''. . . and don't come back!''

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JoeEkaitis

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Has anyone else been shown the door, followed by a swift kick in the gluteus maximus? King Features Syndicate sent back some submissions to "The New Breed," a newspaper comic feature for single-shot cartoons with a note that stated:

"It is highly unlikely we will be buying any of your work."

There was a large gap between that sentence and the letter's closing, as if the customary "Please keep us in mind for any future submissions" had been deleted.

And you wonder why they call 'em the "funny pages".
 

hapsburg

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Well, look on the bright side...You won't have to waste any more of your time or stamps submitting to them and go straight to publishers who appriciate your work.
 

Rose

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Ouch. You'd think a comics editor could muster up at least a little bit of humor in their rejection letter...
 

SRHowen

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Got one once that said "Take up one handed knitting, you'd be more useful."

bad day for the editor it seems.

Shawn
 

CACTUSWENDY

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wow...they said that kind of stuff?.....Makes me not ever want to submit....(only kidding) I would really beeeeeee ah...ticked off, at least for a little while. Just remember....we love you...:kiss:
 

Vomaxx

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The story goes that Mozart was literarly kicked out of a room by Archbishop's Colloredo's major-domo, after Mozart requested that he (Mozart) be dismissed, and he did all right in the long run.

Of course, in the short run, Mozart did die in poverty.....
 

Vipersniper

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I have shown myself the door.

:snoopy: Okay I had my say but then I will say this that I have shown myself the door when things got out of hand and I became offended. Sometimes people with thin skins get irritated but there is a good way to criticize and there is vindictiveness. But if something is downgrading my creativity or interfering with how I feel about things I do not let the door hit me where the God Lord split me.
 

Maryn

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SRHowen said:
Got one once that said "Take up one handed knitting, you'd be more useful."
Wow. Not only painful for the author, but extremely unprofessional, don't you think? I sure do.

Maryn
 

CindyBidar

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SRHowen said:
I just figured he had a bad day or something and I was handy.

That would not have been my first thought. You're a much better person than I am. :Hail:
 

Ralyks

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Rejection

One-handed knitting...I've never heard of an editor saying something so rude! But you know, there are a lot of nasty people out there. As a small press editor, I've always been polite when I have to send rejections (and I have to sends lots, alas), but I have sometimes received rude responses to rejections from authors, like, "Good luck with your Hallmark greeting card magazine." (Obviously, he'd never read an issue, as I publish nothing LIKE Hallmark greeting card poetry; but I guess since I didn't accept his parituclar avante garde poem, that's where I belonged in his view.) Mine's a Christian publication, and when I got an anti-Christian diatribe in verse format, I simply responded that it wasn't appropriate for my magazine, being, as it was, a Christian publication. I then got a nasty reply about how "Christianity is the worst kind of racism." (I have no idea what that means, since Christians aren't a race and Christianity has never been a religion tied to a particular race.) It seems in the last two years, I've encountered more and more rudeness, more and more rage. The first few years I was publishing, I actually had some rejected authors take the time to write me back and say, "Thanks for the kind rejection letter and your helpful suggestions on my piece." and "Thanks for taking the time to comment", etc. I still occasionally get those when I do take the time to comment, but I'm getting more nasty replies than I ever expected. Anyone else notice this trend?
 

DeadlyAccurate

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skylarburris said:
I'm getting more nasty replies than I ever expected. Anyone else notice this trend?

I can make a guess as to why this is. With the Internet and word processing software, more people make the attempt to get published than before. With more people, it makes sense that more rude people would also be in the mix. Plus it's easier to be rude on the Internet than to take the time to write an angry letter, address the envelope, find a stamp, and mail it off.
 

SRHowen

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As an editor--YES. I see them all the time. I have gotten to the point where I don't even open e-mails from those I have rejected--most are nasty. Soem have even gotten to the point of abuse and stalking.

Shawn
 

Jamesaritchie

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skylarburris said:
One-handed knitting...I've never heard of an editor saying something so rude! But you know, there are a lot of nasty people out there. As a small press editor, I've always been polite when I have to send rejections (and I have to sends lots, alas), but I have sometimes received rude responses to rejections from authors, like, "Good luck with your Hallmark greeting card magazine."

This is certainly one of the worst I've heard from editors, but I've seen some really nasty rejections. "This story should be buried at a site clearly marked "Toxic Waste. Do not disturb for 10,000 years" was high on the list. "You have as much chance of becoming a writer as my pet pig has of becoming a horse" was another. "In my years as an editor, I've seen some truly horrible writing, but this is the first time a story has made me wish I had never learned to read" is yet another.

But I'm not sure there's any rule that an editor must be polite. There are times when a really nasty rejection certainly fits, it's just that most of us don't respond as we wish we could.

