Is it necessary to include an e-mail address with a physical and physically-submitted manuscript? I haven't so far. (Right now all I do is put my P. O. Box on it---I don't even include a phone number.)
Then again, owing to a general slowness in writing, my submissions since I actually got an e-mail address can be counted on my fingers and toes (in my heyday they numbered in the hundreds each year).
Should I start doing so? How do non-online editors feel about it?
Posted by Alethea Kontis (Member # 3748) on :
Most editors today ARE online. I would say yes, include that email address.
Both my Realms of Fantasy and IGMS acceptances were via email.
My AlphaOops acceptance was...um...well, I sort of didn't have ANY personal information on the manuscript (aside from a byline), and someone emailed me to get my contact information so that the editor could call me.
It's a long story. But a good one.
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
In reading agent blogs lately I noticed a comment by one of them that she had to turn a client loose because he simply couldn't handle technology... from a business standpoint, she said a client needs to be able to email and have a clue on how to transfer manuscripts via attachments. I surmise that it is a point in your favor to let any editor/agent know you can handle modern technology.
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
I would never send anyone ANY kind of business correspondance without every form of contact possible included in the letterhead. Snail mail addy, phone, mobile phone, fax, email, website, the whole nine yards. I do this for my art business and I'm doing it with my writing submissions. It's considered the proper way to do business now, and I've seen agents' sites where they've said they won't accept writers who can't deal with technology. So give them every possible way to contact you - make it easy as possible. And don't forget the SASE!
Lynda
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
What Lynda said.
Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :
If you have an email address, why wouldn't you put it on your submission? I don't see how it could hurt (unless it's offensive somehow).
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
and if it is offensive somehow, get another one to use just for writing. there are approximately one million free e-mail services; it's very easy to get one so that you don't have to use clownfart99@aol.com for your professional writing.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Well, let's see what I can add at this point...
(1) I hardly ever give out my phone numbers (one cell phone, one still connected to the wall). Mostly I don't particularly like talking on the phone---I'm only keyboardly articulate.
(2) There used to be---and may still be---a practice where magazines used to gather up addresses (usually from the incoming envelopes), and sell them to mass mailers. I got a lot of useless junk that way. I already get a lot of useless e-mail---I wouldn't want to contribute to adding any more.
(3) For those whose acceptances were by e-mail...were your submissions also by e-mail?
(4) E-submissions are obviously different.
(5) No, my e-mail address isn't offensive...I've had just the one for my entire online life.
(6) I think when it reaches the point where I have to "handle technology," I'll bow out of the whole picture. I get enough of substituting "new technology for old" at work.
(7) Or, alternatively, maybe I'll start my own "old tech" business. Maybe magazine publishing the old-fashioned way. There are a lot of us neo-Luddites out there: we might create a large market.
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
One agent blog I read gave a real-life case scenario... the writer had inadvertantly made a typo when listing one of his sources of contact. If he hadn't included alternative methods of communication, the agent would have been unable to contact him to let him know someone wanted to buy his story.
Posted by Alethea Kontis (Member # 3748) on :
(3) For those whose acceptances were by e-mail...were your submissions also by e-mail?
One was. Two were not. Writers of the Future also rejects via email.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
With Writers of the Futire, whenI submitted, they used to have that "put your name and address and title on one page, then start the story on page two without your name" rule. A snap when you've got a word processor...a pain when you've got a typewriter.
And when I got my manuscripts back, that first page with my address on it was never there. I figured they were compiling a mailing list.
