Editing Rant: We Judge Your Emails (J is for Judge)

From the Internet Hive Mind (ICanHasCheezburger.com)

You reach out to an editor/publisher asking to submit a manuscript.

They respond with “We are closed at the moment. Here is how to monitor when we reopen.”

The proper response, if any, is to say thank you.

The improper response is ANYTHING OTHER than thank you.

Even worse when

  • punctuation is optional
  • capitalization is random (Example “I Already finished” “And i’m halfway”)
  • use of emojs … incorrectly
  • verb tense switches within two sentences of the email (At least I think they were sentences, punctuation was optional.)
  • misspellings
  • unclear wording.

No, really, even if we were open for submissions, your manuscript would bounce into orbit if your email communication is anything to go by.

Oh.

AND.YOU.ARE.RUDE.

Like I am going to go through the effort of keeping your fragile ego safe when editing. If you can’t handle, “sorry, we are closed” as an answer, ESPECIALLY when to get our contact information you went to our website where are submission guidelines are listed including the fact we are closed right now, you can’t handle being edited. I correct over 1,000 things EACH pass, and I do more than one pass and I’m one of three editors you will be working with.