...I handed my submission across. The clerk wiped it away, stamped it up and then glared at me because I was having trouble leaving the post office counter.
The agent I was posting to invites submissions by post or email, but as it was my first ever I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way. Do you send by email because it's free or is it too likely to get lost in cyberspace for your liking? I have to admit, having stared at my envelope pondering possible errors and been asked to clear the counter for the next customer, I think email would be less embarrassing!
Do you have a preference?
OH and GOOD LUCK!!!
I do both, but I prefer email. I worry about stuff like my work getting lost in the post or whether someones dropped all the pages and stuff like that.
Although with email I worry that I have just sent it to som evil book hoarding cyber goblin!!!!
However I prefer email because it means that I don't waste any paper and printer ink but I find either way ok.
I don't send anything by snailmail unless specifically asked to do so, The time spent parcelling up a MS and walking half a mile to my local PO is, I feel, better spent reading or writing or even just sorting my files.
Just a few thoughts:
Posted letters can go astray as easily as email.
You can attach a "please acknowledge receipt" message to an email.
Recorded delivery has the same effect in the case of snailmail but some editors don't like you using this because it means someone has to be in the office to sign for the delivery.
Mostly I'm submitting relatively short pieces, stories, plays and poems often as comp entries. I tend to prefer those I can send by email. Having said that, my local village post office is very good when I want something stamped and then the same again for the sae I'm enclosing.
It may be different for a large MS like a novel. I don't know whether publishers' readers prefer hard copy. One thing that occurs to me is that on-screen text is easier to pass round to other readers.
Best of luck