There had been a brief, two minute reverie early morning soon after waking. Usual thing: after some reassuring revision the day previous the conviction sky-rocketing, affirmation bursting through the clouds.
The editorial room at Granta were sharing “Al-Fatiah” among the members, smiles for miles over the floor of the upper storey pile in the grunge/cool end of town. Readers stood against windows for the dim London light flexing the loose sheafs of paper that had buckled in their hands as they followed the story of the strange Muslim birthday party in the Tropics. Nothing quite like it come across any of the desks previously. This was the reason for their openness to all-comers—the unaccountable shot from the dark. (One or two of the US mags would not entertain anything sent by anyone but an agent.)
Title of course alerted them immediately to Islam.
"In Progress" at Submittable Granta usually took six months; here a matter of weeks.
— Hey Eric. You seen this thing from Sin’pore?...
Which led one naturally to a review of the notable—indeed, as it will be shown presently, magnificent—rejections of recent months. Breathtaking missives. As good as a pure, unadulterated hit no doubt; shoot a fellow to the stars.
Late Melbourne winter brought the first of the season's boosts from ABR — Australian Book Review: long-listing for their Liz Jolley Short Story Competition.
Twenty dollars for privileged entry; two or three submitted because the particular judge in this round held promise. If only one could get it into her hands.
Bingo! Eight hundred plus entrants winnowed to a mere twenty-two. Less than two dozen; hardly more than a score. A strange one they'd settled on, a football tale set on a river-bank.
UNFORTUNATELY pro forma when it came was virtually without any sting whatever. Second-stage Short-list would have been preferable of course. Alack the day. What to do? as they sighed on the Equator.
Pro forma was Boston Agni too, though that was unknown at the time.
Dear ......
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read…… We found the writing lively and interesting and enjoyed reading it. After careful consideration, we've decided this manuscript isn't right for us, but please consider sending other work in the future.
This is not our customary rejection. We hope you'll keep us in mind.
Kind regards,
The Editors
P.S. Without submissions like yours…. Please click here for a discounted subscription rate offered as a thank-you to our submitters.
Couldn't get carried away; a buzz nevertheless. More buzz even than disappointment in this case. Agni had published how many Nobel winners, both early and late career? Cathcart, Best American, Pulitzers. You could justifiably cream your jeans over the near-triumph.
Google to confirm: “Agni rejection letter”. They ran two. One was flat steam-roller; two cited above.
Shooting the follow-up submission with cool “thank you for yr recent encouragement” 5 - 6 weeks later after much anxious revision, much pondering over selection from the heavy drawer, in fact elicited the same thing again from Boston Ag. Same as before: Thank you.... lively and interesting and enjoy... please more....
Two fine rejection notes from top-shelf East Coast USA. Close, but not close enough, and second naturally hardly matched the first for charge.
Between times Google had revealed the pro forma. Not a specially penned letter to the author personally. (A suspicious writing friend had suggested promotional exercise.)
You might be in the league somewhere Bud, knocking on the door. Keep at it tiger.
Agni only paid $150 max, or $20 per page, but they didn't need to offer more. Agni — Sanskrit for burning flame, enlightenment, the Holy Grail. You wanted them for that alone.
One problem was material from the Equator up in the U.S. of A. WTF?... What in the heck of lure was there even among a literary readership for Malay ethnic stories and reportage in the States? The Malays? There had not even been much of Islam in the two 4,500 worders sent. Nothing instantly tangy. No go Joe. What to do?
The Brits were a better option: colonial ties, Malaya Emergency, Fall of Singapore. Cheap holidays were still popular in Penang and some of the other islands. There were nothing like as many journals and mags in the UK. (An Australian writer based on the Equator had positioned himself outside his natural territory. Disqualified, estranged himself. No crying over that spilt milk.)
For reasons of delicacy and reluctance to expose sources, the name of the mag. concerned in this culmination must remain nameless. The UK as much as this writer cares to divulge. The North…. And colour/s in the title.
Submission had been sent about twelve months before. Relevant issue published end of year previous. Notice had come of the publication; nothing of specific news otherwise.
Not all the journals and magazines responded of course, one had gotten used to that. Snowed; small, often volunteer/intern crew. Lit. mags were precarious; one needed to strike one on the up, editor with a bit of vim and vigour. Some government or institutional support that had spin-off promotional value.
There had been a “massive” delay the Ed. Department in the north of the old dart....
What set this young outfit apart was the laudable principle of replying personally to all submissions received. A real, personal note that demonstrated the submission had been hefted, read and pondered. Most of the top tier ran at about 1,000 per month in the mail bag. Most of the top, middle and lower tier too warned writers not to expect anything other than pro forma in the case of rejection, apologies in advance. Understandable.
Two weeks ago the cheer from the UK people in question:
P…
Sorry for the massive delay in writing back to you. We had tonnes of subs and like to write to everyone individually.
Although we couldn't include your pieces for …. (now available here….) we all really liked the pieces and shortlisted them too. They both demonstrate a real flair and energy with language which we loved. Brutal, cunning, acerbic and beautiful. Very stimulating work. We're going to open up for submissions soon, and we really hope you'll consider sending us work again.
All Best
X
For REJECTION.
Only the coldest heart could have been anything other than elated. In the case of this particular magazine, however, this was second time around too. The year before other work had met with similar…(froth?).
A decent editorial standpoint certainly.
"Beautiful" had been in the previous response. Really creamy appreciation that had led to a forwarding to the writing circle. Guys! Take a look at this willya! Feast your eyes, guys!
Then just the other day a sweet young angelic femme in the same office in the cold north of the former powerhouse wrote again. It was a surprise to receive another mail from the same source.
For a few moments thoughts of a turnaround. Re-consideration. Were they immediately wanting to claim for the following issue?...
A welter of rapid thoughts at the appearance in the In-box.
Well no, not to be. But not bad again. Somehow piles and division of labour had gotten confused.
Another rich appreciation of the same rejected pieces second time round falling at the last hurdle. Important to add here too, the particular piece this young woman found so compelling was heavily laden with brutish sex and violence; in one sequence a fellow threatened with hard, lube-less fucking no quarter given. Inspired nonetheless to write the sharp-eyed young intern:
Hello P
Thank you so much for choosing to send these through to us here at…. Secondly, sorry for the massive delay in getting back to you, considering the volume of submissions we received…. it really has taken us this long to reply to everyone personally.
The editorial team was huge for ….. and decisions had to be unanimous. Unfortunately we couldn't include your work this time. I really enjoyed your syntax and narrative structure, it is so curious! I was absolutely fascinated by your writing style, I haven't quite come across something like it before.
I hope you will think about sending us....
X…… is also out now and available here....
Warm Wishes,
Z
General editor
Slowly biting down on the bile. Dusting off and mounting the steed once more. Third time lucky perhaps.
What might ACCEPTANCE bring from these lads? (In lieu of payment.)
And Honesty Association's shining bright badge demands frank admission: after subsequent revision months later the pieces concerned here were all found to fall some wee way short of utterly & blindingly compelling. A bee’s dick short. Granted.
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