Author and Editor

I recently received a swarm of essay submissions for Author, many of whose pitches sounded like something I might want to publish in the magazine. To each of these writers I replied: Send it along and I’ll have a look. Send them they did. I soon had an inbox full of flagged emails with attached Word documents awaiting my attention.

I should point out that I was glad for all the submissions. I was hoping that with luck I’d be able to schedule out articles well into the winter. I’m lazy, you understand. If I have all the essays I need for several months, that’s one less thing I have to think about for a while. However, I am not so lazy that I’ll publish something that doesn’t satisfy me. I have to like it.

That, then, was how I began reading each submission. I wanted to like it. I wanted to be surprised and engaged. I wanted the author to bring their unique perspective to their story, to include nothing extraneous, for the author to never complain or brag. That’s what I wanted. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before I found myself writing a number of the kind of emails that I, as a writer, have always hated receiving. I tried to make these notes as kind and as personal as possible, but I was impatient, and I had another essay to read, and I may not have always expressed my compassion toward the author as well as I would have liked. 

I understand as well as any human writer on earth how much rejection stinks. What I often forget is how neither party enjoys this exchange. We’re both disappointed. The writer is always more disappointed than the editor, but an editor must wrestle with his or her own emotions as well. I couldn’t help but worry a little for how my email replies would be received. It was like the roles were briefly reversed. As it should be. We are all author and editor, creating and assessing, desiring with each new story a satisfaction that we alone can name.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com