TWICE REJECTED YET STILL HOPEFUL — by Steve Nadis
Yesterday I got an envelope from the New Yorker that intrigued me, as I had no idea what might be lurking inside it. It turned out to be a rejection letter for an unsolicited piece I’d submitted last year. I suppose there’s nothing unusual about that–something to be expected, perhaps–except for the fact that the piece had already been rejected last year in no uncertain terms. Yet for some reason the magazine felt obliged to eliminate any glimmer of doubt on the subject by rejecting it a second time. Maybe there’s a message to be found somewhere in that second, unsolicited rejection–something along the lines of: Don’t send anything to us ever again!
Or maybe, just maybe, there’s a more positive spin to be found here. It’s often said that the third time’s a charm. So maybe there’ll be a third rejection which, as in fairy tale endings, turns out to be acceptance. That, I’m afraid, is an outcome that any rational observer will have a hard time accepting.
It wouldn’t hurt if we all clapped our hands and shouted “we believe”, just like in ‘Peter Pan’. Sometimes, ya never know…
Thanks FW, I need all the help I can get, as I’m not likely to get by on merit alone.
Dear Mr. Nadir,
Thank you for your recent blog post. I’m sure there is a great deal of interest in posts of this sort, however it is not suitable for our website.
Kind regards,
the editor
Ouch, rejected again. It’s starting to become a habit.