posted
I've been told that if a publisher accepts full manuscripts to send the whole thing. How do I mail a document that's almost 400 pages long? I know there's rules about it, but all the manuscript format information I can find only deals with much shorter manuscripts.
Also -- let's say I have a kind of old Laserjet printer. Will printing that much hurt it a lot? Should I spread the printing over a couple days?
posted
It would be helpful to know who the publisher is prior to giving you advice.
My advice about the laser printer? Do an internet search on the make and model number. For instance, I own a Hewlett Packard LaserJet 5000. The manufacturer will pop up in any search, and if you can find their machine specs, they usually list the pages per minute. If you use HP, the web address is www.hp.com
If it were me, and I was concerned about the printer handling the size of the job, I would print the book in 50 to 100 page increments, let it cool down, then go on to the next set. Don't forget to consider the cost of replacement toner. Laser printers can work out to be about 5 cents a sheet for toner, some higher, some lower. I know that when I next run out of toner, it will cost me $265 to buy a new cartridge. You might rethink whether it's worth it to print and mail the entire 400 pages, if you don't HAVE to.
posted
You may want to look into Office Depot or Kinko's. You can bring the file in on a disk or email it, and they can have it for you in 20 minutes if they aren't busy. They'll provide a manuscript box free of charge, too.
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posted
From what I understand, you put a large rubber band around the document and then mail it in an envelope.
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But Kinko's will also be expensive--like .50 per page. And most publishers no longer want manuscript boxes. As with everything, check their guidelines to see if they say anything specific.
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posted
Sorry Mary but I don't understand the $.50 per page bit. Color maybe. I used to work at Kinko's. We charged 7 cents a page, or 5 with a coupon. The quality could be quite good. Of course this was normal 20 pound stock. If you wanted special paper you had to provide it or buy it, but there usually was no fee for doing so.
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posted
I'm submitting to DAW, and they didn't give any information on how they wanted it mailed -- they just said to mail the whole manuscript. What's a manuscript box, what kind is good, and how do I mail that? How do I include return postage for a box?
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posted
I've also seen specials at Office Depot for 3 cents a sheet. In my opinion, it's worth looking into.
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I used an HP Laserjet 5L for probably ten years, including many copies of my masters thesis and am still on the second cartridge. I've gone through reams of paper on that thing. I can't image it's 5 cents a page. It's the inkjet copies that cost money.
I bought an HP laserjet 1320 because it prints very very fast, and idles warm so it can start almost immediately. It was worth the extra expense to me and I would hammer out 400 pages on this beastie in chunks the size the paper tray could handle.
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autumnmuse, I also used to work at Kinko's. The 7 cents a page was for copying, right? I was talking about printing from a computer and last time I looked (September) that was 50 cents per page. I think that Miriel is looking for a way to generate the first hard copy of it. After that, absolutely copying it at Kinko's or another copyshop is the way to go.
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posted
My apologies, Spaceman. You are right. I actually ran the calculations. The laser cartridges for the HP machines you mention cost anywhere from 1-1/2 cents a page to about 2-1/2 cents a page for other laser printers, depending on where you buy the cartridge.
On the other hand, an HP56 (black) ink jet cartridge runs just over 11 cents a page, and the HP57 (tri-color) cartridge costs over 28 cents a page.
Prices vary, depending on how much margin a store is trying to make. Cartridges, on the whole, are one of the least profitable items for office products stores to sell because the margin is usually less than 10%, sometimes as low as 5-6%. At the store I used to work at, they comprised about 50% of the total sales for office supplies (excluding furniture and machines).
A good laser printer is nearly as good, or better, than photocopying. Like anything, don't waste it and the toner cartridge will last a good long while. Ink jet cartridges are water based, and tend to dry up within a relatively short period of time. Try to use them up in about 6 months.
If you want to know where you can find a perfect box to mail a manuscript, go into any print shop and ask to purchase a box they use to package up letterhead. In Portland Oregon you can buy them at Arvey Paper & Supply. If you go to Kinko's their box will have their imprint all over it. A printer supply store (and many small print shops) will generally sell generic looking boxes that are sturdy, and don't have loud garish print on them.
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Mary, if you log on to their computers and print yourself, yes it is pricey. But for no charge you can email them the file and have them run the copies off that at the normal price. Or bring in a disk, same thing.
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Miriel, there are boxes that reams of paper sometimes come in, that you can use to mail novel manuscripts.
What I'd recommend is taking two ordinary manila file folders and overlapping them so that they completely surround the manuscript.
Sort of like this: [=] but with the file folders actually overlapping each other.
Then put a big rubber band around it to hold it, and stick it in one of those big envelopes they sell at the post office along with a return envelope of the same size that has return postage on it.
That will get the manuscript to the editor safely. (They may not send it back to you that way--with the file folders and rubber band--but at least it will get to them okay.)
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Does anybody still sell reams of paper in boxes? Somewhere along the line, I switched to Office Depot cheap and they were wrapped in paper...then, recently, CompUSA gave me a free ream (twice) when I bought an ink cartridge (twice), wrapped in plastic. If you can't get a box that size, well, somebody must still sell something of that sort somewhere.
My last experience with a novel-length manuscript took the better part of an evening to print out, on a printer that did (I think) six black-and-white pages a minute. I'd intended to make copies somewhere or other if I needed to mail an MS to someone beyond the first three chapters, but it never got that far...
Oh, and if your printer uses cartridges, keep a spare or two on hand. And print it up in short segments, ten to fifty pages at a time, so you can make a quick change when the damned thing doesn't run out of ink / toner / whatever right in the middle of the run.
In short, you put the MS in a box, put the box in a big mailing envelope, write the address on the envelope, take it down to the post office, and have them weigh it and take it from there. And don't forget to get a return envelope to put in the box, so you can get it back the way you got it---sending stamps only tempts them to send it at a cheaper rate and keep the excess stamps, if they bother sending it back at all.
And don't forget postage costs. Mail it first class or priority...express is too much trouble unless you've got someone waiting for sure at the other end...and parcel post won't do the job. Make sure the postage on the return envelope is in stamp form, 'cause metered postage wouldn't be valid later on.
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