True story: I was applying for a job a few months back. I dutifully e-mailed my cover letter and resume and, once they were sent, immediately came up with my “follow-up” plan. The listing specifically said, “No phones calls,” so I scratched that idea but then I thought What good does it do to follow-up with an e-mail if you haven’t received a response to your first e-mail? I decided to follow-up with a note. I really did. It was a short handwritten note (thank-you note sized) that said something along the lines of, “I hope this finds you well. I sent my cover letter and resume a few days ago, and I’d very much like to have the chance to meet with you.” I’m sure I reiterated my interest in the position, too, and also wrote my e-mail address at the bottom. You get the idea. I mailed the note the same day I e-mailed my resume—planning it so she’d receive it two or three days later. Done and done.

The following week I received an e-mail from the hiring editor saying she received my note but not my e-mail. Apparently, the e-mail went straight into her spam file (um, G-mail what’s up with that?) The real live note, however, got to her and she then wrote and asked me to re-send my official papers. Isn’t that cool? I didn’t get the job. But who cares. Had I not sent my note I would have had no shot whatsoever at the job—completely unbeknownst to me. I sent the e-mail and received nothing from my good friend Mailer Daemon saying it wasn’t delivered. I would have sat and wondered. My follow-up note alleviated the wondering.

Think this was a freak accident? Think again. This past weekend, The New York Times did a nice write up on this very problem—sometimes e-mails really just don’t go through: IN THE E-MAIL RELAY, NOT EVERY HANDOFF IS SMOOTH

Come one. Come all. My friends Melissa and Samara (yes! there’s another Samara and we know each other) invite you to tell us your letter-writing stories. We’re hosting an essay contest for all those who love to write (and talk about writing) letters. The rules are as follows:

* Write about a special letter you’ve written someone. When did you write it and who did you write it to? How did you send it? What was the situation surrounding this letter?

Or!

* You can tell us about a letter you’ve received from someone else. How long have you had it? Who sent it to you? What makes it worth holding onto?

* No more than 500 words, please.

* Email submissions to snailmailcampaign(at)gmail(dot)com by April 1st.

We’re excited to hear your responses - and very excited to announce our first-place winner after the entries have been reviewed. The winner will receive a signed copy of my book, For the Love of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing . . . and I think there might be some sweet stationery in there too.

Happy writing!

Ah, the art of rejection. It takes a great wordsmith to say “Thanks but no thanks” or “Fuck off” with propriety and eloquence. It also takes a good sport to develop a sense of humor about being rejected. The mastermind behind Literary Rejections on Display has done just that. He was kind enough to stop by my site the other day and I gladly send you to his. Visit if you’re ever feeling professionally rejected and want to know you’re not alone, or if you happen to have a rejection letter that needs to be hung out to dry on the Internet, or you’re just scouring for the right words to blatantly reject someone with. Beware! If you hang out at Literary Rejections long enough you might start to think being rejected is cooler than being accepted. Case in point: I had completely forgotten about this rejection letter I received from The New Yorker a few years back. As a young college lassie I was foolish enough to send them some poetry. Now I proudly display the rejection I most certainly deserved (click on image to read).

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Today, I had originally planned to give my insights into the letters written to the police during the “Autumn of Terror”—when Jack the Ripper was sprinkling his special brand of horror around the city of London. Then I realized I couldn’t talk about the Jack the Ripper letters without discussing the Zodiac letters as well (coincidentally, two of the most famous serial killers in history who have never been caught both wrote taunting letters to the police on a regular basis). I’m not saying that means anything in particular, I just found it interesting. I then realized that I am not well equipped to comment on either of those (although, I did see Zodiac the movie and it was very good), so I put this topic on hold until I can research a bit further.

What I will do today is point you in the direction of one of my favorite web sites: SoThere.com. This is where the break-up / good-bye letter lives on. SoThere has posted a fresh break-up letter everyday since 1998. If you need to wallow in your sorrows, this is a great place to do it. If you’ve got a great break-up letter you want the world to see then they can accommodate you—anonymously or not. It’s not about the other person seeing it as much as it’s about you saying what need to in order to move on. Full disclosure: I did contribute a letter to this site once. I won’t say which day it posted, but it has been in 2007. . .

Tomorrow’s Blog: Love Letter Friday