According to an Associated Press report, Mr. Mack McCormick received a postcard that was marked 'Return to sender', with a postmark dated 1956. It took the Post Office fifty years to realize that the card was not deliverable, so it sent it back.
Now, after fifty years, the person who wrote the card originally was no longer living at that address, and the mail forwarding orders are only good for six months, so how was the mailman to find the original sender? Always conscientious, Mr. McCormick tracked down the author of the post card and offered to send it to him. The gentleman declined, no doubt wary of delivery what with the track record on the original mailing.
Back in February of 2005, I sent a snail mail query to Jonathan Dolger and never heard back. Being a glutton for punishment, I queried a second manuscript in March of this year, but if I don't get my SASE back, I'll know why. It's floating around in the postal system, and if I don't move (or die of old age) in the next fifty years, I might get that form rejection I've been waiting for. And the one I sent to Aaron Priest eighteen months ago, that will show up as well.
And Gertrude Bregman of the Blanche C. Gregory agency, I'll hear from her within the next fifty years. Let's see, I've yet to get a response from Jane Gelfman of Gelfman Schneider after eighteen months, and I don't know if the rejection from Scott Gould (Roslyn Targ Literary Agency)might not be lost in the sorting bins and machines. After all, if the agency asks that the author send a SASE in their submission, surely they mean to use it. And if I haven't gotten the unlucky envelope, it must be the fault of the post office.
Need proof? Why, just ask Mr. McCormick about the fifty year delivery time on that card.
1 comment:
Just a note on the lack of response: I've been interning at a small publisher's for a bit, and one of my duties is to read the unsolicited manuscripts. They try their best to keep up with them, but even with 2 interns, and everyone reading them in their spare time, they just can't keep up with the backlog, and I've definitely read some that were sent in over half a year ago. I don't know how it works elsewhere, but I'm betting it's a similar situation. I realize this isn't especially comforting, but it might be something to keep in mind, at least.
Good luck!
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