kenny's locker) Kenny, what the f**k?

KENNY: (muffled) What?

STAN: How did Eavesdropper get a hold of my email to you?

KENNY: (muffled) I don't know.

STAN: Do you just leave your emails open for everyone to read?

KENNY: (muffled) No.

STAN: That was a PRIVATE email from ME to YOU.

The scene goes on, but I think you get the picture. We have an assumed privacy that I think stems from the social convention of keeping secrets. If we confide in someone face-to-face, show them a picture, tell them about our day, it's expected that the person will not run around town telling everyone they know. Sometimes it's because it's private, sometimes it's just polite, and sometimes it's not our news to tell. And yet with social media sites, those social conventions of confidence are thrown out the window. Because with a click of a button, we tell EVERYONE, and it's become an easy way to stay completely connected and yet emotionally distant from everyone we know.

I wanted to bring up another aspect of how privacy and accessibility have clashed. Emails are considered a semi-private thing, right? Same with DM's, private messages, and the like. But what about queries?

I never thought of queries as something to be kept private. After all, on the AbsoluteWrite forums, people post their queries all the time to be critted. I still don't believe queries should be private for this simple reason: Your query is a business proposal. This is a matter of business, not personal life. Yes, your book is your baby and wah, wah, you're an artist. And you are. But the second you send your query, you're opening yourself to the world, and presenting yourself as finished, polished, and ready to be critiqued by a professional.

Do I have a problem with Sara Megibow's #10queriesin10tweets on Twitter? No. Because the moment those authors hit send, their work is no longer private. More so, Sara makes sure the queries cannot be identified, and does not ridicule, but uses the mistakes some writers have made to help others better their craft. If this is a violation of privacy, it's certainly a much kinder violation than Andy Boyle's public broadcast of a deteriorating marriage.

Our perceptions of privacy will change, inevitably. It probably won't be spoken of. Like most social codes, our ideas of privacy will shift and change without much conscious thought, until one day we look back and realize that what we're doing now would have seemed ridiculous 20 years ago. Perhaps in the future, in 20, 30 or even 50 years, we'll stop hiding behind this false anonymity the internet provides. Maybe our social contracts will shift so much that keeping secrets is nullified, and we speak the truth, no matter how blunt or mean or incriminating.

Maybe that won't be such a bad thing.

Peace,

-Katie

An update, and the winning query.

Hey everyone. Everything with Michael is going swimmingly. We're working on edits for my manuscript, and we're expecting to go on submission by about February. We're also drawing up synposises for this book and for its sequel. Still all a little surreal, but I think it's finally starting to sink in.

So, I thought I'd show everyone the query that won my agent as well as the stats that got me there. This was probably the quickest querying experience I've ever had, which is good, as I'm impaitent as hell.

So, I wrote about eighteen queries in the search for the perfect query. And I'm not being witty, either, there was about eighteen complete queries written, not counting the ones I started and then abandoned. When I did send out my queries, I sent out five. This was mostly to test my query, see if I would get any bites, and if no agents responded to it, I would go back and rewrite it. UGH.

So I sent out five in the first day, at about nine am. (I did send another one a few hours later.) Michael was the first one I'd queried, because of his wonderful thread on absolutewrite here.

So, Michael responded to my query in a few hours. The rest a couple of days later. Out of the six queries, here are my stats:

Offer: 1
Partial request: 1
Rejections: 3
No response: 1

Of course, that no response could turn into something, but I'm not going to wait on pins and needles. Anyway, I recieved the partial request today, which I had to email them back and tell them I was sorry I couldn't send anything, as I've already accepted representation elsewhere.

Now, I know a lot of you are probably freaking out about the stats. This is NOT the norm. Most writers send out quite a few more before they get picked up. The books I've shopped around before this were brutalized with rejections and every once in a while, I would recieve a full or partial request. The only reason I'm still not querying for this is because Michael snatched me up really quickly, which I am very grateful for.

Now, the winning query:

Dear Mr. Michael Carr,


Eighteen-year-old Adam Fenn, heir to the Compound’s seat of power, is perfect. At least, he thought he was, until an assassin tears open his stomach and reveals he’s more metal than man.


In Adam’s world, perfection is everything, and the artificial organs that keep him alive mark him as anything but. Terrified he’ll be deemed imperfect and put to death, Adam flees the Compound’s Walls and embarks on a wayward journey to Heaven. He’s positive the power of Heaven can make him human—if it’s real. But the road is littered with dangers, including starvation, insanity, and the imperfect, who just may decide Adam’s more useful to them dead.


