Then you've nothing to lose by sending them a nice email explaining you'd like them to read the latest, best version, and attaching it.

I would.


Lexi

Trying to be a Time Lord: click here for my blog

I don't think email is the new snail mail. I wish it was.

I recently submitted a short story by email. It was accepted by email. The editing round was done by email.

When they sent me the ten page contract, by email, I emailed back and said, "Do you mind if I print out the last page, sign it, scan it back in and send it back as a pdf, by email?"

They said no.

So, I went to town, bought a new printer cartridge, printed out two copies (20 pages, with a their ridiculous black logo which covered the entire header and used up more of my ink), put it into an A4 envelope, drove into town again (because there's no post office here), lined up at the post office and sent it to England. It could've taken a few minutes. Instead, it's taken a few weeks.

So the legal system in England has yet to catch up, in a nation full of jobsworthies. I've signed stuff in Australia and sent it electronically. It was fine. You'd think it would be sufficient, wouldn't you? A hard copy signature, I'd say, is less secure than a written statement from the same email address from which the short story originated.

Thanks for listening to my rant. I kept it to myself because it's never worth pissing off a publishing company. Writers already have a reputation as being 'difficult'... I didn't want it start something over that.

But really.

(I know I'm a bit precious over my ink, but it really is the most expensive bit about being a writer!)

Not now that I've bitched about them.

But it was a YA story that was workshopped through YWO about a year ago, and I consider these things a collective success.

Thanks everyone. I really do think the people who hated that story were the most useful when it came to the rewrite, but so were the ones who loved it, because otherwise I might've dropped it.

By the way, I just came back from a long walk and realised I insulted an entire nation by calling you jobsworthies. Didn't mean it. Sorry.

I only mean the ones I personally met, trying to set up life in London, 2006. With the wrong coloured passport.

Ah. I thought so. But you gotta pick your battles eh.

... problems he faces are that he doesn't know what he's looking for, where he's supposed to be looking and that no one else seems to have heard of it.

Sorry couldn't resist "A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle

"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."