Ireland: An Post and international reply coupons

Anybody else find themselves in my predicament?

I'm unpublished but decided to "start at the top" and submit my first short story to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

I followed their submission guidelines to the letter - they only accept a printed manuscript by snail mail with inclusion of an SASE. I went into the GPO on Saturday, and they told me that Ireland discontinued international stamps (reply coupons) over five years ago. The "unofficial" advice was to go up the North.

Now, I haven't sent an SASE since many moons ago when I joined the Denis the Menace fan club so maybe there isn't much demand. But I googled a bit and found other people on forums complaining, and saying we're one of the few countries not to offer the service.

I don't really want to ask family/friends in the U.S. to print out the story and organize the postal. It's kind of a personal thing, that first submission. But I also can't justify spending a day trip over the border for the 1 in a billion chance that I'll be published

Must admit, I'm very disappointed. It was a big step to get as far as submitting! Anyway, I've uploaded it via electronic submission to the Ellery Queen Magazine, I just worry that it's a bit hard-boiled, it was a better fit for AHMM I think.

Ah well. I emailed a comment to AHMM with the problem. Maybe they'll move with the times. Or tell me to send my valet with the manuscript on a silver dish

Problem is in the ROI. The coupons are available in the U.K. So the unofficial advice I was given was "go up north", which means drive up and over the border to Newry. That's what I meant by not justifying a day trip to go over the border.

It's unfortunate, as we'd be a much smaller stream of submitters, I guess, so I can't imagine AHMM will take much notice to my plea. The policy does put international writers in less affluent countries at a real disadvantage in terms of postage costs (I know Ireland is on the brink financially, but we're relatively well off compared to many others).

Oh, one final edit. In case anyone is wondering if "An Post" in the subject is a typo, that's the Gaelic for our national postal service.

Xelebes said:

Hah, missed that. I thought I read that she had to cross the sea. *knocks own head*

Click to expand...

Ha, rowing across the ocean in my little boat. I'm not that motivated to be honest

Thanks, everybody, for the advice and suggestions.

And thanks to AHMM for also being helpful. I submitted a comment via their webpage, and I never really expect those messages to end up anywhere useful. But I got a reply back saying that they understood the problem, and they would work around it - that I should send the manuscript with a cover letter recounting the issue and communication could be via email. So thumbs up for them, although I really would prefer if they moved to electronic submission.