The nastiest Rejection...

brainstorm77 said:

What was the nastiest rejection you ever received? I am curious to know how bad it could get?

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I've received lots of rejections but none of them were nasty. Most of them have been form letters, whicha re all unfailingly polite. Nasty would be almost nice, because it would show me where I needed to improve.

None that were nasty. Lots of form rejections. Several personalised ones with valuable suggestions. One lovely handwritten note. And last--and definitely least--one "no thanks" scrawled at the top of my original query.

I actually haven't encountered any nastiness...yet...

nasty

Never had an impolite rejection, let alone a nasty one.

I've never received a nasty rejection... unless the very fact that they are a rejetion counts!
Once though, an agent responded to my fiction query, asking for a synopsis and a market analysis (an assessment of the book's market and strengths within the market).
I sent it and 4 months later, she asked for a partial
I sent it and 4 months later, she asked for the completed MS
I sent it and 4 months later, she said she'd already sold something exactly like mine to NAL
I thought it was kind of nasty of her to take a year to tell me that.

She had a "warning" note on P&E dated 8-6-2006, but I see it's been removed.

That is pretty rotten, Scrawler. None of mine have been nasty. Just bland. Form rejections.

I got a rejection last week from an agent whose family heritage has links to my setting. She sent me back a form letter with a scribble on the top telling me to research a certain fact about the area because it was wrong. Well, I have researched it--before and after getting the letter--and the research hasn't changed . . . I'm still right. <sigh> I was pretty miffed at that. But for me that's as bad as it gets.

Maprilynne

I've never received a nasty rejection. In fact, I've received a couple pretty darned nice ones, inviting me to submit to the same agency again with a different work. I might just take that agency up on that offer one of these days....

Regarding a YA I shopped around, one agent *cough* Scott Treimel *cough* made red slash marks through most of the adjectives in my query (and yes, I did have too many), but what I didn't like was his generalization from the query to the manuscript (word count : 85,000). He wrote something to the effect of "I think I understand why your word count is so high."

I was ticked off because even though the query letter had its faults, it was not an indication of a bloated manuscript (having had requests by other agents for the full helped counteract the sting of his comment).

Before I found this group and learned how not to submit, I sent out quite a few submissions and received so many form letters that I thought I'd be clever.

I sent out my next submission with a little form asking the editor to select the checkbox for why they were rejecting. They checked off "Bad writing," "Bad plot" and "Bad characters."

Serves me right, I guess.

There was a small press that would say the reason for rejection was that the story needed more cowbell. LMAO from the SNL skit with christopher walken. It was their ways of saying it wasn't horrible, it just didn't dazzle them.

MicheleLee said:

There was a small press that would say the reason for rejection was that the story needed more cowbell. LMAO from the SNL skit with christopher walken. It was their ways of saying it wasn't horrible, it just didn't dazzle them.

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I do like their sense of humour!

Karen
(picturing Will Farrell go all out with that bell!)

There's a reason why most rejections come in the form of those unfailingly polite, albeit bland, form letters. No editor really wants it on their conscience that some poor writer threw themselves out the window or slit their wrists because of his or her rejection. Likewise, in the vent that said writer does become HUGE at some point, they don't want to be the one singled out as the mean and nasty stupids who wouldn't give Mr. Hottest New Voice in America's manuscript the time of day.

Form rejections are basically the result of a CYA mentality. A safe practice that eliminates the responsibility of handwriting numerous rejection letters on the part of the editor and, in theory at least, is intended to take some of the sting out of the rejection for the writer.

blackbird said:

Form rejections are basically the result of a CYA mentality. A safe practice that eliminates the responsibility of handwriting numerous rejection letters on the part of the editor and, in theory at least, is intended to take some of the sting out of the rejection for the writer.

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There isn't enough time to write rejection slips, anyway. Form rejections are someting agents and editors use for the sake of time.

And because if you dare point out a problem with the writing, far too many writers get upset and write you nasty letters. So it's better for the sake of time to just use forms, and save anything else for those times when a writer sends in some special that came a hair from making the cut.

Some writers are insulted no matter what you do or how you handle it.

A no is a no, and it shouldn't matter whether that no comes on a half slip of thin paper, or a two dollar sheet of stationery. It shouldn't matter whether it comes with an explanation, or just a "NO!."

They both mean no, and the smart writer just moves on.

Absolutely, James. I used to read for our university literary magazine as a grad student, and the slush piles were enormous (because in just a few short years, this magazine has acquired a great reputation). In the beginning, I only had to read manuscripts and decide whether or not to pass them on to the fictio editor. But then, second year, they decided it would cut down on response time to saddle us readers with the actual responsibility of deciding to reject the manuscript or pass it on, and to send the actual rejection letters to the authors. We were provided with the form rejection slips and given specific instructions on how to fill them out: The words "Sorry to say no," with our initials (never full names) signed beneath.

