>Not long ago, I submitted a story to Chelsea, in large part because when I last submitted to them they turned me down but asked to see future work. I checked the guidelines prescribed on their website, put the package together, and mailed it off.
In my stack of mail upon return from my recent trip was a flimsy note from Chelsea, measuring about 2 x 3 inches, badly photocopied, with 23 cents postage due because the morons put my recyclable manuscript in the reply envelope:
Due to the overwhelming quantity of submissions and limited space in our journal, your work is being returned and/or discarded unread. No submissions will be considered until September 2006.
Message to editors: if you are closed to submissions, update your damn guidelines so that writers don’t waste their time and postage on submitting to you!
>They deserve a good tongue-lashing.
I had an experience with another Noted Journal some years back – I’d name it but hope that the editors have changed their ways – in which my returned mss envelope was stuffed with all sorts of materials about the magazine, the press, the editors etc. until it was well over weight. That necessitated a trip from my rural WV home to the Post Office to identify the offending item and retrieve it. That is one of two magazines forever off my list – the other one condemned for breathtaking rudeness.
>I got one of these, too.