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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Rejection of a "High Quality" Story That's "not all that good"

I've eaten a lot of rejection letters. It's part of a literary career, and authors should be grateful for any degree of actual human response as opposed to automated rejections. This one baffled me to the point where I have to share it.





The dissonance between their editorial readers and the automated letter is a thing to behold. I've redacted the names because I'm not angry with them; I'll likely submit again. Okay, some of the time I'm angry, but the rest of the time I'm snickering.
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14 comments:

  1. Cathy Olliffe-WebsterJanuary 19, 2011 at 7:24 AM

    WTF? That's one for the record books, fer sure. Their loss, John.

    ReplyDelete
  2. David BarberJanuary 19, 2011 at 7:50 AM

    John, I think the 2nd readers comment could describe their rejection letter!

    Regards, David.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jodi MacArthurJanuary 19, 2011 at 10:14 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jodi MacArthurJanuary 19, 2011 at 10:22 AM

    I erased the other comment because my phone kept messing up, but maybe you got it in your email? Anyway, keep on keeping on.

    Ps did you get a weird spam-ish like emial from WotF? I think I got a reject, but it was so full of other stuff I wasn't sure. If you haven't heard back, that's a very good sign. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. John WiswellJanuary 19, 2011 at 11:14 AM

    Your comment looked fine to me, Jodi. Not sure why you deleted it.

    I also got the spam-ish rejection from Writers of the Future. I e-mailed her back. She's sincere about wanting people to sign up for that stuff and seems to think it's useful. The e-mail bothered me initially because it's marked urgent, gets you excited, and then immediately says you didn't win.

    We'll see if it's somebody else's gain, Cathy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Danielle La PagliaJanuary 19, 2011 at 1:13 PM

    Thanks for sharing, John. While it is good that you got a personal note, that is the most bizarre rejection I've seen. smiling yet glaring face

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cat RussellJanuary 19, 2011 at 1:39 PM

    Lol, well at least your story was of high quality sven if it wasn't that good. :D

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  8. Michael SolenderJanuary 19, 2011 at 3:20 PM

    I find their feedback amusing. Actually not bad but not really very good. Their reject letter is pathetic however. I think you can find better places for your work...

    ReplyDelete
  9. John WiswellJanuary 19, 2011 at 3:42 PM

    Any place that pays well, Mr. Solender. Have a few markets you'd recommend?

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  10. BevimusJanuary 19, 2011 at 5:10 PM

    "Not bad, not all that good, but not bad". That's gotta be my favorite commment ever. How did they thing telling you that would be helpful, exactly? It's like if someone asks how you are: "I'm OK- my wife just died, my house is on fire, and my dog got run over by a car when he ran out of the flaming house- but i'm OK" No wait, that's actualy informative so forget that. We'll just stick with "OK" as the appropriate analog.

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  11. Alan W. DavidsonJanuary 19, 2011 at 6:02 PM

    He, he, he...you've got to like the upbeat "Better luck next time!"

    Would you like a bit of hot sauce to make the next one more palatable?

    ReplyDelete
  12. LindaJanuary 19, 2011 at 8:32 PM

    WTF indeed. What an odd response. It almost has me wondering if there was a mix-match between the reviewers and editor (ie, the reviewers' comments were for another author); sadly, that happens. But thank you for sharing because we all learn from this crap.

    But in case you were worrying whether you're a hack or not, wander over to my blog. Peace...

    ReplyDelete
  13. David G ShrockJanuary 19, 2011 at 10:34 PM

    Amusing, indeed. The "helpful" reader responses seem auto-selected pseudo-random sentences from articles... sort of how spammers work. Maybe they want their automated rejection letters to appear to have personal input.

    ReplyDelete
  14. StephenJanuary 19, 2011 at 10:56 PM

    Useful? In a stretch of the imagination, maybe. Good to keep your chin up and to find the humor in the experience.

    By the way, stop by Powder Burns to pick up the gift (award) I've given you. I don't do it often, but this one fits.

    ReplyDelete