The Art Of The Follow Up
It never hurts to send another email. Sometimes it feels like you don't have time but failure to follow up means that you could miss out on a contact you need.
Take this example. Last week I sent some info out to a writer who wanted to work with me. She seemed keen, so I was suprised that I hadn't heard from her. Today I was at a loose end and sent an email to see if she was still interested. Turns out she was and had emailed me, but the email never arrived.
Following up has meant that I get the chance to build a working relationship with a great new writer. It does make me wonder, though, whether some of the other people I thought were blanking me were actually waiting for a response from me. Time to do some more following up. :)
6 comments:
I am not sure if your blog encouraged me or discouraged me, haha. There have been so many people who I have not heard back from, but I never followed up on it. I will follow up on the other two people I sent an email to this weekend if they do not respond within a week or two. Great post.
Thanks, Ashley. Silence can be discouraging, but sometimes it's just an email glitch. I sometimes wonder why people get in touch and then don't follow up - this has taught me that maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt.
Good advice. Sometimes e-mails do get lost in the infamous black hole and other times you can simply slip off someone's radar so following up is sometimes worthwhile.
And the funny thing is, Dana, that while I was following up on the people who hadn't responded to me, I found one that I hadn't replied to - oops! Following up put me in touch with another writer who's interested in doing some occasional work, so it was well worth it.
I love following up especially on those that never really seemed to respond much. I've learned by doing this you may end up with just a few more gigs.
You're right, homemom - I've got a couple of people I've not heard from for a while to check on - you never know when you might get a gig.
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