I saw this on Andrew Sullivan's blog, its a rejection note sent by the writer Stefan Merken to an editor who had rejected one of his short stories: “Please forgive me for not accepting your rejection letter. At this time I cannot accept a rejection of my short story. I accept more than 99 percent of the rejections I receive. Many I don’t agree with, but I realize that accepting a piece of fiction for publication is a very subjective judgment call. My acceptance of your rejection letter is also a subjective process and therefore I am returning your letter to you. I did read your letter. I read every letter I receive. Your letter was well-written, but due to time constraints from my own writing schedule, I am unable to make editorial comments. I do make mistakes. Don’t you, as an editor, be disheartened by this role reversal. The road of publishing is long and tedious. You need successful publications and I need for successful publications to print my stories. I will expect to see my story in your next publication. Good luck in the future.”
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Stefan Merken My New Hero
I saw this on Andrew Sullivan's blog, its a rejection note sent by the writer Stefan Merken to an editor who had rejected one of his short stories: “Please forgive me for not accepting your rejection letter. At this time I cannot accept a rejection of my short story. I accept more than 99 percent of the rejections I receive. Many I don’t agree with, but I realize that accepting a piece of fiction for publication is a very subjective judgment call. My acceptance of your rejection letter is also a subjective process and therefore I am returning your letter to you. I did read your letter. I read every letter I receive. Your letter was well-written, but due to time constraints from my own writing schedule, I am unable to make editorial comments. I do make mistakes. Don’t you, as an editor, be disheartened by this role reversal. The road of publishing is long and tedious. You need successful publications and I need for successful publications to print my stories. I will expect to see my story in your next publication. Good luck in the future.”
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10 comments:
I love it :-)
Wicked hilarious. Wish I had thought to do that a time or two.
Dave
Stefan kicks ass.
Liam
Oh man, me too. Brilliant idea.
HAHAHAHAHA!
And I love that picture. My PC has only barely been spared a similar fate so many times.
gb
Gerard
Once I set a typewriter on fire, but so far my computer has escaped unharmed.
A...
On fire? Now that's pretty rock 'n' roll.
gb
Ger
I'll be honest, it was one of those "seemed a good idea at the time" things but it spiralled a bit after that, taking out a couple of manuscripts, short stories, etc. etc. All rubbish no doubt, but still those things are best left in box in the attic not in a smouldering ash heap in the garden.
A..
I'm sure I've written plenty that deserves to be burned, but I've never had the cojones to strike that match. Worst I've ever done is deleted a few paragraphs I'd spent two nights on. Even the stuff that makes me cringe is still lying about somewhere in my house.
There's still time, though.
gb
No way, dude. Computers cost entirely too freakin' much to be that reckless.
Mr. Merken's reversal of subjective is amusing and interesting in artistic principle, but it be even better if he found some way to reverse the role of power behind the publishing medium.
tcs
if only that were possible. i suppose the internet is changing the balance a little bit though.
thanks for the comment
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