But that seemed so cold to me, and because I envisioned myself as this great, caring person who understood all too well what writers go through, I wanted to take time out to send a detailed handwritten response to each rejection. And I did do this a few times, especially with some near-misses, and got really nice letters from those writers in return. However, the downside of this practice is that after awhile you realize it's just downright impractical, not to mention unrealistic. When you have over a hundred manuscripts to plow through, not to mention your own work and responsibilities, you learn to cut corners--whether you like it or not, and no matter how much it goes against the grain of your personal philosophy.
And when I realized it was taking me over six hours a day just to get through five or six manuscripts--many of them god-awful and deserving of nothing more than a form rejection, I became callused pretty quick, and not adverse at all to writing that simple "Sorry to say no." But I can't say I ever really got the hang of doing so completely without guilt, so I'd probably never be much of an editor.

Rejections of the worst kind.

I agree that any "No" is the same, whether it's on a form or is hand written but my latest gripe concerning rejection slips is the lack of ANY reply at all from whatever publication I submit too.

In some cases, the simple explanation has been that the publications have ceased, but I've received the same treatment from "The New Yorker", "Atlantic Monthly" and "Poetry Magazine" and I consider such both "unprofessional" and "offensive".

Has anyone else been faced with this kind of problem?

Just wondering,

JRH

Yes, and I've been having a gripe about it in Ask The Agent.

This is really starting to bug me, and especially as these are well known and highly thought of publications.

I haven't submitted to the same as you, but certainly ones that hold similar credentials.

Thing is, it leaves you hanging. You don't know if your email is working properly, you don't know if the person dealing with it is off, you don't know if it's gone through to the next round....

For heavens sake, just send me an email saying NO, at least that way I know where I stand.
At the minute I feel like I'm living in limbo land.

And, just to clarify while I'm on a roll, that is for 13 non-fiction, full length features I've sent out since April. Not queries.

Out of those I've had one acceptance (back in April, but still not published or paid for) the rest are still floating about.

I've even sent out a couple of status enquiries but not had those responded to either.

Not funny anymore, simply not funny.
And it does seem more or less limited to the US magazines. All the childrens PB stuff I've sent out has been responded to, apart from a couple of agents, and the UK fiction stories get responses.

JRH said:

I agree that any "No" is the same, whether it's on a form or is hand written but my latest gripe concerning rejection slips is the lack of ANY reply at all from whatever publication I submit too.

In some cases, the simple explanation has been that the publications have ceased, but I've received the same treatment from "The New Yorker", "Atlantic Monthly" and "Poetry Magazine" and I consider such both "unprofessional" and "offensive".

Has anyone else been faced with this kind of problem?

Just wondering,

JRH

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Can't speak for all of them, but if you're receiving no reply at all from The Atlantic, it's because no one is seeing your manuscript. Or you aren't enclosing sufficient SASE. They respond to everyting that comes in.

I don't know of anyone who hasn't had a reply from The New York, and I have each time.

response

Dollywagon said:

And, just to clarify while I'm on a roll, that is for 13 non-fiction, full length features I've sent out since April. Not queries.

Out of those I've had one acceptance (back in April, but still not published or paid for) the rest are still floating about.

I've even sent out a couple of status enquiries but not had those responded to either.

Not funny anymore, simply not funny.
And it does seem more or less limited to the US magazines. All the childrens PB stuff I've sent out has been responded to, apart from a couple of agents, and the UK fiction stories get responses.

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I would say this. Unless the features you're sending out are in response to a yes you've received after a query, this may be the reason for no reposne. Most of the larger US magazines want queries only, and if you send a full-length article without first querying, you may well resceive no respone at all. There's a good chance your article won't even be read.

Nope, not going with that.

All the ones I have submitted to wanted full articles and gave their own guidelines as to response timetables.

These are submissions that require no queries and just want a full mss.

What you are saying here James, is a nonsense. And to be honest, quite an insult to my intelligence.

And possibly quite misleading to other people on this board, who have had similar problems with not receiving replies.

I was speaking from memory and I was wrong to list "Atlantic Monthly" and "Poetry Magazine" but the truth is that I have had two non-replys from the "The New Yorker" in the last two years.

Most of the others like "The Eclectic Muse" "The New Formalist" "Expansion Poetry and Music", "Fables", and "Poet's Corner" have, I presume, simply gone out of business, but "Star Poetry Magazine" should be viable and I have received NO reply from them after 3 Months.

I can handle rejection slips. I've received hundreds, (if not thousands of them)but I tend to be bothered when I receive NO response at all.

It makes the whole process seem like a waste of time.

JRH

Unfortunately that is the feeling I seem to have at the moment.

At first, I took the advice just to keep on writing and submitting.

Now I'm at the stage where I'm thinking "What's the point?"

Like you, rejections I can handle and learn from, but no response at all is just like being cut adrift.