My manila SASE was returned to me today*. Yup. Rejected. The form letter stated that they had received 40 submissions and required only 12. I'm OK. It was a last minute submission, and I know that they were more inclined towards paintings rather than drawings...small ones at that. I was glad for the opportunity to update my files.
Dear-Eldest-Son told me he had a friend who had recently submitted a poem to a contest wherein the winners would have their work published. He was very excited when he received a rejection letter. He had great plans to frame, hang, and display proudly this letter. What he received, though, was a sheet that simply listed the names of the winners. That's it. No thank you for submitting; no statement of the number of submissions; no condolence at his loss. Just the list of winners. He was quite upset over this. "Don't worry," said his friends, "Maybe next time you'll get a real rejection letter!"
I suppose I could send him one of mine. I have a considerable stack of them, and I sure don't mind to share the wealth. Yeah, I know....rejection shouldn't be experienced second hand. He'll have to accumulate his own pile.
My favorite rejections are the personal ones--not the standard form letters with my own name slyly inserted in the greeting, but an actual personalized letter that mentions my project by name and states why it has been rejected. And sometimes, some letters even suggest where else I might like to send it.
Yeah, it is good to be rejected like that.
*see post: 17 May 2011
*see post: 17 May 2011
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