So you’re busy. So nobody knows the trouble you’ve seen. Well, dear Editor, life’s too short to mince words.
Shape up. Read your own guidelines. Follow your own rules. We writers have the right to be rejected in writing!
The best I’ve seen this year is one penned note slopped across my carefully drafted letter and stuffed into my self-addressed stamped return envelope…the all-important SASE…the SASE you require from writers who submit their work. Thank you! Other than that…
No return envelopes returned.
No answer to letters asking about missing self-addressed stamped return envelopes…with new self-addressed, stamped return envelopes enclosed.
Only two magazines have taken the time to draft a thoughtful list of possible reasons why my article is not suitable. A simple checklist folded into the SASE. And they even took the time to write a personal note at the bottom to elaborate. Two magazines out of hundreds.
Christian magazines are the worst. As if Christ has an objection to business manners. One year has passed, a year to receive a return note in the SASE from even one well-known, major Christian magazine, “No thanks.” One year…and zilch…nada…zero.
Sally Stuart says editors are tired of writers who don’t read. Well, editors take note. I’m tired of editors who can’t stuff a pre-printed “no thanks” note in a SASE.
Life’s too short. God doesn’t require that I get published. He just asks that I try and do my best. But he asks that of editors, too. And it’s not your best to leave writers sitting high and dry when a simple rejection could be sent out. Or a checklist with one box checked to explain…a checklist returned in the SASE…the same SASE you requested in your writer’s guidelines…
…or a note in the SASE, “holding for consideration“…
…or a letter in the SASE, “can’t make up my mind.”
No response is a no-good answer. If you ask for a SASE…then use it. Follow your own guidelines.
*************************Humph!
Not sure I feel better.
But it’s been fun.
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THE WRITER’S LIFE