The last form rejection I got looked like this:
We are honored that you have given us the opportunity to consider your work. Though we are unable to use your submission entitled "..........." at this time, we encourage you to keep writing and to submit again.
That's a nice, to the point, form rejection.
At the end of last year I got this form rejection, but with a note added which said NB (not bad) and suggested other publications:
Immense time pressures necessitate this reversion to a standardised reply, for which the submission devouring destroying analysing equipment apologises (and for the purple prose, as well…;-). In short: this is not for us, but – you never know – it might be for someone else.
NB: this is a nice piece of literary fantasy, but it's not really suitable for us. Much more one for markets such as On Spec, Strange Horizons or TQR, I think.
That was from Interzone, which is European, hence the alternate spellings.
My latest, and best rejection came this week:
I am saying no to this, but I look forward to seeing more from you. I am passing along the slush reader's feedback in the hope that it is useful to you:
This was a well-written story that began intriguingly enough for me to keep reading. Unfortunately, some of the character relationships strike me as unimaginative, contrived, and/or underdeveloped--which is a shame, because I wanted to like these characters, and better understand why they liked each other. Ultimately, the ending is disappointingly pat (and decidedly nonfantastical), which is the main reason why I gave it a pass.
This is the best because it came from the editor, to which it was routed by the slush reader. Also, I got some feedback I can use.
When I get more time I'm going to write something new.
6 comments:
That's awesome man! Not being rejected, but that they actually read it with enough scrutiny to give some feedback.
Keep it up and one day you will be a published writer.
John,
I've received plenty of rejection letters, and most all of them I've been able to piece apart and find good things to use in them. Every comment - positive or negative - gives a writer something they can draw from and learn from to become better, clearer, more concise, etc.
Your attitude is awesome - keep writing and don't give up!!
Madison
Dude!
You don't need to write a short story to receive great rejections. You can find that easier than an early bird finding that stupid worm.
Example 1: Ask your foreman for the week of Christmas off.
Example 2: Ask anyone in your department to swap with you the week of Christmas after getting your rejection from example 1.
Example 3: Ask your spouse if you can watch football the whole day on Saturday(when you ain't working) and not do anything about nothing.
Big Philly D
And again, Big Philly D, you have enlightened me. Thank you for making everything so clear and easy.
See you on the dark side.
That's pretty good! Can I get rejected too?
(I think I know how!)
Hey Will, Yeah I'm sure by now that you know how. But you also know how to get accepted...TWICE by my counting.
Let me know if there are any new Will stories out there.
Crotalus aka ihtabgw
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