Over at Fence there’s a exchange between the editor and a contributor that devolves incredibly quickly into rather shameless namecalling (via Chekhov’s Mistress). Despite the nastiness, I have to say that just getting any response from an editor of a literary journal is difficult, so an editor responding multiple times should earn at least some respect. I’ve failed to hear from editors about a submission going on thirteen months (never responded to two emails), contributor copies (or even if they’ve finally published the issue in which my work was supposed to appear), and had stories accepted only to find all the emails on the journal site turned into non-functioning addresses that just pop back all my nicely phrased queries. So yes — politeness is key, and so is staying on top of your correspondence. Not that I’ve done that at all for the Southern California Review, but hey, I can advocate some things on principle.
Literary Journal Correspondence
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Every writer NEEDS this book.
It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.
Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.
One thought on “Literary Journal Correspondence”
One of my favorites was when I got a story published at a small journal, and two months after my story was published, the journal sent me a polite form rejection letter for the same story. As in your example above, I never got my three free copies either (I requested them three times). It was a classic case of the right hand not knowing the left.
Armand