Rejection

Ficheall

I am in the process of setting up a website - or more accurately, moving a small publication wholly online - and a not insubstantial portion of the website will be dedicated to written pieces people submit to us.
Naturally, for the site to do well, the more people who send us contributions the better, but as the number of contributors increases, so, too, does the number of poor submissions.

Not submissions which require a lot of editing, that's understandable, but pieces which, if we're honest, require more "editing" and "re-writing" than saving them is worth. I don't know whether it's best, in such cases, to thank them but flat out reject the piece, ask the writer politely if they have anything "less ****e", or hold their hands the entire way through writing an acceptable piece in the hopes that they may learn and perhaps become a valuable contributor later.

What would be best from the contributor's point of view? Sure, rejection might be difficult to deal with initially, but a long, long string of "tweaks" and "advice" could become frustrating, and it's entirely possible that they might feel that I'm not qualified to offer criticism on their piece...


What might the good people of the CW forum recommend?

echo beach

Ficheall wrote: »

Not submissions which require a lot of editing, that's understandable, but pieces which, if we're honest, require more "editing" and "re-writing" than saving them is worth.

You have answered your own question. If it isn't worth the effort don't do it.
You can reject nicely, offering the hope of some success in the future, but if it ain't good enough it ain't good enough.

It is better to be rejected and have to keep working on improving than to have poor quality work out there with your name on it...or so I keep telling myself anyway.:)

Hildred

Ficheall wrote: »

I am in the process of setting up a website - or more accurately, moving a small publication wholly online - and a not insubstantial portion of the website will be dedicated to written pieces people submit to us.
Naturally, for the site to do well, the more people who send us contributions the better, but as the number of contributors increases, so, too, does the number of poor submissions.

Not submissions which require a lot of editing, that's understandable, but pieces which, if we're honest, require more "editing" and "re-writing" than saving them is worth. I don't know whether it's best, in such cases, to thank them but flat out reject the piece, ask the writer politely if they have anything "less ****e", or hold their hands the entire way through writing an acceptable piece in the hopes that they may learn and perhaps become a valuable contributor later.

What would be best from the contributor's point of view? Sure, rejection might be difficult to deal with initially, but a long, long string of "tweaks" and "advice" could become frustrating, and it's entirely possible that they might feel that I'm not qualified to offer criticism on their piece...

What might the good people of the CW forum recommend?

What genres do you plan to publish? That, I'm my opinion should play a not insignificant part in your final decision to publish or not.

Are the writers being paid, or having to pay, to have their work published on your website?

May I respectfully make a suggestion irrespective of my above questions/comment?

Would it be possible for the contributors to have their work published, regardless of how "bad" you may think it is and set up a system whereby the readers of the work vote to decide on its quality, or the lack thereof?

There are some highly successful authors whose work has been rejected by many publishing houses before finally being accepted, published and ultimately becoming world best sellers. J.K. Rowling is a perfect example - her first Harry Potter offering having been rejected by no less than 12 publishers before finally achieving the roaring success that she currently enjoys. Would you have rejected her manuscript and suffered the embarrassment of "not recognising a winner" when it crossed your desk? Or would you have accepted her manuscript and subsequently enjoyed a substantial boost both to your "fame" as a publisher and your bank balance?

Just my 10 cents worth. :-)

Ficheall

Many thanks, Hildred. That's good value for 10 cents.

The "genre", I suppose, is "humouresque and puzzles"...
I know that humour is very subjective, and that I mightn't "get" what the authors are going for, and I'm pretty open to new things - plus there are a couple of us on the editing board, so hopefully that will give a broader range of acceptability.

There's no money involved, save for our expenditure on the website and its upkeep. It is not expected to ever turn a profit, and will be for entertainment and slightly educational purposes only.

There will be "kudos" available for posts, yes, but the posts will be vetted before I put them up - otherwise readers could have to trawl through literally anything to find decent submissions. I rejected one this evening, for example, that had just a little too much semen vomit. Had the piece been funny enough, I would probably have let it slide, even though it might offend some people.

Weighing up the kudos from a potential J.K. Rowling against the likely demise of our website if we accept too many dodgy entries, the expected return leads me to believe that we should screen submissions.