Dear Contributor,

Your work is both original and good. Unfortunately, that part which is good is not original, and that part which is original is not good.

From: Make Your Subconscious Your Partner in the Writing Process and Double Your Creative Power, by S.L. Stebel (at your local library under Dewey Decimal #808.02 Siebel; unless you are at a library that uses Library of Congress, in which case it is PN151.S82 1996).

Write on.

:)

oh, I've seen worse that than..tho not personally..;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

Oh, I know there are worse. I just like the gracefulness of that one.

Whew! I was afraid that you'd just gotten a rejection letter. And here I was ready to try to console you. It could be worse. Snoopy's rejection letters were quite to the point, and quite pointed. Cheers!

I wonder if that rejection letter will be filed somewhere in one of those little books of standard letters for business use? Shanna :-)

The worst rejection letter I got was one that said "Sorry, sounds too much like Harry Potter." As a general rule real rejection letters don't say anything about the quality of the writing, because people have been known to sue editors when they say anything non-postive about the quality of the writing. Personally, I like it when I get specific comments on stories, but it's really, really rare. Wierd Tales is one place that does it. I know one of the editors, and he says that they are under constant pressure to stop being so blunt, because the executive branch of the magazine gets lots of letters of complaint.

Most Honorable Sir, We perused your MS with boundless delight. And we hurry to swear by our ancestors we have never read any other that equals its mastery. Were we to publish your work, we could never presume again on our public and name to print books of a standard not up to yours, for we cannot imagine that the next ten thousand years will offer its ectype.* We must therefore refuse your work that shines as it were in the sky and beg you a thousand times to pardon our fault, which impairs but our own offices." Rejection letter from a Chinese publisher. Quoted from The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman. ----------------* *Does everyone know what ectype means? I had to look it up: "A copy from an original; a type of something that has previously existed."

Damn, that last one is out there. Could they be anymore polite? Sorry for my laughter, but I nearly fell out of my chair (I am tearing up from all the laughing!).

Attached Link: Rejectioncollection.com

If you want to feel better about your rejection slip (real or anticipated), take a look at "Read 'em and Weep."

I'll do that! Although my rejection slip was the summary I had sent with corrections made. The editor was quite polite and to the point.