... it is not easy to achieve and balance the two central goals of a truly accomplished rejection letter: trying not to make the writer feel distraught whilst also discouraging him or her from ever contacting you ever again.Jean Hammer Edelstein on the Guardian blog reflects on the delicate art of composing rejection letters (of which she's had plenty of experience!) after hearing about a new collection to be published by Random House in 2010. (Perhaps you have some you'd like to contribute? Ted Mahsun I know has been collecting rejections.)
Grateful I am to Edelstein's post for pointing me in the direction of the Literary Rejections on Display blog which has some most enjoyable stuff on it and is bound to make the great brotherhood (and sisterhood) of rejectees feel better. I particularly loved this "standardized punch-list rejection form".
3 comments:
I'm not sure if any of my rejection slips are interesting...they're all templates and not personalised.
At least you heard from them, Ted. The few places I submitted to didn't even write back. Maybe they thought silence from them is enough to tell me my submissions were rejected.
Oh, I have "silent" rejections as well! It depends on the type of publication I think. The more professional of them at least give some sort of reply, though some may take ages.
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