Another lesson in seeing the good in a rejection…

 

Ms. Diehl writes: “Interesing, but not right for us. Hope you’ll submit again.”

I’m pretty sure Young(er) Barry was outraged by this rejection, rather than seeing it as a good thing. I probably thought, “Well, if it’s interesting, how can it not be right for you? Do you only publish boring stories? Are you crazy?” and glossed right over “Hope you’ll submit again.”

“Hope you’ll submit again” is completely unnecessary for the editor to tack on. Believe me — editors are busy people. They’re not going to waste time writing something on a rejection letter unless they mean it. I’m pretty sure there are some other Baltimore Review rejections in my pile, so it appears I managed to get over myself and heeded her advice.

Lesson? If a rejection letter can be summed up as “No, but…” pay less attention to the “No” and more attention to what comes after the “but…”