You know, it can be tough receiving rejection. But it's so much better when you receive a nice gentle and encouraging letter. Let's take this one, for example, which is very heartfelt. Linda and Susan wish me warm regards and are looking forward to seeing more of my writing! Not only that, they encourage me to continue in my craft. Their support helps me get back up on my feet again. It's letters like this, individually addressed to me, Writer, written by and sent from the publisher's very own personal e-mail address, autonotify@glimmgertrain.com, that restore my faith in rejection letters. It shows me that there truly are editors out there who care, who don't just put on airs like they care by sending you a form letter designed to look personal. No, you can always count on Linda and Susan to go the extra mile.

It's so nice to know, as well, that we are on the same level. It isn't editor vs. author. We're friends. We're on a first name basis, Linda and Susan and I. Of course, apparently, they have forgotten mine. But, Writer, that's good enough. I mean, Linda and Susan have a lot of friends! At least Writer describes my occupation. Or, at least, it would if someone bothered to publish me. Linda and Susan truly believe in fairness and equality. Look, they even wrote this email together...and they are 'Co-editors.' One does not pull rank over the other. How nice. I can picture them giggling to each other when they say this word, together, at the same time! Linda and Susan are always finishing each other's sentences you know, over a nice fireside chat, sipping tea and knitting...and reading stories they are going to reject...then, together, crafting a personal e-mail and sending their warm regards to each and every submittor...er, Writer. Because Linda and Susan care. They don't take the cheap way out. And it would be cheap to just slough off some form letter and pretend it were personal. Linda and Susan agree: "We would never do that!" giggle, giggle, giggle

My Rebuttal: Geeze, now I'm actually paying for rejection letters. Glimmer Train is fairly well known, and this was a contest for unpublished writers. I paid $12 bucks to get rejected. In US dollars! That's like, worth a beaver in Canada! They put up a list of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner and the 22 runner-ups. I didn't even come in the top 25 of unpublished writers! Ouch! Still, at $12 (22 canadian beavers) a pop, I bet Linda and Susan made quite the pretty penny from all the submissions. But they deserve it, I guess, for all their hard work writing letters.