![]() These reasons show you that thanking the editor is more than a pandering gesture or another endless administrative task that keeps you from your writing. I’m part of the community of writers and editors.” Now how do you feel? I have a file of letters to editors who have published my work. Your note is really a letter to yourself. When you thank the editor, you’re thanking yourself.įor your growth as a writer, this last is the most profound. We receive not only a good feeling but a possibly more favorable reading of our next submission and certainly a greater sense of equality and mastery. And the universal law applies: when we give, in this case a thank you note, we receive in return. Instead, you can find many things to extol: the layout, the headings, when or where in the publication the piece appears, that cute cartoon near the title, the judicious editing of your 500-word bio, or, if you’re really scraping, the font style. Praise of your own words should come from the droves of readers who write in thanking the editor for publishing your piece. I do not mean how well your published piece reads. You can always find something to thank the editor for. See the sample letter at the end of this article. Some writers, building on the editor’s good judgment in the current publication, attach the next submission with the thank you letter for the first-a fine idea. ![]() And when you submit after you’re published, which should be very soon after, you can refer to your letter of gratitude. At least you’ll get to the top of the pile faster. The editor will remember your thoughtfulness and likely regard your next submission with kinder, gentler eyes. Thanking the editor is politically savvy. When we thank the editor, we neutralize all this erroneous, self-defeating, and egotistical thinking. Sometimes we think editors exist only to torment us with the dreaded “R” word. Sometimes we’re certain they have a stash of in-house writers chained in the basement, hollow-eyed and starving, feverishly grinding out everything that ever appears in the magazine. Sometimes we’re sure they’ll never publish anyone, especially a writer who slides in on the slush pile. Sometimes we feel we’d do anything to get them to publish us, even to cutting the guts out of our most labored-over beloved creation. We tend to have a love-hate relationship with editors. Thanking the editor acknowledges the partnership. Don’t editors deserve a little recognition and appreciation? 4. They toil so we can have a vehicle for our writing, boast to friends and relatives, especially our fancy-attorney big sister, and chalk up another notch on our resumes. Thanking the editor says you realize editors are people too. We writers are prone to self-pity and narcissism: we’re unappreciated geniuses, the publishing world is against us, the hacks get the breaks, etc., etc.īy thanking the editor, you’re going beyond your self-absorbed world and extending yourself outward to one of those in your writing world who matter most. You may have dumped this as a reason for anything the moment you left your parents’ house. Nevertheless, whether you get paid in dollars, copies, a six-month subscription, or an autographed picture of the editor’s twin Dobermans, it makes sense to thank the editor for several reasons: 1. Such blunders and disappointments are inevitable. When, hands shaking, you opened to your page, a printing error obscured nine-tenths of your name. Four months after the piece appeared, you received a whopping payment of two contributors’ copies, which arrived in your mailbox folded like a limp accordion. ![]() Your countless drafts and dared emailed submission on a 200-word piece have finally reaped a small magazine’s acceptance. Despite your dogged deluges of submissions, no one has published you and you secretly feel no one ever will.ī. Reasons You May NOT Want to Thank an EditorĪ. #SAMPLE PAGE LATTER YEARBOOK FULL#Here’s the site’s affiliate disclosure policy for full details. Thank an editor, you’re wondering, for what? An editor is my sworn enemy, whose bastions must be stormed and armies of red-pen-wielding assistants vanquished for the cherished prize of publication. Maybe your metaphors are a little tamer, but you probably feel this way for one of two reasons.ĭisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. The following is a guest post by Noelle Sterne. ![]()
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