Rejection accepted if written correctly

Last week, I got a rejection from a literary journal that was written on a used 1" x 3" post-it-note. Apparently that editor is still looking through his pile of read manuscripts trying to find this post-it-note with Bev's phone number and email address on the back.

"Thanks fer your manuscript. 'Tis a shame you culd not get this  tighted up s'more. Please

yous the spel checker next time." I hope I get to meet this editor or simple reader when I get

to short story heaven. I can deal with rejection letters and notes of any size but poorly

written notes from someone that spent zip in the way of time with it as compared to the

rewriting I went through with an editor.

I believe it was sarcasm, and the misspellings were deliberate.

Sounds like an intern to me, or a jerk.  I know a lot of editors use interns when they think they are too high and mighty to respond. 

I personally do not deal with people like that.  I only like to work with editors who personally respond to emails, even if it is a rejection.  To me, if I get that personal response, it is building a relationship and they will remember me next time. 

There are some large magazines and newspapers who do practice this.  Actually, you can bet that those who don't even publish their phone number anywhere (I can think of several like this) are not worth my time even.  You can get just as much pay from those who are nice!

By the way, I'm new to this.  I guess I'll post an introduction whenever I get around to it! Nice to be included! 

Question:   was your manuscript badly done and in need of spell-checking?   If not, see comments above.

If so, take it as a valuable message from the world. 

If you only work with editors who personally respond, you're limiting yourself to about two percent of all the editors out there.  Don't assume the editor's name on an e-mail means the editor wrote it.  Unless the editor is buying something form you, answering email and sending a rejection is what an intern is for, even when it comes through the editor's e-mail account.. 

Editors don't use interns because they consider themselves high and mighty, but because there simply isn't time to answer even a fraction of the writers who want a personal reply.  In my last stint as an editor, I had four hours per week to actually read manuscripts.  Four hours, and just over four hundred manuscripts.  Now throw in a couple of hundred e-mails, but no additional time.  This is not at all unusual. 

Answering everything personally is physically impossible.  Ain't Gonna Happen.

Believe me, the relationship you're trying to build is not going to be a good one.  I need an intern, and so do most editors out there.  If you won't deal with one, you're saying your time is not only more important than mine, but also more important than the time of those other four hundred snail mail writers, and two hundred e-mail writers.  Lots of luck with that approach.

But interns do NOT send such rejections.  They do what we ask, the way we ask.  A rejection like the one in this thread comes from an editor, and probably had very good cause behind it.

Really, too many writers seem to think an editor's primary job is reading manuscripts, snail mail or e-mail, and responding to the writers who submitted them.  This is simply not the case, for an editor or an agent.  Editors have a magazine to get out, and this, along with handling all the writers who have already sold manuscripts, eats up the time.  Agents have numerous published writers to deal with, and only a couple can eat up all the time in a week.