And That Would Be A Duh

That's ok. I sent something out to Ms. Alisan Whomever and she turned out to be a Mr.

Dang.

I queried an agent with "Dera" instead of "Dear" . . . and still got a request. SO, maybe the brilliance of your story will compel them to overlook the typo!

They won't care. It's a contest, right. It's not like it was an agent.

Yeah, being a humor contest you would think they'd have a sense of humor about it.

I wouldn't worry.

Plus, it gives you an out. If you don't win you can always say, "man I would have one if I didn't have that typo."

Sebby said:

They won't care. It's a contest, right. It's not like it was an agent.

Click to expand...

I agree with Sebby. I've heard of folks tossing unsolicited submissions for multiple typos in the cover letter, but a contest is a completely different animal. They're kind of on the hook to read everything 'cause of that little entry fee (unless they're totally unscrupulous). And I'm sure they'll laugh their asses off (at your submission, not your cover letter). No worries.

I think, for business communication, we need to come up with a gender-neutral address to replace Mr and Ms. I can't tell you how many times I have agonized over whether an agent was male or female, googling to no avail. I work in travel and have a name that is largely feminine in the US, but male in other countries. I get "Mr." emails all the time. I find it amusing, but at the same time... amusing is probably not the emotion the sender wanted to elicit from me. If we had a gender-neutral term, this problem would be entirely eliminated!

I've been told I have a deep, sexy voice and what does it get me?
A "Yes, sir." on the phone...go figure.

If an editor has a name that is unisex, I simply address the letter by the full name, i.e., Dear J. A. Turner; or Dear Chris Wilson. That solves the problem.

DP