Why Your Publisher Won't Answer Your Email

Those of us who work even occasionally with the quaint world of publishing often wonder: why is it that our publishers are so hard to reach?

Those of us who work even occasionally with the quaint world of publishing often wonder: why is it that our publishers are so hard to reach? Partly it is our own fault for attempting to use email rather than typing out our communications on an IBM Selectric and posting them in the US Mail, the way they did in the good old days.

But there is also this additional impediment, as a literary friend explains:

It's summer, and publishers take the summer off, starting about April 15 and resuming shortly after Labor Day. They work hard through early September until the Jewish holidays, which they observe for the full three weeks from Rosh Hashonah to Shemini Atzeret. Columbus Day and Thanksgiving pretty much wipe out October and November, and December is of course gone to Christmas.

Their offices are open at greatest length for a couple of weeks in each of January, February and March before they shut down again for the summer, as noted, in April.

Cross-posted at AndrewSullivan.com