Sunday, February 4, 2007

A little email advice

A few months ago I groused about having missed out on a friend's 50th birthday party because the invitation came with a spam-like subject line of "TOP SECRET!!!!"

Well, today I got a important email that actually had the word "SPAM" in the subject line (saying "this is not SPAM"), and just now I received one of the several emails I get each week that have no subject line at all (this one was from a student).

I get a lot of email, and I try to respond to it all in a polite and timely fashion. Just as simple professionalism is the best way to make a manuscript submission, a simple, direct subject line is the best way to package your email. Otherwise, please don't be mad if you don't get a response; I probably didn't even see your message before one of my spam filters swept it away. Thanks!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site


1 Comments:

At February 04, 2007 5:11 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I tracked down a high school friend of mine recently. Bearing in mind that I hadn't had any contact with this friend in mumble mumble many years, I was especially careful with the subject line. But so many of the "good" subject lines have been used as spam entries, it was difficult coming up with something that I was reasonably sure wouldn't immediately say "spam, ignore this".

Yet another reason to despise those who beset us with spam and ruin good subject lines for the rest of us.

Christine in Mississauga

 

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