The Rejected

If anybody remembers the old movie Suburbia, a punk rock anthem in film form, the kids all called themselves "TR" -- The Rejected.

Anyway, the 2005 Novel and Short Story Writers Market had a neat feature about rejection, by Will Allison. He talks about the business of being rejected, and culls from his experiences as an editor at now-defunct Story magazine, as well as a writer in his own right.

He backed up a lot of the stuff I already suspected -- any personalized rejection is good, for example, but also pointed out that a rejection always means the editor doesn't like it enough to publish it. However, he softened that blow by stating that what holds the most weight is when an editor asks to see more of your work.

He also supported my theory of the "tiered" rejections -- form rejections with varying forms of meaning, some better than others, as well as the idea that if it's taking a while to hear back, that likely means it is working its way to other editors at the same publication and might mean that it is seriously being considered.

Most of it is pretty obvious, but it's nice to get some backup. Now, I've got to go and take care of this cold. It's a whopper.

Thanks for reading,

LLB