An anonymous LROD reader in this amusing rejection reversal story. "I simsubbed a story out to three journals last autumn. One of them bought it, so I had the pleasure of sending withdrawal letters to the other two. The responses I got back from those two show how differently these journals can operate: one wrote me back right away -- a polite and happy letter from the editor herself, congratulating me, and asking me to please send more work as soon as I could. The other? No response at all...until months later, when in the mail came the SASE from my original submission with the above slip inside. Ooh! They must've been raving mad! Like, "Take that!" No, sorry, Harpur Palate, let's just set the record straight here: *I* rejected *you*!"
Friday, March 28, 2008
Me-First Rejection
An anonymous LROD reader in this amusing rejection reversal story. "I simsubbed a story out to three journals last autumn. One of them bought it, so I had the pleasure of sending withdrawal letters to the other two. The responses I got back from those two show how differently these journals can operate: one wrote me back right away -- a polite and happy letter from the editor herself, congratulating me, and asking me to please send more work as soon as I could. The other? No response at all...until months later, when in the mail came the SASE from my original submission with the above slip inside. Ooh! They must've been raving mad! Like, "Take that!" No, sorry, Harpur Palate, let's just set the record straight here: *I* rejected *you*!"
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4 comments:
I hate that! It's happened to me more than once.
In my experience, when you have to withdraw from a journal and they congratulate you on it, they tend to expedite your submissions from then on (and maybe look more favorably on them).
But when they do this, I think it means they're mad at you and don't want you to come back.. I've never tried to re-submit in such a case, but I wonder if it's true, they're mad. Anyone else?
I think it's just that most magazines are disorganized and severely understaffed, so that even when you retract a submission, they don't bother to take your story out of the pile, or they have no way of finding it in the first place.
It's frightening to think they might have lost your message that you submitted elsewhere. It does suggest you were lucky to withdraw from a potential House of Chaos. There is no reason believe they would have been any more professional or organized in the acceptance and, worse, editing process of your manuscript. I can just picture their office.
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