Rock on, Deb! Congratulations.

The party at my place tonight - not to mention the one Saturday - is going to be extra-happy now.

So pleased. So incredibly pleased.

Earlier this Fall, the New Yorker made it official, by putting "WE DO NOT ACCEPT UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS" in the indicia. Then they pulled it; one suspects the underlying attitude remains.

[link]

(Read the horrifying Fox News story, then scroll down to "Time to update teh site's fine print")

Nitty-gritty manuscript submission questions:

DH thinks I should just print out one copy on our (hopefully) trusty inkjet, and then make copies as needed for the submission and partials. He thinks copies will be better because they won't smudge so much if something is spilled on them, plus that way we use slightly less of our toner and more of Kinko's. I'm afraid they'll make me look like I'm mass producing this thing and submitting it to all the world at once instead of following the proper protocols. Who's right, or does it matter?

Any ideas for where to get a box the right size for shipping close to a ream of paper? Only idea I had was to hope the post office had something about the right size. And how do you secure it together? I don't think they make binder clips that size.

Susan, there are ms. boxes available online, but you can find something appropriate at Kinko's or a UPS box store. Most editors and agents don't want the ms. bound at all. They'll keep it in its box, remove whatever chunk of paper they think they can get through in whatever time is available to them. Or so I've been told.

What I've done is take the boxed ms. to the PO and have it weighed and the appropriate postage put on the box, in stamps. Metered labels are dated, and often not accepted for mailing after that date. Then you address the box to yourself, close, but don't seal, the ms and a cover letter in the box, put the box in a padded envelope and address it to Deb's agent friend. Postage for the envelope, enough for a tracking number, and Bob's your uncle.

This is, of course, only if you want your ms. back. If you don't, then just mail the box. And best of luck!

Metered labels are dated, and often not accepted for mailing after that date.

Most meters, I think, have a date/no-date option; and anyway, if you make a label for $0.00 with the correct date and stick it on next to the offending label, you're good to go.

In my mails-a-bazillion-books-a-week experience.

t ed. That'd be mailing books for APR-- heh, I so do not mail a bazillion books a week on my own steam, I barely manage one package a year.

Hmm. Is there any good reason to want the manuscript back, or is that an artifact of the days where it wasn't quite so easy to print/copy a fresh one at will?

If the editor wrote notes on it, that's a reason to want it back.

Book-length MSes, though, I think people generally do not request return because it's just a pain in the ass, they're so big.

Susan, get an enormous rubber band and send in bubblebag envelopes.

I used to send in boxes, and stopped when no fewer than three editors plaintively asked me to. Not sure why.

I never did copies; I printed on demand. I didn't like the mass produced feel of copies, but we've had a laser printer in the house since the mid-eighties.

Susan, get an enormous rubber band and send in bubblebag envelopes.

For 100,000 words and change? 486 pages?