Rejection: How to Give It, How to Take It

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Title:	Rejection: How to Give It, How to Take It
Creator:	Dovya Blacque
Date(s):	February 1988
Medium:	print
Fandom:	mainly Star Trek
Topic:
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Rejection: How to Give It, How to Take It is a 1988 essay by Dovya Blacque.

It was printed in On the Double #6.

An essay written in direct response is Rejection: An Alternative to Give and Take.

Some Topics Discussed

• the role and limits of being a fic editor
• Star Trek: TOS Kirk/Spock fanfic
• drawerfic
• expectations and hurt feelings

From the Essay

Recently, I've been hearing a lot from writers about rejection notices they've been receiving. I don't know why people write to me about this, but they seem to be doing so in great numbers lately. Most of these writers say that they receive minimal comment when being rejected from a zine, but there have been a few notable occurrences of very rude, poorly worded, hurtful, harmful rejections.

One such occurrence happened several years ago to a writer on her first outing into the big, bad world of zine submissions. She'd written a K/S story that was a bit on the saccharine side, but far from poorly written. She sent it, not knowing any better at the time, to a very well thought of East Coast zine. Several months after submitting it, it was returned with what can only be describe as severe editing. The story had literally been re-written to take out all the author's per sonality, her writing style, her views and characters. Along with this returned manuscript came a one page letter. In this letter, the author was told that she did not know how to construct a sentence, she did not know STAR TREK, she did not know Kirk and Spock, that her characters were wrong and that, perhaps, she should take a few writing classes to teach her how to write. This letter was post-scripted with a note saying that the editors hoped this author's feelings weren't hurt as such was not their intention.

Well, needless to say, she was devastated. She didn't write for an entire year. But, when she finally did submit that same manuscript elsewhere, to another well thought of zine, it was accepted with very little editing and has received excellent response from the readers. (By the way, this author was brand new to fandom, but she had been writing for several years and had graduated college with a BA in English Literature with a minor in creative writing.)

So, who was right? The author or the editors? Neither? Both?

Well, in my opinion, the editors were perhaps right in rejecting the story as it obviously did not appeal to them, but they were very wrong in their methods of doing so.

Rejecting a submission to a zine is a fine art. Granted, some stories I receive are beyond bad and reach deeply into the dregs to abominable. But that is no reason to devastate the person who has submitted the story. My basic rule of thumb when rejecting a story is to do just that; reject the story not the author. This is a standard line I use when rejecting a submission that is truly bad: "Thank you for submitting to AS I DO THEE. Unfortunately, your story doesn't fit our needs right now. Please feel free to try again in the future. Best of luck...." Especially in cases where an author is new either to writing or to fandom, care should be taken not to destroy her ego and, in any case, it is certainly not my place to do so.

Of course, there is every degree of unacceptable story that has to be rejected for one reason or another. And rarely do I receive anything that is as bad as I suggested above. But it does happen. When a story of medium quality crosses my desk and I feel a rejection is in order, I might offer some criticism of the story, especially if this is an author I've worked with before or someone who is previously published. But even when criticism is offered, I always try to make a point of men tioning something good about the story as well as the items I think might need work. (This goes for stories I accept that need more work as well; I try to say something nice amid all the editing. After all, I'm a writer too and I know what it's like to be asked to rework something or to be rejected.)

Another occurrence of a fairly harsh rejection is more recent. This author wrote to me recently to tell me of a rejection letter she received which she thought to be uncalled for. This author submitted a story to a well thought of zine and was rejected for several reasons. To paraphrase the rejection letter, the editors began by saying the story did have the right feel for their zine and could have been very effective and moving. The editors went on to say that they felt they owned the author their reasons for rejecting the story even though they doubted the author would care to hear them. They then told the author that her writing style is 'over-written' and while 'many zines publish this type of prose', as they both knew, they do not. They then referred the author to the zines she could check to see how a writer who could write would have handled the story correctly. Again, the letter was ended by saying that the editors hoped the author's feelings were not hurt by their comments.

Now, what do I find so wrong with this? First of all, it is not an editor's place to tell an author that she cannot write, which is what the editors who made the comments above did. Nor is it an editor's place to make questionable comments about other publications to an author, especially when the author in the situation above has been published several times, when those comments suggest that the author's writing is only good enough to be printed in inferior publications. This is what I consider back biting and nasty, not to mention unprofessional and immature.

