August 18, 2005
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GRRRRR….
I haven’t written too much since the last three poems I posted, hence, no recent post. This post will be more of a gripe actually, so my apologies.
If you remember, a few posts ago I mentioned I sent out 18 poems to 6 different magazines. That was a little over a week ago. Well, on Monday I received a rejection notice. I’ve received twice as many rejects as I have accepts so its merely a fact of life and I’m normally pretty thick skinned about it. However, in this case, they snapped it back within a week with a slip of paper (not even a form letter) stating they were rejected and not read because of the large number of submissions received. They also did not send the poems back even though I included a SASE with ample postage to do so. Now, I can handle a reject if they don’t like the poems, the poems aren’t right for the magazine, or if they’ve received too many poems. But if I buy a stamp, at least look at them! And please, send them back so that I don’t have to spend money and ink reprinting them each time they are submitted somewhere. Is that too much to ask?
Okay, done griping. I guess this sort of goes with a post a friend of mine did recently
. Oh well. I guess I’ll reprint them and send them to another journal. My little ritual is to print them up with a cover letter and give them a little prayer. Then, just before I drop them in the mailbox, I kiss the envelope and cross my fingers. So, even if they are not read upon arrival, they are still blessed when they leave the house.
Comments (1)
I hate that. Publishers/Magazines. . all have such specific submission guidlines that it makes me crazy. This one wants 10pt type, this one wants 12 this one wants the slug line on every page, this one doesn’t, this one wants courier font (I hATE THAT! join the friggen 21st century please) and on and on and on . . and you dance through their hoops and play by their rules and they reject without even a glance. And they insist you supply that SASE then the very least they can do is USE IT! A few times I’ve had that thrill of someone sending me the “please send full manuscript” to which it is two sided coin. Side one: YEAAY! They want to see the whole book! side two: That means I have to print it! singal sided, double spaced, big magins. My books are over 170,000 words, which printed at that spec turns out to be nearly 1000 sheets of paper. That’s two reams. Then i have to find a box to mail it, then pay the postage and then provide return shipping materials . . . multiply that by say 10 submissions (may 2003) and it adds up! (and those were only the publishers who requested it!). Of those 10, I got 4 constructive rejections, offering to sell me editing services (run the other way!!!), 3 ‘you do not fit our publishing specs at this time, try again when you’re Stephan King’. . . 2 flat out rejections, and 1acceptance however that one went out of business before the ink on the acceptance letter was dry. None of the 10 returned my manuscript.
Ah, well. I still have some nice books with my name on the binding on a shelf behind me so there!
Hang in there, and welcome to the jungle.