Shortest and Longest Rejections

My shortest was "Not for me. Thanks for the look."

It actually made me smile. No form letter for that lady--she got right to the point.

... cover letter crumpled up and mailed back to me. Took that as being a no ;-)

I got one once where I swear, the editor didn't just dislike the story, they actively *hated* it. They went on for several paragraphs about how much they hated it, why they disliked it, and why it was just *wrong*. (Note that this was only a 3,000 word story, so getting a 1,000 word or so critique on its evils seemed a bit excessive.)

It was...kind of amazing.

The sure fury of the rejection was compounded by that the rejection was given several months after their site had listed the stories that would be in the anthology. (Which was puzzling as I'd known months ago that the story wouldn't be accepted. So the very long and very angry rejection felt as though at least one of the editors wanted to make it clear as to how much he hated that particular story.)

Very strange.

My shortest rejection was a generic one line "not right for us at this time" one.

My longest rejection explained that the central plot point wasn't clear enough, and then gave the editor's hypothesis as to what was going on, and finished by saying that ultimately they just weren't sure if that was the case. (It was.) And that was still only a few sentences.

Clearly, I need to send out more stories.

Shortest: NO in red ink (blood?) scrawled on the query letter.

Longest: Several page diatribe about the current state of the publishing industry and why books like mine had no place in it, alas.

Shortest: submission stuck in my SASE and mailed back to me w/o a comment. Longest: "Not for us" form letter.

Shortest: "No thanks" scribbled on the first page of my MS.
Longest: An email exchange that ran to the tens of thousands of words in which the editor questioned the "authenticity" of my story, because he apparently felt I didn't truly understand how strippers and prostitutes feel about their work. (Even though I've worked with strippers and prostitutes, known them personally, rather than merely patronized them as a customer, as he had. So ultimately, of course, he would be the more knowledgeable on their personal feelings, right?)