ALLISON A - August 25, 2010 writes:

Got my assignment back today from my tutor and after correcting it ready for the magazine, it is ready to be sent. Rather nervous about it and I hope that it gets accepted. Do I need to include a SAE with it? I have included telephone number and email address so they are able to get in touch with me should they need to.

Sonja M - August 26, 2010 replied:

Hi Allison,

I would include a SAE. If it gets returned to you then at least you have had a reply from them and can target another publication. But, some magazines don't reply at all even with a SAE but if you allow 6 months for a reply and don't get one then you can probably assume it has not been
accepted.

This seems to be common practice by many published writers.
See
http://womagwriter.blogspot.com/ for good advice and some fiction and non-fiction guidelines
Hope this helps
Sonja

Lucy M - August 26, 2010 replied:

Yep, I always send an SAE. Better they don't use it than they get put off because there isn't one!

All the best with the article

Lucy

ALLISON A - August 27, 2010 replied:

Thanks. I posted it this morning with a SAE. Keep your fingers crossed for me!! Allison

Benny N - September 4, 2010 replied:

It is better to enclose a SAE and indicate whether you want them to send you back your article if it is rejected plus a letter or only the letter to say why it is rejected. It is always hard for many magazines to reply back with their money.

ALLISON A - September 4, 2010 replied:

Thanks. I did that and I had it returned 2 days ago. They rejected it, the editor had written a short note explaining why. It was simply not what they wanted as it had been covered before, quite some time ago apparently. She did say it was nicely written though. I have to say that although I was expecting a rejection, it still came as a bit of a disappointment as well, if that makes any sense? But, got to keep going.

Lucy M - September 7, 2010 replied:

It's always disappointing but at least it's a nice rejection. I got one the other week that said my article was 'delightful' but they simply didn't have the space for it.

It's nice they took the effort to give you a genuine response - much better than the standard form letter style!