jonathanmoeller (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jonathanmoeller) wrote,@ 2007-11-19 21:07:00 |
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e-submission, dead tree rejection
Finished writing "Psions", and since I don't want to start any new projects before Thanksgiving, I attended to my upcoming submissions. I did a few e-subs, and then I printed out two short-story manuscripts, wrote nice cover letters, and prepared to send them off to their respective markets tomorrow.
It felt so...quaint. Like handwriting a letter, or doing a Soviet-era duck n' cover nuclear drill. Actually printing out a manuscript on physical paper and preparing to send it via snail mail with a SASE? I haven't done that all year. Editors are entitled to their preferences, to be sure...but I find it genuinely baffling why anyone would prefer physical submissions over e-subs.
I mean, those of us who are writers have heard the Editorial Horror Stories about the overflowing slush piles, maybe seen the pictures of desks sagging beneath mountains of yellow envelopes. All those hundreds, maybe thousands, of pounds of paper could easily fit on one 4-gig flash drive the size of a freaking Jolly Rancher. Think of all the free desk space. And we're all supposed to pretend to care about the environment nowadays, so think of all the trees you'll save!
But you're afraid of viruses, you say? Easy. Make people send their manuscripts in the e-mail body. Or use a Linux machine.
But what if people spam us with submissions? Even easier. You've heard of this little thing called copy-and-paste, right? Someone sends an inappropriate submission, you hit Ctrl+V to paste in your form rejection, hit send, and you're off to the next one. All of three seconds.
What happens if someone sends us a file format we can't read? You make people use RTF (Rich Text Format) for their submissions. Practically every word processor on earth can read RTF. And if someone sends an inappropriate file format? You're the editor for a reason. Break out that form rejection. The Number One Rule of submitting work is, after all, to follow the duly posted Submission Guidelines.
I do think visual impairment of some sort is a good reason to demand paper submissions. After all, that's why all the e-book readers haven't taken off yet; the contrast just isn't as good. But you can get a high contrast monitor, set your operating system to Enhanced Visibility mode, even get software to read your text aloud to you (with Macs, it even comes free). But, if your eyes demand paper instead of e-submissions, well, then that's what they should get.
So, barring visual impairment, I remain baffled as to why anyone would prefer paper submissions over electronic.
But the Number One Rule: follow the duly posted Submission Guidelines. So tomorrow, it's off to the post office I go, paper manuscript in hand.
-JM
Finished writing "Psions", and since I don't want to start any new projects before Thanksgiving, I attended to my upcoming submissions. I did a few e-subs, and then I printed out two short-story manuscripts, wrote nice cover letters, and prepared to send them off to their respective markets tomorrow.
It felt so...quaint. Like handwriting a letter, or doing a Soviet-era duck n' cover nuclear drill. Actually printing out a manuscript on physical paper and preparing to send it via snail mail with a SASE? I haven't done that all year. Editors are entitled to their preferences, to be sure...but I find it genuinely baffling why anyone would prefer physical submissions over e-subs.
I mean, those of us who are writers have heard the Editorial Horror Stories about the overflowing slush piles, maybe seen the pictures of desks sagging beneath mountains of yellow envelopes. All those hundreds, maybe thousands, of pounds of paper could easily fit on one 4-gig flash drive the size of a freaking Jolly Rancher. Think of all the free desk space. And we're all supposed to pretend to care about the environment nowadays, so think of all the trees you'll save!
But you're afraid of viruses, you say? Easy. Make people send their manuscripts in the e-mail body. Or use a Linux machine.
But what if people spam us with submissions? Even easier. You've heard of this little thing called copy-and-paste, right? Someone sends an inappropriate submission, you hit Ctrl+V to paste in your form rejection, hit send, and you're off to the next one. All of three seconds.
What happens if someone sends us a file format we can't read? You make people use RTF (Rich Text Format) for their submissions. Practically every word processor on earth can read RTF. And if someone sends an inappropriate file format? You're the editor for a reason. Break out that form rejection. The Number One Rule of submitting work is, after all, to follow the duly posted Submission Guidelines.
I do think visual impairment of some sort is a good reason to demand paper submissions. After all, that's why all the e-book readers haven't taken off yet; the contrast just isn't as good. But you can get a high contrast monitor, set your operating system to Enhanced Visibility mode, even get software to read your text aloud to you (with Macs, it even comes free). But, if your eyes demand paper instead of e-submissions, well, then that's what they should get.
So, barring visual impairment, I remain baffled as to why anyone would prefer paper submissions over electronic.
But the Number One Rule: follow the duly posted Submission Guidelines. So tomorrow, it's off to the post office I go, paper manuscript in hand.
-JM
