Dismissed Out of Hand

[aggienaut]

   I submitted my Dominican Republic travel feature to the LA Times last night my time, which would have arrived there some time the night before Thursday morning. Their very snarky submissions guidelines said it could take as long as 12 weeks for them to get around to evaluating a story so I settled in to not expect a response for awhile.
   So I was a bit surprised the next morning to have a response from them. Looking at the message header, it appears they wrote their response at 7:01:46 am their time, Thursday morning. It reads in its entirety: "Thank you for your submission, Kris. I'm sorry I can't use it."

   Given the timing of email, I suspect they started their workday at 7:00 and had rejected my submission without bothering to even look at it within the first two minutes of their day. I rather suspect they don't consider it even worth reading a submission unless it comes from a known established writer. Ah well the thing is already written I guess I'll see if I have better luck flogging it off on a different newspaper.

Comments

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Why even solicit work if they're not going to review it? I'm sure there's some insider channel for "known" writers.

[iddewes]

Yeah that is pretty rude. You're a good writer! They missed out.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Wow...that is frigging rude all right! Hope another paper snaps it up!

*HUGS*

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

Have they ever published you? 

(First-name basis means nothing; this is Southern California.  They could have addressed you as “darling.”)

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

The worst that ever happens is rejection. So send that bugger out again!

[richaarde.livejournal.com]

That was rather terse, but I also imagine a publication like the LA Times gets hundreds of submissions every single day.

Maybe try a less-known publication?

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

Try not to take it personally—it really is a numbers game. The person reading had probably already rejected 10 others before yours in that “first two minutes of their day” and scores, of not hundreds, more to review ahead of them. And the decisions are made on a complex rubric of what the paper needs right now, a rubric that doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of your writing.

[pundigrion.livejournal.com]

Wow guys, just wow.