OK, here's an interesting question from a different angle:
The post office has really bizarre rules regarding mailing letters. If you send in a standard sized (#10) envelope, it doesn't matter how thick, as long as it's sealed properly (and has enough postage).
If you send in an 8X10 or 9X12 envelope though, things get trickier. I don't know if this is true if you hand print or computer print and pay in the post office itself (never done it since I don't like standing on line for forty five minutes), but I do know when I print using Paypal shipping that technically post office rules say the package (first class mail) must be either at least 3/4" thick (at it's thickest point) or must be sent using priority mail. Personally, I believe this is simply a way to gouge the American consumer and I'm working on an editorial on this subject.
Anyway, nine times out of ten, it goes through just fine anyway. However, I had one item returned with "postage due" marked on the envelope.
Now, discounting that the mailperson who wrote that obviously flunked third grade math (I paid the three ounce rate plus the cost of tracking and this person calculated based on one ounce rate -- just straight forty one cents), there is a very simply way to get around the problem:
All I have to do is stick in an air bubble, of the kind used by Amazon etc. for shipping to keep things from breaking. It then makes the envelope 3/4" thick without adding weight.
I'm thinking of resending this story that way with a note at the end saying that the air bubble is there to comply with postal regulations and can be discarded. Would that look totally unprofessional to do? I don't want to waste $4.40 for priority mail just because some postal clerk is being anal, but I want to make sure I'm not going to have an editor tossing my story out unread because it has an air bubble inside the envelope.
Eric
The post office has really bizarre rules regarding mailing letters. If you send in a standard sized (#10) envelope, it doesn't matter how thick, as long as it's sealed properly (and has enough postage).
If you send in an 8X10 or 9X12 envelope though, things get trickier. I don't know if this is true if you hand print or computer print and pay in the post office itself (never done it since I don't like standing on line for forty five minutes), but I do know when I print using Paypal shipping that technically post office rules say the package (first class mail) must be either at least 3/4" thick (at it's thickest point) or must be sent using priority mail. Personally, I believe this is simply a way to gouge the American consumer and I'm working on an editorial on this subject.
Anyway, nine times out of ten, it goes through just fine anyway. However, I had one item returned with "postage due" marked on the envelope.
Now, discounting that the mailperson who wrote that obviously flunked third grade math (I paid the three ounce rate plus the cost of tracking and this person calculated based on one ounce rate -- just straight forty one cents), there is a very simply way to get around the problem:
All I have to do is stick in an air bubble, of the kind used by Amazon etc. for shipping to keep things from breaking. It then makes the envelope 3/4" thick without adding weight.
I'm thinking of resending this story that way with a note at the end saying that the air bubble is there to comply with postal regulations and can be discarded. Would that look totally unprofessional to do? I don't want to waste $4.40 for priority mail just because some postal clerk is being anal, but I want to make sure I'm not going to have an editor tossing my story out unread because it has an air bubble inside the envelope.
Eric
