Flash Drives

Bad idea, from a geek POV. Who knows what else is on that drive? Nope; not going to stick that in my computer.

Same reason most agents wouldn't take floppies. It's too risky.

flash drives are the best!

but i don't think agents care for printing out the 400-500 pages of a manuscript - so until paper goes entirely out of fashion or out of reach...

You might get them to accepd a CD, but flash drives are a vector for viruses.

I'd be worried about the data being easily damaged in the mail. Not only through physical damage, but other crazy things like magnetic damage.

I've never run into problems myself, but friends of mine go through those drives like water. Apparently these drives fail easily (again, I overuse mine and never run into problems, but these friends swear they're constantly losing data).

I do love em them for portability and quick and easy backups. I keep one plugged into my laptop at the office in case of sudden strike of inspiration. I don't have to worry about leaving a random Notepad file of notes on my work laptop - I save it directly to the flash drive.

Michelle

If they don't want paper, they want it via email. I am not sure why a solid version of a digital version would be an advantage?

I have to agree with what everyone else has said re: viruses and damage and such. Then there's also technical issues. On PCs, any operating system other than Windows XP (in my experience), prompts you for a driver. Most flash drives don't have drivers on CD accompanying them. And if they did, with all the different kinds there are, they would have to have a wide variety of drivers. It wouldn't be worth the hassle.

My flash drive has been invaluable for me in transferring files between my main computer and the laptop I have to use occasionally.

Just email it. That's the accepted way at modern publishers. Why do you want to vary the form that they will accept a manuscript?

Some still want it on paper, so you have to print it, but mostly they want to see the first item from you in an email.

Imelda said:

Umm, aren't CDs exactly the same? You can store viruses on pretty much anything.

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<Faux-HTML-Code: rant mode on>
Yes, it's the file type as well as, or even more than, the medium. Actually, most PC's are set up to automatically look at a newly inserted CD and run the "appropriate" program based on the type of CD (audio, data, and whether it has an "autorun" (!!!) file on it. Hmm, I bet you could put the same autorun files on a Flash "thimb" drive and they'll run).

Some files you may think of as "just data", such as Microsoft .doc and .xls files, can carry viruses, and infect your machine when you open them (you can thank Microsoft for making these file formats so "versatile" that they can contain automatically-running computer program code within them). This is another reason people may prefer plain ASCII text files (not even HTML), because they can't carry computer viruses. To make a text file, run Wordpad, File->New..., select Text Document. If when you save it it says "You are about to save the document in a text-only format, which will remove all formatting. Are you sure you want to do this?" say Yes. You can save a text document from Word, but it's slow and huge overkill for text documents. You can still used the old-fashioned typewriter-type things to indicate formatting, such as _surrounding words with underscores like this_ for italics.

Too many people don't understand the differences between file formats, and also NOT coincidentally, don't understand how they get virii on their computers. I know I'm a nerd and learned about ASCII (and a substantial portion of the ASCII character set) in the 1970's, but it bothers me when people don't understand these things...

</rant>

I have a SanDisk flash drive that didn't need a driver, but I agree a CD might be a better idea.

benbradley said:

virii

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Ahhh... Latin...

When I was on a Mercedes press junket, they gave us the press materials on a flash drive. Once I was done with it, I cleared the drive and it is my one I use every day. The Mercedes logo on the side gives them advertising.

I know several companies do logoed flash drives. Getting a flash drive would stand out. I agree there is a virus exposure but any computer media has that exposure. A decent AV program would protect you.