Knut:
> I was surprised by this point in Chris' advice, about providing an
envelope large enough (and with enough postage) to return the whole
manuscript. I was under the impression most editors simply didn't return
submitted material, being satisfied with sending a letter of rejection or
(god forbid) acceptance?
I think standard practice is that if the submittee sends an SAE, you send
the work back in it.
(Or if there's no SAE, you don't even bother sending back a rejection slip.)
Usually with Joanna's boilerplate rejection, but occasionally (I've had
these in my time) a handwritten missive which seems intended not simply to
stop you ever writing a poem again, but to drive you to suicide.
On a more positive note, the late Alan Ross of _London Magazine_ invariably
scribbled something encouraging on the rejection-slip -- usually, "Not quite
good enough, but try again later."
The problem was that, in my case, "later" turned out to be twenty years
before he deigned to publish me.
The worst thing, I find, is the "currently full up -- try again in a year"
rejection slip, where it's about impossible to know whether it's to be taken
at face value, or whether you're being given a polite brush-off.
Anyone worked out a code for submitting across the Pond? What I used to do
(before I gave it up as too much trouble) was to include an addressed
envelope, an international reply coupon, and a note saying not to bother to
return the texts themselves.
The Freemartin
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