[stylist] Being A Blind Writer

[Chris Kuell]

Justin,

I enjoyed your article and think you should submit it to, Slate and Style, 
the magazine of the NFB Writers Division. Your comment on not mentioning 
that you're blind struck home with me, as I don't want to be known as the 
blind writer, but rather, the great writer. In all the short stories I've 
published, except for a few to magazines with blind or disabled audiences, I 
never mention that I'm blind. When I was sending out agent queries for my 
first novel, a former Redbook editor, who was kind enough to read and give 
me feedback on the novel, recommended that I include that I'm blind in my 
query letter. She said it made me unique, made me stick out. So, as a former 
scientist, I did an experiment. In 50 query letters I mentioned my 
blindness, and in 50 I didn't. In all I got 8 nibbles from agents (requests 
to see more), four from the first set and four from the other. Go figure.

chris