dear lord.

so one of the things i have to do for my job is compile an author handbook – something editors can give to new authors that explains the editorial process, the formatting requirements of the manuscripts, etc. to do this, i'm essentially taking a bunch of scattered papers that are used in the firm and putting it all together into a coherent document. this is an excerpt from their disk requirements document:

"Manuscripts should be submitted on 3½” disks using recent versions of IBM-compatible WordPerfect or MS Word."

also:

"Never type the letter l (“el”) when you mean the number 1; and do not interchange zero and the capital letter O."

my first thought when i read this was "is this for real?" and after i'd ascertained that it was, my second thought was "how old is this document?" that second requirement is like a throwback to the days of typewriters before they put number keys on keyboard and people had to improvise. WTF?

i asked if CDs or e-mail attachments were acceptable. i mean, i don't even have a 3.5" floppy drive on my computer. turns out they're not a big fan of CDs, apparently.

if there was ever a testament to how technophobic the publishing industry is, this is it.