Ravenous Beauty: A Writer's Workshop

Yesterday I sent out my first ever short story to a publication (The Missouri Review). I made a stupid mistake. Forgot to write "fiction" on the outer envelope. I suppose they wanted it written there for it to be properly sorted. Moments after I left the Post office, I called and went back to try to fix the problem, but the man had already taken it within five minutes of me dropping it off.

Do you guys think they'll open it/review it anyway? Should I e-mail them and explain my embarrassing mistake?

(Deleted)

(Deleted by user--sorry, I hit some glitches.)

Don't beat yourself up too much. Either way, it's a risk, but most of us have made a mistake like that. To a degree, either way spells rookie (and in this case that's OK, it's accurate); so it's a matter of what kind of rookie you want to portray yourself as. For me though--I'd contact them, but it's all personality.

There are factors you can't control. If they receive too many manuscripts, they might just chuck yours (or read your initial paragraph with increased scrutiny), but there are so many peccadilloes of publishers that we never get to see. You don't get to look behind the curtain. You get a few lines back that can often make or break your day.

Yeah, I just sent an e-mail to them asking if I will need to submit another copy. Apologized for the inconvenience, thanked them for their time, etc.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem.

Just got a polite e-mail from them. They put it into the fiction submission pile in spite of my mistake. Awesome! Now to wait.

Good. Keep yourself busy.