Rejection Conjecture

Rejection sucks. I hate rejection. I avoid it like the plague. I try to propose things in the most friendly by-the-way suggestion possible as to avoid a big nasty "No." What can I say, who wants to be denied?

Well, I thought this breakdown and analysis of rejection letters was cool.

Here's the interesting part: I got one just a week ago!

The story: I wrote a piece in hopes of publishing it on Londes.com, a Magic: The Gathering site + store that has plenty of articles and writers and whatnot.

Why? Well, I dig Magic, but I haven't played in 7 years. I just got back into the game, and am enjoying what little I do play. I wanted to write a 'retrospective' article that detailed my thoughts on coming back to the game after all these years. I told the editor that it should go under "Humor" as it is really meant to amuse and give a little pause to the average Magic player (who's average age is 13, btw). Of course, those savvy enough to be reading Londes.com are probably a lot older, and that's the audience I wrote for.

Now I have this 1500 word piece with nowhere to go. I should post it or something.

Anyway, here's the reject letter I got:

Evan,

I've been thinking about what to do with your article for the past week, and I've come to this conclusion: while the writing is solid, I don't see what a reader would take away from this. As such, I cannot use it.

However, as I said, your writing is solid, and I would still like to see what else you can produce.

Finally, as a small note, we don't run contests at Londes.com. Instead, all articles published on our site are compensated with $8 in store credit. Then, after you have submitted a few articles, and we get an idea of how good a writer you are and the number of hits you get, we then make you an offer to become a columnist (columnists are paid in cash).

Thanks, and I hope to hear from you again in the future.

William Spaniel
Editor, Londes.com

If anyone's interested leave a comment and I'll post it as one. It's not much of a read to those who don't know Magic, but hell, if the need's there, at least I wouldn't have wasted an hour or so of my life in vain.

I do think I'm getting better at this columnist thing. Paul gave me a very nice comment on my recent article up at starchamber.net, and that's a good feeling. With Incursions (the SC expansion) due in just a few weeks I've got a lot of writing to do, and I'm excited to get started.

Plus there's Origins coming up, which entails a visit to my bud Tone's. Should be buckets of fun.

Buckets peeps, buckets.