Great Reject Letters

After a heart breaking rejection from Haruah, I decided to give it another try. So, I sent “Aftermath of War” out to four more magazines. In about six hour’s time, I got the following response from the editors at Bewildering Stories.

[quote]
...First, it's a very touching story and very well told.

...I like the quality of the writing. I'll await Jerry Wright's opinion.

Regards,
Don Webb, copy editor
[/quote]

[quote]
I second Don's opinion on the quality of your writing.

The story is quite moving. However, I question whether Bewildering Stories
is the appropriate venue for your story.

I note that this is a simultaneous submission, which is NOT a problem for us, but I must tell you that we are primarily a magazine of speculative fiction, or of stories that have some speculative, or "slipstream" element.

And of course in addition we publish experimental and mystery fiction that we find enjoyable.

So you see why I feel we really aren't the right place for your story.

Don may wish to accept it simply due to the quality of the writing, however, which
is certainly acceptable to me.

--Jerry
[/quote]

Wow, even though these were rejections, they were wonderful rejections. They have me encouragement and even made suggestions on how to make the story stronger. All authors crave feedback like this. So many times we just get a form reject letter, something like “sorry this didn’t grab our interest.”

But the upbeat news didn’t stop there. I also received this from them as well:

[quote]
Jerry Wright expresses my feelings exactly: I agree that you may find another publication better suited for a story like "Aftermath."

Let's make a deal, so to speak. If the other publication you've contacted does not accept the story, please review the story in light of the points I raise in my acknowledgment -- I think the ending needs more support than it gets -- and let's talk about it.

...A "happy ending" is practically a breath of fresh air.

Don
[/quote]

Wow! I have emailed them and let them know that if they are interested, I’d re-work the story and if they accept it, I’d pull it from the other magazines. I also let them know that we are in the middle of packing for our move next week.

Don wrote me back and told me to re-write it after the move and that they might be interested. Since I asked for other places that needed work on, he gave me some. It feels awesome to get writing feedback from an editor!