One Editor's Opinion About SASEs

What do real, live editors think about SASEs?

I came across this on the blog of TOR Books editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden. Hayden was commenting on writer Todd James Pierce's advice on cover letters.

Here's Hayden:

"Only a grass-green newbie would think we need any encouragement to send back your manuscript. The pertinent phrase here is 'default option'.

A large SASE with full postage means you get your manuscript back. A letter-size SASE means you get a standard rejection letter and we throw your manuscript into the recycling bin. Neither option increases your chances of getting a personal letter."

The Grinch Who Stole Frey-gate

I took my last thoughts on James Frey and posted them as a comment at Agents 007's blog.

My comments were not welcome.

So I added te following, having run across a great quote in a comment to James Howard Kunstler's blog:

"It is one of the maladies of our age to profess a frenzied allegiance to truth in unimportant matters, to refuse consistently to face her where graver issues are at stake."
Janos Arany, poet (1817-1882)

Nobody here wants the Frey saga to end so I'm the party pooper who wants to take your little entertainment away, right?

I shudder to think of how blinkered anyone can be who thinks that the subject of an admittedly entertaining but ultimately trival scandal du jour should continue to consume our attention and trump everything else.

Yes this is a litblog, however I was under the impression that matters literary were just one part of a larger world and its concerns.

Evidently I was mistaken.

My apologies.

You may resume your gossiping now.