Be Careful About What is in Your Subject Line

This article from Writers-Editors eZine could help us keep our email submissions from disappearing before they are read:


Subject Lines in E-mails

More editors are telling me they prefer to receive queries via e-mail than postal mail. Yet just this past week three e-mails from members and others in my address book have gotten caught in the spam trapper I use. And my filter is not nearly as tough as the ones most publishers and corporations use! Plus, I do give my filtered e-mails a quick scan before deleting permanently, but many large companies do not bother with this step. So what can you do to get past the gatekeepers - especially when querying editors new to you who will not have your e-mail address in their approved lists?
Here are a couple tips gleaned from my own ISP's filtering rules:
* Be careful with the word "submission." One of the messages caught in my spam trap used this word in the subject line. Not only is it a writer's term, but it is used by many x-rated e-mailers, and thus is caught by some filtering software.
* Stay away from all caps. Frankly, I'm surprised to still see all-cap messages, yet one of the filtered messages had the subject line in all caps. Using capital letters in e-mail and on the Web is considered shouting. Spammers use all caps routinely. So filters will often toss messages with words, phrases, and subject lines in all caps.
* Similarly, use of exclamation marks in the subject line can send your message to spam purgatory -- and I see them used regularly. Instead of ignoring your spam mail, skim through a folder of these messages, and you will soon see repeated words, characters, and formatting - if something appears frequently, avoid it in your queries, and especially your subject lines. If you are querying about a topic frequently appearing in junk e-mails, and you do not receive a reply from the editor, it might not hurt to send a follow-up e-mail asking if your query was received.


Source: Writers-EditorseZine, © CNW Publishing. Sign up for a complimentary subscription at http://www.blogger.com/.CNW Publishing,

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