There was once a wonderful editor named Kate Duffy. She did genre fiction. A story about her began to circulate many years ago, and she confirmed to me that it was absolutely true. Sadly, Kate died some years after that, but the story lives on.
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She was once at a writers conference. This was back in the days before there was an internet. Manuscripts were always on paper. There was no other way to do them.
Kate was very busy at this conference, and stopped into the ladies’ room for a moment and went inside a stall. While she was in there, someone shoved a manuscript under the door and said, “As long as you’re not busy”.
True story. I heard it from Kate herself.
What is the moral of this story?
Poor taste is ever present? Don’t be a jerk?
I don’t know, but I do know that today, there is an internet and everything should be sent that way. No one wants to go to a conference and have something shoved into their hands. Do you expect them to shlep it back with them? If someone shoved a full manuscript into my hands today, I would look for the nearest trash can, which is probably what Kate did.
More on manners in my next post. Manners count.
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