Call of the Day

An elderly woman called this morning. She told me the state from which she was calling, an immediate red flag that this was going to be a fun one.

"I sent a query letter, and I haven't heard back."

Following up on query letters is bone-headed in and of itself. But I cut her a little slack because she was an old lady.

She went on to explain that the post office returned the envelope as "undeliverable." (Possibly explaining why she hadn't heard back from us, but I digress). She read off the address. Long, confused story short...

... she just put the company name on the envelope, and that's it. Like we're the White House or Santa Claus.

I explained to her that Los Angeles is a big place with lots of people and, if she wanted us to get the query letter, she'd have to put the full address on the envelope.

She asked, "Is that how it's always been?"

"Yes, that's how it's always been."

The only similar call I can remember is from a couple of years ago, when a woman asked me to walk her through the steps of addressing an envelope so she could send her query letter.

It's a crazy world.