Common Courtesy Does Not Equal Suck-Up

Currently reading - Blameless by Gail Carriger

I've read several blogs lately (Jessica Faust on the Bookends blog being the latest) where the blog author comments on the lack of civility in today's society. Almost immediately, the blog author is flamed. If the bloggist is an agent or editor, they are accused of demanding sychophants in order to gain entrance into the secret world of publishing. If the bloggist is a writer, then they are accused of brown-nosing.

It's not a matter of putting on a game face as Jessica put it. It's called common courtesy. One is polite to one's fellows until such point as there is a real reason not to.

My encounter at Lowes earlier this week is a prime example. I was polite up to the point where the manager dished an obvious line of BS. I said he needed to talk with the installer and the orginal salesperson in order to sort out the misunderstanding and then call us. DH asked for a specific date of when we could expect to hear from the original salesperson. Needless to say that date has passed, and we are on the search for another door vendor.

Did I expect the manager to kiss my butt? No, I expected him to do his job in a polite, reasonable manner.

Publishing is no different. Agents and editors expect writers to produce a quality product in a polite, reasonable manner. We expect agents and editors to perform their duties in the same manner. So please explain to me, how exactly is that sucking up?