Thursday, April 29, 2010

Digital Submissions and the iPad

Before we say goodbye to April I wanted to jot down a few ideas on my blog. On April 3rd I visited my local Best Buy and walked out with my newly purchased, untested Apple iPad. I already had the latest SONY personal reader, which has streamlined my office and helped to rid me of enormous piles of manuscripts.

I bought the iPad to be used primarily for the ebook function. Within just a few days I discovered the power and reach of this device. Now, I only accept electronic submissions of manuscripts which I choose from the hundreds of queries I receive each month. Both the iPad and the SONY have enabled me to completely avoid hard copy. Thankfully, even small presses accept agency submissions via email attachment.

I have a WiFi home and office through my high speed DSL internet service . This enables me to get maximum use of the iPad through the many Apps that are available. One App allows me to wirelessly download a PDF file from my computer directly to my iPad. How cool is that? And I can label each file so that there is no way that any could be unidentifiable. Although I am always a couple of months behind in reading submitted novels, the new technology provides a most efficient means of keeping up with the busy activities of an agent. Remember, we agents also like to read the newest published fiction and nonfiction. We therefore have to judiciously plan our work load.

For my part, I have to give the iPad an A for performance. This is a top grade from a professor emeritus.