Salt Hill

Just got a rejection from Salt Hill today... from October 1st, 2007.

All of the poems have since been accepted elsewhere, and because I never received anything from them (until now, of course), I already have another batch of poems that I sent to them a few months ago.

Any rejection beyond nine months (especially since most are form at that point), let's face it, is kind of annoying, but yes, it happens, and we deal with it. But what really annoys me is they sent back the seven or eight pages comprising the manuscript. I had 41 cents on the envelope.

Dear Salt Hill Editors,

Folding eight sheets of paper into a smaller window still makes eight sheets of paper the same exact weight. That means that in order for the post office to send it back to me, they need more postage, and if you're not willing to do that, which I wouldn't expect you to, please just send back the rejection slip.

What I realized was a day before I left to go back to Pennsylvania for Christmas to see my family the post office sent me a note that I had a pick-up that needed extra postage. I didn't have time the next morning to run there, so I put the note aside, and eventually forgot about it or didn't see it or misplaced it when I got back to Richmond.

But the fact remains: a ton of feathers weighs the same amount as a ton of lead.

At any rate, there have been other times this has happened with Salt Hill.

Am I the only one having problems with them?

It's as simple as not sending them work anymore, I suppose.

But again, and as always, I've been fairly lucky in the last few years to have such minimal problematics when it comes to weird situations like these, which is nice.

And thanks to the USPS for finally delivering it after almost four weeks, when it could've gone in the trash anyway.

Thank You USPS

I just got a rejection in the mail from a journal who will remain nameless. Again, fine with me, their name goes on the list for the next batch that I have ready.

But what annoys me is that I was lucky to get the rejection at all. I say this because when I started sending out a few years ago, I failed to put something on the cover letter saying something like, "Please recycle any unused portion of the manuscript -- just notification is fine." AKA: Shred the pages and send me just the rejection slip if you don't like them.

This aforementioned journal, however, in their quickness to return a response (which I do appreciate greatly), forgot to read that at the bottom, or didn't care. Written on the fat SASE, since they clearly included the 5 pages of poems included in my original submission, was "Postage due .17" and I'm not sure I would've delivered that to my mailbox has I been the postal worker / delivery person. Who paid for that seventeen cents?

And the thing is, had they trashed it, I probably would've queried in three months, to an email back that said, "We sent a rejection two months back." Journals expect us as writers and submitters to take the time and follow their format and submission guidelines, but they can't read the necessary information we write to insure we at least get our rejection back. Not cool.

I don't know. The whole thing just annoys me. And a word to the wise -- even though it may not help, clearly -- if you're not writing something like that on your cover letter, you should. That's the reason why I did it: multiple envelopes returned with "owed postage," though the USPS was nice enough to deliver it, when they didn't have to in the first place.