Why Editors Send Form Rejection Letters

Form rejection letters are the Bane of every writer's existence. They come in the mail, all pristine and crisp, but they don't contain anything useful. While form rejection letters might be frustrating for writers, you should understand the reason. Despite common assumption, editors don't send them just because it makes writers squirm; there really is a method behind the madness.

First of all, it is important to understand the sheer volume of submissions an editor receives in any given week. For example, the editors for People magazine often receive in excess of 10,000 manuscripts each month, which is prohibitive in and of itself. If they took the time to reply personally to each of those manuscripts, they wouldn't have time to work with the ones they do intend to publish.

Form rejection letters are a way for editors to reply to your manuscript without wasting too much of their precious little time. They assume that you would rather hear that your manuscript has been rejected rather than hear nothing at all, and they don't want to receive incessant phone calls from unprofessional writers requesting the status of said manuscript. It just becomes too exhausting; hence, form rejection letters.

Of course, you will find the occasional editor who will send you a detailed reason for rejecting your manuscript. For example, I sent an article to Field & Stream about four months ago and I received a return letter from the editor stating that my article wasn't right for their publication. However, they also gave a detailed reason behind their rejection and sent me a list of publications to whom they recommended I send the piece. It made my day.

The reality, however, is that most editors rely on form rejection letters to get them through the day, and when you think about it, you'll realize that this is the smart way to go about things. A good friend of mine works as an editor for a small local magazine and he sometimes replies to freelance writers with an explanation for a rejection. More often than not, he receives a response that either:

---Tells him why he's an idiot;
---Contends that he wouldn't know good writing if it bit him in the nose;
---Threatens to write his superiors; or
---Argues the points he made.

What you have to realize is that you are hurting your freelance writing career by arguing with a rejection. For one thing, it teachers editors to send form rejection letters rather than taking the time to reply personally. For another, it ruins your chances of ever getting a future article accepted by the same publication. Editors talk to one another and they remember writers who really tick them off. If you write them back and say that your writing is better than what they claim or that their assessment is off, they're only going to blacklist you for their magazine and for their friends' magazines.

Form rejection letters might be frustrating for freelance writer but they serve a very viable purpose.