Editors are busy people. We get it. They receive a gazillion submissions and manuscripts, most of which aren’t even relevant. We do feel their pain. But then again, for every writer who is too lazy to study the writer’s guidelines, there are many writers who put tremendous effort into researching the magazine, dissecting the guidelines and perfecting that query letter. And there is the endless waiting on the writer’s part, when the writer’s going crazy with all the questions in his head:
-Did they even see the query or did it just get lost in the mail box?
– If they did read the query, did I not get an answer because my e-mail account failed me or because they forgot to reply? Or was it because they just didn’t want to spend time sending out a rejection e-mail?
Did any of these sound familiar? After spending all that time on a query, and spending even more time waiting for the publication’s response time to pass, we are left wondering in the uncertainty of it all. Now, I don’t care how busy the editors are. I want that reply, whether it is positive or negative, right after the response time is over.
This is where the connection (that I made) with the movie Up in the Air comes in. Up in the Air is a romantic comedy/drama starring George Clooney. It is a very bittersweet & entertaining movie and you can read a detailed review (without spoilers) on my entertainment blog. But if you haven’t seen the movie, all you need to know is that George Clooney’s character fires people for a living. If a corporation wants to do the layoffs through an outsider, they get him to do the dirty work. Yes, it is not a pleasant career. And it is not a great moment to hear that you were fired. But it is better to know, as soon as possible, so that you can move on.
With writers, the problem for the most of the time, is that we have to wait weeks, or months to hear we were “hired” or not. Since editors are so busy, wouldn’t it be so find a person who would tell the writers that they simply weren’t right for the job. Writers need to know when they aren’t going to be assigned an article, so that they can pitch the idea to other magazines. Plus, telling someone they are not hired is not as depressing as telling them they are fired.
We need to know. One way or another. So if editors are too busy to reject us, why not let someone else do it? Might be wishful thinking, but I think this idea would actually do both sides a big, fat time-saving favor. What do you think?
Hi Pinar,
It is quite interesting your suggestion, but you did not say what happened in the end. Did they give you an answer when you chased them.
Unfortunately there seems to be a policy that writers should not ‘disturb’ editors with an answer. It is indeed quite annoying, especially as you cannot approach another magazine until you got the reply. I do like your suggestion though.
Thanks for commenting, Claudia:)
Well, with some, I got the answer after a couple of follow-ups. With some, I heard directly in a short period of time (but this is the exception, unfortunately)and with most, I didn’t hear anything, even after following-up after the response time expired. So I still really appreciate the idea of editors hiring someone for the sole purpose of letting writers know.
A common advice given to writers is that “editors are busy”. “It is not that they don’t want to return your e-mail, they just don’t have the time.”
Well,I can imagine how busy the editors are. That’s why I came up with the suggestion. I’d also appreciate it if they acknowledged writers are busy as well…