Query by Snail Mail: The 42 cent SASE Nightmare

I was reading a literary agent’s blog the other day, and he was going on and on about how agents get thousands of queries and didn’t have time or the money to put an additional 2 cents on the SASE you mailed with your query. And I scoffed, Ha! poor suckers…until I realized that I had five queries out with SASE containing 42 cent stamps.

I went into a severe panic when I got to thinking about how many “Send us your full manuscript YESTERDAY. We gotta have it!” responses I probably received that might never reach the mailbox that I’m running out to 20,000 times a day due to insufficient postage. So, I promptly emailed everyone and let them know that I could resubmit via email or send them an SASE with the appropriate postage.

Of course, my panic was for nothing. After two weeks of biting my nails and doing my query-robics to the mailbox, NOBODY’s even read it yet.

So, for all you querying authors sweating the 42 cent stamp SASE that accompanied the query that you sent out back when Jesus was a carpenter, rest assured that you’re query is resting snuggly at the bottom of someone’s slush pile and they’ve probably not even gotten around to reading it yet. So you still have time to let them know about your faux pas and give them an alternate means to send your rejection letter.

Note to self--Use Forever Stamps on SASEs!