Personal Rejections & Subsequent Submissions

[RSchibler]

I've gotten personal rejections from a few places, but I'm still chasing that first sale. When I submit a story to a publication I've gotten a personal from in the past, should I change my cover letter at all? Or do you just trust that when they said they wanted you to try again, they'll remember? Thanks.

[Jeremyteg]

In general, I wouldn't change the cover letter because of a past personal rejection. Whether or not they remember you probably will have little bearing on the decision of whether or not to buy the next story you submit. The decision of whether or not to buy a story has everything to do with that particular story and whether or not it is a fit for that venue at that particular time. The only time I can really imagine the identity of the author factoring into a decision to publish something is if that author is notoriously difficult to work with, and then it's not likely to help the author at all.

It's also worth considering that some venues (like BCS) give personalized rejections to everyone, and that other venues (like Writers of the Future) anonymize submissions so that the editor doesn't know who the author is until after they've made their decision to buy the story or not.

[RSchibler]

Thanks, that was kind of my thinking. Thanks for the point that the story that matters is the one you're submitting, not any you've written in the past. It's just nice when they give feedback and say, "I hope you'll try us again," and for some reason I was thinking I should respond to that somehow. I can see why it makes sense not to! My personals were from F&SF and Flash Fiction Online-I think neither does personals as a matter of course, but I could be wrong. Thanks again.

[Jeremyteg]

You would be right that F&SF and FFO are not "all-personal" rejections, so congrats on those!

[RSchibler]

Thanks. It's funny what counts as hopeful encouragement in this field!