Hand-addressed envelopes

Use labels if possible. Many people can't print envelopes, but they can print labels.

To me, handwritten envelopes for any business correspondence (including queries) just look unprofessional.... unless you have beautiful, perfect calligraphic handwriting.

I always hand-write my envelopes.

I have lovely penmanship.

MarkEsq said:

Great - wanna do mine?
(Envelopes, dear, do my envelopes...)

Click to expand...

For a price.

I do it both ways--mostly based on time. For large envelopes (like full manuscripts require), I tend to prefer hand-printed with marker directly on the envelope. I've found that Avery or store brand labels don't like to stick well enough to several brands of envelopes and have had several come off. But for regular #10 envelopes? Yeah, I definitely type them (either through the laser printer or on an old-fashioned typewriter.) Sometimes the typewriter is quicker and easier. But that's just me...

I've had just as much success with handwritten envelopes as beautiful, professional labels or printed envelopes. What counts is having a neatly printed, professional-looking manuscript. The actual writing is what makes the difference, not what your envelope looks like. Granted, some agents and editos are more picayune about such things than others, but I don't think there's anyone out there who would actually refuse to read your work just because the address on the envelope is handwritten.

Oy. Depending on the size of the agency, only an assistant will ever see that envelope, so it doesn't matter. What does matter is that if your envelope is so poorly addressed or the handwriting so ugly that the Postal Service can't read the address and your mail never arrives.

Stamps.com and other services let you print envelopes with the barcode. Mail sent this way definitely gets there faster, I believe.

Andy

That's good to hear. When I worked as an editor at a greeting card company I can remember we opened lots of submissions from writers with hand-written envelopes. It didn't make any difference; what was inside was what counted. If the person's verses were well-written, we passed them along to the editorial director. Nobody cared about the envelope.