To recommend an author look at someone else's work to help her own writing is fine. But to tell her to look at someone's work who can write is simply telling that author that she can't.

As an editor, not to mention as a writer and human being, I do not feel all-knowing enough to state as fact what is good and what is bad. I can simply say what I like and what I don't like; what fits my zine and what does not fit my zine. Any editor who takes it upon herself to tell a writer that she cannot write or that her characters are wrong or that she should not try to write anymore is putting her self in a position that cannot, by any definition, be considered editorship. That takes a step toward godhood, which is not granted when someone decides to call herself an editor... no matter what kind of training she may have had.

My main point in writing this is to let authors and editors alike be aware that some people out there are taking themselves a bit too seriously, taking their position as editor as that of ultimate authority, which may be the case with their own zine, but that's all. It seems that some editors are not taking any care with new writers, let alone established writers' feelings. But most editors are gentle, especially with new writers. Just don't let a bad apple ruin fandom for you. Writing for fanzines can be a fulfilling, exciting, enriching experience. It's a fairly safe place, give or take an editor or two, to learn the craft of writing, to improve and grow and to see the changes in print. It's very inspiring to see your name, or your pen name, in print. It's more encouraging than anything you can learn in a class room or from reading books or from listening to editors (including me!).

So, I encourage all of you who are still writing those stories (K/S or not) in the dark with a flash light and locking them away in a drawer to submit them and not to be discouraged if you receive a bad rejection. After all, editors are only people and their opinions are only that; their opinions, no better or more valid than someone else's opinion.

Fan Comments

I'm going to disagree with Dovya Blacque slightly on editorial policy for rejecting stories. Certainly an editor should not perform a gratuitous hatchet job on the luckless author, but I do think some fairly specific reasons should be given for rejection. If anything, I feel I should give more comment than I do. Often I'm too busy to think about anything but "yes" or "no". But I do try to give some explanation. I've had authors write me and tell me that it is/was easier to hear no if they were given some reason. Obviously if an editor can find no redeeming grace in a piece, a plain "No thank you" is better than informing the writer to chuck it. I've seen authors make tremendous leaps in their writing abilities in a couple years time. But how is a writer to hone her skills If she receives no comment? Hopefully, an editor has a bit more training than the average reader and can spot the strengths and weaknesses of a particular piece. For example, if you basically disagree with an author's characterization, there's not much point to telling an author her characters are "wrong". However, if an author establishes a particular view of a character, but then haves them behave inconsistently, that would be a good thing to point out. Certainly personal taste is a major factor Fan Fic. Anyone who writes is going to get both good advice and bad about their work. I recently praised a story I'd read to the author, and was told three editors had turned it down before someone took it. It was a little too hard-edged for their tastes, but I would have grabbed it in a minute. My own personal taste runs to the dramatic, but I do try to provide some contrast in my zine. If I read a story that I consider reasonably well-written, but I already have some thing similar, or it's a little sweet, or a little too cute for my tastes, I often suggest it be sent to another zine. I know very well that many readers will like the story, perhaps far more than some thing I have chosen to print.

I agree with Dovya Blacque in her article on rejection when she says that new writers should not be discouraged by nasty rejection letters, yet I disagree with her policy of sending form letters in response to the worst stories she receives. Such writers really do need help, and a form letter will only discourage them. I know that I am discouraged when I receive a form letter from a pro editor, even though I expect them by now. I realize that pro editors don't have the time to write personal rejection letters, and that it isn't their function to teach the basics of writing. Yet where can beginning writers learn those basics?

When I was starting out, I was really a very bad writer, but a fan editor took me under her wing and told me how I could improve. If fan editors won't do that anymore, where will the new generation of fan writers come from? I hear complaints from all over fandom that zines aren't get ting enough submissions. This makes it doubly important to nurture new writers. No matter how bad their stories are now, they can all improve if someone will take the time to give them some guidance.

I also disagree with Dovya about only submit ting to editors who you think are good writers. Writing and editing are two different skills. Some people in fandom have both skills, but it doesn't necessarily follow that someone who writes well can also edit well.