Hi Geoff,
I was wondering if you had any tips on how to view the different rejections letters.
Here's a few examples of opening lines
At this time, the editors at X have chosen not to publish "Y" in the next available issue.
Thank you for thinking of X. We are sorry to say that your submission isn’t a good fit for us. Other editors may react differently (and frequently do). We wish you success in your writing and publishing.
Thank you for sending me your poems, which I enjoyed reading. Thanks, too for telling me about yourself and your father and his connection to X. I'm sorry to say, however, that I'm going to pass. The robust response to the Y column compels me to vote "No" far more often than I ever anticipated. Please understand.
Thank you for your recent submission. While I found much to admire here, I am afraid I am going to have to pass on these.
I think that examples 3 and 4 have good potential in terms of my resubmitting. I think that 4- Duotrope said that the Journal writes 29% comments. What are your thoughts on rejection letters? Do you wait for a while like 6 months after a rejection to resubmit?
Thanks again-
Debbie
Thanks, Geoff. This is very helpful!
some general thoughts: 1) this is pretty cold; you can resubmit but they don't sound overly enthusiastic to ride. This feels like a generic slush pule rejection
2) nicely worded, but still feels like a generic slush rejection
3) I don't have enough context for the notes the rejection states, but this sounds like they'd be pretty open to receiving more--receiving personal notes and phrasing like "which I enjoyed" are clues
4) a bit less personal than 3, but still encouraging
RE: the questions *even places that don't give personal responses are ok to send back to
*unless they specifically ask to see more material ASAP, I'd wait 4-6 months before sending again (of course, check a journal's guidelines for more specific info)
*Duotrope numbers are a helpful starting guide, but are inaccurate due to under-reporting and the fact not all writers use it; take everything with a grain of salt
Hope this helps!