I got a nice rejection today. I’m going to paraphrase, but it went something like this…
Hi Natalie, thanks for considering [magazine name]. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t quite work for me, but I wish you luck with placing it elsewhere.
It’s nice because;
It uses my name, which makes it a lot more personal than ‘dear author.’
It is polite, thanking me for submitting my (if I’m honest) bit rubbish story.
It is positioned as personal preference, suggesting it doesn’t work for the editor, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else.
It wishes me luck, as if the story isn’t so bad that it won’t find a home.
I wish more magazines would stick to simple, non-soul-destroying rejections like this. Some will also tack the line on ‘please submit more work in the future’ -which I used to get all the time, but I can see why not with this story. Rejections don’t need to be witty, or cutting, or condescending. They can be nice without too much effort.
I did rush this story because the deadline was approaching and I was keen to get back on the horse, or bike, or wagon or whatever it is that I’ve fallen off in the last few years. This rejection has helped motivate me to dust myself off and get back up and moving. Even better, it inspires me to be more discerning about what I send out so I can get the ‘please submit more’ or even ‘we’d love to include it in our magazine’ line.