That editor isn't as busy as I am.
My rejections for unsolicited pieces are one or two lines. I have plenty of stuff I need to edit (and write) to ensure the paper doesn't go out on the newsstands with just a bunch of ads.
If I know and respect the writer, maybe three.
Granted, we don't call for submissions and can't use the vast majority of them. People usually pitch us ideas first.
That's basically what I do as an editor, except for the very occasional writer that I have to reject, but who shows great promise.
The give and take is much different when I query, and get a go ahead. This article was for a magazine department, though, and because of it's quirky nature, I guess, they want only complete articles.
Now, probably because of my publishing record, I very seldom receive a form rejection, but even teh personalized ones have become almost form. There usually a paragraph telling me how much they liked the article or the story, but can't use it. Then a paragraph or two telling me why they can't use it in detail.
Often, there's another paragraph or two telling me what the editor is after at the moment, and asking whether I'd be interested in writing this or that.
It's almost always one page, and two, every great now and then, but I've
never had an editor go on like this one did, or anywhere close to it. It makes me wonder if she might have been sampling a little Christmas cheer a bit early.
