This is what a rejection letter looks like:
Thank you for your query. I regret I have to pass on many interesting projects due to time constraints. I urge you to query widely of course!
It’s pretty simple, and you can see how it’s been honed through the years to be inhuman enough to discourage you from trying to persuade the person afterwords – which would, of course, necessitate a much harsher shut-down. It feels a lot like a date gone horribly wrong. You know that it’s not really about time constraints. If they really liked you, they’d find a way to fit you in. And you sort of want to know where you went wrong. What can I do so this doesn’t happen again? But you don’t want to be one of those jerks who just won’t take a hint. So you suck it up and try to figure it out on your own. Or you could take the other extreme and rant about how dumb this person was to not recognize such genius! That’s what Gerard Jones does on his site, www.everyonewhosanyone.com. (more…)