SNAIL MAIL POETRY
Why don't all pubs accept e-mail submissions? Don't e-submissions save time, paper, postage? Can't computer viruses be avoided by asking that poems be pasted into the body of the e-mail? Or better yet - online submission programs like the Kenyon Review. Nice.
To Pubs Stubbornly Sticking With Snail Mail
Like a ticket:
over-stamp
manilla
slide in
cotton-rich
paper
dirtied
with toner
SASE and time
who has that kind of time?
Envelope shopping
addressing
stuffing
stamping
licking
red flag up, a plea
too small offices
with teetering
stacks of
submissions
submitting
inbox stuffed
with e-mail ads
to make body parts
bigger more
responsive
poems wait
Am I missing something?
To Pubs Stubbornly Sticking With Snail Mail
Like a ticket:
over-stamp
manilla
slide in
cotton-rich
paper
dirtied
with toner
SASE and time
who has that kind of time?
Envelope shopping
addressing
stuffing
stamping
licking
red flag up, a plea
too small offices
with teetering
stacks of
submissions
submitting
inbox stuffed
with e-mail ads
to make body parts
bigger more
responsive
poems wait
Am I missing something?
posted by J.B. Rowell at 8:21 PM
3 Comments:
I also don't have the patience. And not just for the answers - it's the prep time too! I'm especially irked if the poems are actually published online, but they still want submissions via the mail.
ARG
From an editor's perspective: I have a slight preference for email submissions because it takes me all that time licking, printing, etc. to send replies! HOWEVER, with snail mail I am a whole lot less likely to lose author information. Something about the hard copy. I am embarrassed to admit how many times I have gotten an email submission, printed the attached poem file but not the email, therefore I had no contact info on the author! I'll search and search and cannot find the email files. Maybe my computer's eating them, I don't know. But anyway, all this is avoided with snail mail submissions because contact info is right there.
As I'm typing this, I realize the problem could be solved if poets would add contact info to their poetry attachments. Hmmm... something to add to submission guidelines? Anyway, Julia, cut and pasted poems in email almost never come out right in terms of spacing, so that's why we at BAJ prefer attachments. It saves us time and energy when we go to format an issue.
Thanks for the insider perspective Irene - many pubs avoid attachments because they can come with viruses. But maybe if you paste in the e-mail AND attach to show true line breaks and spacing. Some pubs ask for an attachment after they accept your in-the-text submission. Or I like your idea of the guidelines asking for at least a name on the poem attachments. So many variations.
My favorite is still the online submission format - sooooo professional.
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