Scribbler's Cafe

The Writing Life

So, I'm trying to pursue this whole "writer" thing. It's ridiculously difficult. I have yet to be accepted into any journal or magazine that I wasn't in some way connected to, despite my professor's frequent assertions that I shouldn't be having any problem getting published. I know other fabulous writers developing their talents who say they wished they submitted as much as I did and that they really need to get on it. So, to kill the mystery of the submission process, I am posting some of my rejection letters. Now, keep in mind that these are merely the few I recieved via email, and so were easy to copy and paste onto my blog. I'm not including the huge stack of little slips with very similar sentiments.

Some people keep their rejection letters, all of them. I thought is was an amusing thing to do, something to chuckle at once I "make it big." Forget it. It's depressing. I'm throwing the damn things out. I don't want to look at them anymore. But, before I destroy them forever, I thought I'd save this sampling for prosterity. Note the flattering language editors use to soften the blow of the rejection. Yeah, not empty at ALL. It's also funny when they don't even bother to use my name. I am simply "contributor."

From The Village Rambler:

Dear Kelsye:

Thank you for your submission "Thank You Mrs. Woolf"; we appreciate you sharing your work with us. Your manuscript was given careful consideration, and we regret that it does not meet our editorial needs at this time.

I hope you'll consider trying us again.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Oliver, Editor, The Village Rambler Magazine


From Swink:

Thank you for submitting your work to the Lying, Cheating & Stealing theme issue of Swink Online. It is with no small amount of regret that I write to inform you that we are unable to include your submission.

I ask that you please not take this as a condemnation of your work; we received an enormous number of submissions, and due to factors both concrete and intangible, such as space constraints and a search for work that fits within the context of the issue as a whole, we were limited in what we could accept. At a different time, our decision very well may have differed. So, please keep writing, and also feel free to submit to us again in the future.

Thank you again, and all our best in your continued endeavors.

Regards, Jeremy Horelick


From FriGG

Dear Ms. Nelson:

Thank you for submitting your fiction to FRiGG. We're unable to use your work in 2004, so we're returning it to you. Because we receive many more submissions than we can publish, invariably we must return many well-written stories.

We wish you much success in finding a placement.

Sincerely, Ellen Parker, Editor


From The Pedastal Magazine

Dear Kelsye:

Thank you for submitting your work to The Pedestal Magazine. We enjoyed reading it but regret that we cannot use it at this time. Please feel free to submit other material to us at a later date.

Thank you for your interest in The Pedestal Magazine, and best of luck with all your literary endeavors.

Sincerely, The Editors, The Pedestal Magazine


From Nidus

Dear Contributor,

Thank you for your submissions to the University of Pittsburgh's online literary journal, nidus. Due to the amount of quality submissions we have received, we were unable to publish your work.

On behalf of the staff at nidus, we wish you the best of luck placing your manuscripts elsewhere.

Please consider entering our fiction contest.

Sincerely, Don Strange, Fiction Editor, nidus


From Glimmer Train
Dear kelsye,

Thank you for letting us read your work. We will not be publishing "The Exchange", but we enjoyed it and would like to see more.

Ref#: 70195


From Mensa Bulletin

Kelsye --

Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, we stopped accepting submissions for October on the 15th. The magazine is nearly complete at this point. However, with your permission, we'll hold onto it for consideration for a later edition.

Dick Hodgson
Communications Director

posted by Scribbler @ Sunday, July 04, 2004