I've always tried to be polite as an edior, but I have read stories that made me wish I'd donned rubber gloves first. I've read cover letters that made me feel even dirtier.

I almost always responded with what I considered my nastiest possible answer. . .a form rejection slip.

Only once did I ever send a really nasty reply to a writer. Both the cover letter and the story were extremely and blatantly anti-Semitic. The entire purpose of the "story" was to denigrate and dehumanize Jews. I thought this called for the nastiest possible reply.

The nastiest replies I ever received as an editor almost always came whenever I dared suggest that a writer brush up on his grammar. In fact, I found that almost any criticism of a story could bring a nasty reply by return mail.
 

Euan H.

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Jamesaritchie said:
In my years as an editor, I've seen some truly horrible writing, but this is the first time a story has made me wish I had never learned to read

I throw away all my rejection slips as soon as they arrive, but this one would be a keeper. Good grief. What an [synonym for 'mule'*].

*This anti-swearing software is irritating. A-S-S--the animal--is not a curse-word. Computers cannot understand language.
 
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rhymegirl

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Sort of got something like that once.

I did some work for an editor who has not gotten with this time period. She does not have an e-mail account for correspondence with writers. I had sent her company e-mails. She responded once to one, so I figured okay send one again.

The long and the short of it was she didn't like it that I used that method. She also held my work for an awful long time(after expressing an interest in it) so I wrote a letter sent via snail mail and said I would withdraw it if I didn't hear from her soon. She bought some of my work, but sent a letter saying, "We would prefer that you not submit any more work to us again."

Uh, okay. Be that way, I thought.
 

Jamesaritchie

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rhymegirl said:
Sort of got something like that once.

I did some work for an editor who has not gotten with this time period. She does not have an e-mail account for correspondence with writers. I had sent her company e-mails. She responded once to one, so I figured okay send one again.

The long and the short of it was she didn't like it that I used that method. She also held my work for an awful long time(after expressing an interest in it) so I wrote a letter sent via snail mail and said I would withdraw it if I didn't hear from her soon. She bought some of my work, but sent a letter saying, "We would prefer that you not submit any more work to us again."

Uh, okay. Be that way, I thought.

There are many, many editors who do not want e-mails from writers they haven't bought something from. It's always a bad idea to e-mail unless you know an editor wants e-mails.
 

Rose

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Jamesaritchie said:
It's always a bad idea to e-mail unless you know an editor wants e-mails.
I am but a newbie, but my experience leads me to feel differently about this. In my humble opinion, it's only a bad idea to e-mail when you know the editor does not want e-mail.

I'm interested to hear from others on this topic!
 

dragonjax

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Jamesaritchie said:
Only once did I ever send a really nasty reply to a writer. Both the cover letter and the story were extremely and blatantly anti-Semitic. The entire purpose of the "story" was to denigrate and dehumanize Jews. I thought this called for the nastiest possible reply.
Dear God, this kind of hatred still exists? That's it, I'm burying my head back in my pretty-colored sand. Geez...
Jamesaritchie said:
The nastiest replies I ever received as an editor almost always came whenever I dared suggest that a writer brush up on his grammar. In fact, I found that almost any criticism of a story could bring a nasty reply by return mail.
Unreal. What the hell is wrong with people? Actually, I have an idea about that. Warning: Jax is about to go off on a rant. Hasty generalizations will come into play. You have been warned.

I love the Internet -- it's a brilliant tool and one of the best things to happen to communication (humble opinion, of course). But a negitive impact is that now just about everyone seems to think that he or she is a brilliant author (both online and in print) and, worse, that he or she has something Important To Say. This emboldens people to submit their Words of Importance to various magazines and journals, because surely editors will note their brilliance. Who needs to look up how words are spelled, or even learn the basics of grammar, when a word-processor's software these days makes all those spiffy catches for you? So they submit their stories, waiting for the praise to roll in. God forbid they are rejected. And, of course,
hints that these Words of Importance may leave room for improvement (say, form rejection letters) tend to be met with impatience, offense, and scorn.

And so I wail, WHY? Just like having access to medical websites doesn't suddenly equate my medical experience with that of licensed doctors, having the ability to post half-literate ramblings does not suddenly make one a polished author.

Okay, okay. Rant over. I apologize. It just makes me so damn mad when editors get abused.

:mad:
 

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One handed knitting?

:) I admit that one handed knitting sort of takes the cake and here I thought writing was a hobby. But one email said that this which I thought was rude that they had done better things on toilet paper. So I just thought to myself and yes yours belongs in my politically correct birdcage to politically correctly do what comes. One handed knitting hmh. I guess you could use a knitting machine with one hand.
 
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