Mark Helprin offers some advice on getting into The New Yorker

Interview here

We did hand-walking. We used to walk around the football field twice on our hands. Now that's a long distance to walk on your hands. But we were really strong. And when I went to the New Yorker, I'd show up out of the elevator on my hands. I'd show up at the reception desk and say, "I'm here" and the receptionist would say, "Uh, OK, I'll buzz you in." That was later, at first they didn't have a buzzer, a security barrier. And I would walk down the hall, go into my editor's office on my hands. So Mr. Shawn thought I was very peculiar, and that was good, he liked that. We had a nice relationship in that we never, ever talked or saw each other or anything like that because we were both too shy.

I also rappelled down the side of the office building once to get in. After they put the barrier in, my job was to sneak through in various ways. Dressed as a window-cleaner once, I got in through a window.