Saturday, January 02, 2010

New Year, New Rejection

Happy New Year from the editors of the college-based literary journal. It's a rejection, but it's a good story just the same and could you send something else?

New year, new decade...same old same old.

So comfortable, to settle into the known and familiar. And how do I respond to renewed rejection?

I send the same story to a bunch of other literary journals. This year, however, I'm selecting those that use a submission manager system so that I can download my clever bits of prose and send them off with the greatest of ease.

The hard work was done in the writing, in the editing and the re-writing. Why put much more effort into submitting than is absolutely necessary?

Another year, another rejection. Well, who'd want to be published in a journal where the editor isn't too hungover on New Year's Day to work? And one in which said editor is firing off rejections on a holiday?

At least the literary agents have the sense to take off for the holiday season. No reading, no rejecting, and not looking favorably on those who dare to submit at such a time. With the new year in full throttle, those same agents should be returning to their desks on Monday. It's time to start up again with a new round of submissions to ring in the New Year.

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