SiteBeware E-mail Snafus
A student in my 8-week e-course on getting published in magazines gave me permission to tell her story as a lesson in the importance of using a professional-sounding e-mail address when approaching editors and sources.
My student wanted to pitch an article on how alcoholism affects a particular segment of society. As part of the assignment on finding an interviewing sources, she contacted an organization dedicated to fighting alcoholism. Because her last name is Beer (though she writes under a different name), my student’s e-mail address is beerparty5@email.com (as in “Beer, party of five”). The source at the organization read it as “party hearty, and drink lots of beer!” — so you can imagine how she reacted to my student’s e-mail.
Take a look at your e-mail address right now and ask yourself how it looks to an editor or source. If you’re not sure, ask a trusted friend or fellow writer for his or her opinion. If you have a cutesy e-mail address like thewritestuff@email.com, or an overly-personal one like iansmom564@email.com or beanieluvr@email.com, consider getting a more professional-sounding address for your writing work. (Your full name is almost always a safe bet.) If you don’t own your own domain where you can set up different addresses, I suggest getting a Gmail account; it’s easy to use, it looks legit, and you no longer need an invite to sign up.
If you have any stories on how editors or sources reacted (positively or negatively) to your e-mail address, please post them in the comments! [lf]
2 Responses to “Beware E-mail Snafus”
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Melissa Barton
Said this on June 20th, 2007 at 9:56am:I’ve always used a variant of my name for professional purposes, but when I was assisting in intern hiring (for a non-writing field) a couple years back, the level of professionality of people’s email addresses was definitely something we considered. And mocked.
Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell
Said this on June 20th, 2007 at 10:53am:I’m very much in agreement - except maybe when your business name is “The Write Stuff” or “Write For You.” I think a lot of it depends on what kind of writing you’re doing. I do know a creative writer whose company is The Write Stuff and her email reflects that. As well, when I first started my business, I thought I would be doing more corporate and ad company work, thus the formal name that’s still on my website - although in magazine and newspaper writing, I never use the business name. I am glad I never changed my email to “writeforyou,” or “write4u” though!