Rejection Notes – no.7 in a series
Dear Edoardo Albert:
Thank you for sending us “Brothers”. We really enjoyed this piece, but we didn’t feel it was right for xxx xxxxx.
We hope that you will continue to send us your work.
Sincerely,
The Editors
(This ranks quite highly on the irritating rejection note scale – if they liked it so much, why didn’t they publish the blessed thing?)
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I love your blog. I publish a small fantasy magazine, and I can answer this question!
(1 – I like plenty of fiction that my readers would not.
(2 – Sometimes the next few issues of a magazine have a theme of some sort locked in place because of awesome submissions or fantastic editorial ideas.
(3 – Sometimes we like something, but not enough.
And lastly: (4 We are occasionally grumpy. Also occasionally wrong, occasionally lazy, and always human.
Hope you sell the piece!
Bartholomew Klick
White Cat Publications
Thank you, Bartholomew. May I say, you have one of the best names I’ve ever seen; it ranks alongside a lad who did some work experience with me when I was at Time Out. He was very young and very eager, rather like an ungainly puppy, but I would have forgotten him if he hadn’t been called Jefferson Hack. (Five years down the line, he was dating Kate Moss and editing Dazed & Confused, while I was repairing TVs, so no guesses as to whose career path worked out better!)
Also, thank you for the insight on editorial preferences. I think you may have been responsible for Rejection Note No.8!