Probably pointless rant
I have a science fiction story that I like that has almost made it into a couple of decently high-profile magazines, but has missed the cut for one reason or another (shortlisted but rejected, the market folded, etc.). So I sent out a couple of weeks ago to a fledgling market, thinking, “why not give this place a chance?” especially since submitting to new markets is a great way to meet writers, editors, and publishers that I wouldn’t otherwise know.
They had some pretty specific format guidelines, but I long ago decided against custom-tailoring every submission to every market, because it just got to be too much to keep track of. Besides, I’ve been accepted by a couple of pretty nice markets who actually requested I reformat my work after my initial submission (owing to saving a .doc as an .rtf and getting garbled nonsense–which would be reason enough for me to just flat out reject it–which they never did). So I didn’t bother putting my submission for this fledgling market into Courier. I haven’t used Courier since I graduated from high school in 1993, and I’m not sure anyone else does anymore, either. It’s the kind of requirement a new editor establishes because it makes them look like an old-school editor. Or a complete newb.
Anyway, I got a fairly long form rejection letter today that took forever to get to the point. And the point was this: they didn’t even read it because it was in Lucinda Console.
Oh. My. Goodness.
And so I will never submit to these Courier Nazis ever again. These are people I don’t want to know.
ADDENDUM: I realize this probably makes me seem like a self-important crank. I suppose on some level that I am. I’ve received rejections from all kinds of publishers, big and small–but this one just absolutely rubbed me the wrong way.
July 8, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Unbelievable! Don’t you wonder who is running the ship?
July 8, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Whoever it is thinks they’re Lou Grant.