Thursday, November 27, 2008

Rejection

I subbed a piece back in June, and heard no more until this week, a wait of 5 months. I got a strange rejection. It was kind, but maddening too. The editors said:

Many thanks for your submission. It was shortlisted and shortshort… and… sorry, it was unlucky. If the coin had flipped the other way… Pure bad luck. There’s not really any other way to explain the fact that it didn’t get in the mag. We get a lot of submissions and sometimes pieces miss out. There’s no perfect way of making the final selection…

Please accept our apologies. We hope you will send us something for a future issue.

All the best,


It's nice that they took the time to respond, it's great that it wasn't a form rejection, it's cool that they short listed and "short short" listed. But. It was bad luck that they didn't choose it? A flip of a coin? Oh.

8 comments:

Nik Perring said...

Hard luck. That's the way it goes at times though, isn't it?

Bah.
Nik

Group 8 said...

It's a nice rejection. The editor sounds disappointed - maybe it wasn't his or her choice to reject it, but someone else's. Your piece will find its right home.

Nik Perring said...

Sorry - just read this back and realised I sound a bit grumpy and not overly sympathetic! Sorry - it wasn't meant to sound like that at all.

As WRW says, it is a nice rejection. Better luck placing it elsewhere.

Nik

Zo Hashim said...

I think that a rejection of that type actually hurts a lot more than a standard one.

Because when you get a standard one, its easy to think, "OK, so maybe my piece wasn't all that great." And it gives you a direction to work in, even if its a negative kind of reinforcement.

Being told you missed out on blind luck is sort of like saying, "Well you did the best you could, but we don't want it anyway." In the end, there's not much more you can do about your piece because you KNOW it's good enough.

Ah well, keep your chin up, you'll get there in the end. :)

Unknown said...

Zo - I think that's it exactly, it's like, well, what can I do about that? They liked it, and can't even say why they didn't take it, and it took them five months!

Nik - Hee! You did sound a tad grumpy! Sweet of you to un-grump! You're right tho', that's just the way it is sometimes. I thought it was an interesting rejection tho.

WRW - That's a nice way to look at it. Yup, I'll find it a home somewhere hopefully.

Nik Perring said...

I don't usually sound that grumpy when I am actually grumpy! Goodness knows what happened! It is an intresting rejection and it sounds like the ed was disappointed he had to come to that decision - and I know it's easy for me to say but it is (in an odd way) encouraging.

Trying my best not to sound like a grumpo

Nik :)

Unknown said...

Nik, you now sound so far from grumpy it's a complete about turn!

Nik Perring said...

That's more like it, hey?

Nik :)

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