When Heaven starts to look like a lie and revolution stirs, Adam must free the Compound from his father’s tyrannical rule or let perfectionism destroy the new life he’s built for himself. But Adam’s not sure he can go back, because going back means facing his father—facing himself—and finally learning the truth behind the Compound, the Walls, and his family’s twisted past.


SHELL is a young adult dystopian novel complete at 93 000 words. I am interested in working with you because we spoke briefly on Absolute Write in your forum “Agent Q&A” and was very impressed that you would volunteer your time to help writers out. As per your guidelines, my first five pages are pasted below.


Thank you for your time and consideration, Mr. Carr. I hope to hear from you soon.


Sincerely,

Katie Carson



Even though it won me my agent, I'm STILL not happy with it. Ever the writer's life, eh? I think the main reason it garnered interest is because my opening pages were posted with it, and I'm quite fond of them.

So, take from this what you will. Hopefully you'll all land yourself with your dream agents soon.

Happy querying!

-Katie

Query Woes.

Shell is complete, and there's nothing quite like the sensation of finishing a book. Especially this one, since I honestly believe this is the greatest thing I ever written. It's always nice to have something you can wave in the air and say, "I made this!" even if it is just a wad of paper.

My baby is off with betas, exchanging ideas and working to become a better book. In the mean time, I have some time to myself to work on my query.

Oh Dear Lord.

I don't think many writers enjoy writing quieries. Not only because you're taking a book you spent months crafting and summing it up in a few brief paragraphs, but because there are so many rules that go with queries. There are rules to writing novels, and you can break every one of them, so long as it works. With queries, even if it works, breaking the rules is frowned upon.

I've compiled a list of common queries errors that I always have to keep at the forefront of my mind when I'm struggling to write my queries:

1) Length. No, no, no. I can't keep it to 250 words! You have to hear about all these fabulous subplots, like how the dad is evil but he doesn't mean to be evil,. he's a good guy, and how he met the MCs Mom and the history of the whole world. I have to go into detail about the socioeconomic pressures that motivate my MC!

2) No more than two characters. But I really want to tell you about my favorotrite character Puck, who doesn't have much time in it but he's totally awesome. And this other buy who doesn't actually speak, and the dad, and I have to talk about the MC's second cousin twice removed...

3) Keep the focus on your MC. Nah. I think I'll write the entire query about Bob. He's this guy that the MC meets at school. They never talk, but I think his perspective will really illustrate how awesome my book is.

4) Your MC MUST be active. LIke how my MC is discovered by the evil guy and gets kidnapped and then he's saved by these other people and doesn't actually do anything because he was drugged?

5)Be specific. Or I could talk about this other really cool thing but keep it a complete and utter secret so the agent's scratching their head and wondering what the hell I'm talking about through the entire query. If they have no idea what's going on, they'll request pages for sure!

6) Hook them in fast. Fast? Of course I can be fast! My hook is only six pages into my query. Talk about speedy!

-Le sigh- Back to the drawing board with me.

Peace,

-Katie

Query for In The Eye of Death

So, since I'm such a lovely person, I thought I'd post my query for In The Eye of Death. I was planning on going through and explaining my thought process and how to write a good query and so on, but I realized: I have no bloody clue how to write a query letter.

I think my query is good. But I only became good after I practiced, practiced, and practiced. Then, just like writing a novel, you find what works and what doesn't. (Usually more straightforward, as you know something is wrong when the rejections start to pile up.)

So here it is, complete without personalization or credits. Enjoy, and make of it what you will:


Dear _________,

Cursed with a weak heart, all Jonah has ever been good at is suffering near-fatal heart attacks. He used to be good at Magik too, before he learned that every cast shortened his already dwindling lifespan.

So Jonah’s decided to retire at the age of fifteen, teaching children a Magik he can’t use until his life runs out. But when his students disappear in a puff of green smoke, the parents decide that Jonah’s to blame. To rescue the children and salvage his honour, Jonah will have to venture into the outside world and hunt down the Order of Grie—a group of religious fanatics who want to use the children’s youth to summon the God of Death.

With every cast, Jonah brings himself one step closer to an early grave. All he ever wanted was to live to thirty, but it’s becoming clear that he won’t survive his rescue mission. When he finally confronts the Order, they promise him a long and healthy life—everything Jonah has ever wanted. All it will cost him is the lives of his students... as well as his soul.

IN THE EYE OF DEATH is a young adult fantasy novel completed at 80 000 words.

Thank you for your time and consideration, ________. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
Katie Carson