I accidentally happened upon two writers who appearently are mad at me for rejecting their stories. They posted my rejection letters to them on their blogs so everyone can bitch about me and therefore feel good about themselves. WOOT! Yes! I have officially joined the secret cabal of "Evil Editors" crushing the dreams of hacks and wannabes by refusing to spend my company's money to publish their drivel! Bow before me and my Mighty Red Ink Pen of Smited Dreams!
You know, if people aren't complaining about you, you are doing something wrong.
It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing. I try to be helpful and constructive. I refuse to send form rejection letters. Heck, about 20% of what we publish are rewrites that were initially rejected but the author went back and reworked the stories. I like to think I'm doing a good deed here with the journal. How many paying markets are left for speculative fiction? But to prove that no good deed goes unpunished, anonymous posters now get the right to say mean things about me just because someone's story wasn't up to par.
I suppose it's a good thing I have a thick skin. Truth is, I find it funny and strangely invigorating. It's sort of a badge of honor proving the legitimacy of the journal.
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Comments: 12
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Yes, indeed, no good deed goes unpunished. It is a badge of honor. Form rejections tell you nothing but feedback does. You may have thick skin but the opposite is true with these "writers."
How dare you smite people's delusions by telling the truth.
Unfortunately with today's technology anyone can claim to be an "author" by mass publishing drek without formatting or proof reading or commit the ultimate sin: self edit.
don't change thing, we need to educate the next generation.
Publishing is not for the faint of heart; there's always a certain amount of rejection, more so than in many other fields. Posting rejection letters to express anger is not going to help anybody. They should take the feedback and do something positive with it--like learn from it.
Julie, keep being a helpful and constructive editor. Feedback from an editor is a rare and wonderful thing!
And since I am so damn good at it, it just as well be me! ;-)
You're so right - the best thing that ever happened to me was my first editor. Wow - she totally tore me a new one! But I understood and agreed with everything she said. It turned me around and defined my style from that point on. She was blown away by my rewrites. I guess she didn't expect me to respond that well! Of course I'm still learning and improving.