33 Comments

Chuckle, chuckle. Just back from a couple of weeks away on a couple of tiny tropical islands! I have a LOT of catching up to do in SubStack. A very enjoyable read. Well done.

Expand full comment

Oh gosh, Terry, this is brilliant! The last one is heartbreaking and hilarious - or is it hilarious and heartbreaking? I loved the notes and learned a great deal from them - this post is not only an experiment in style but also a tips and tricks post, which I appreciate just as much! Awesome, as always. Not only are you keeping this up with remarkable and impressive consistency (how many experiments IS it now?) but they keep getting more interesting/more exciting/funnier/more clever/more WTH? with every posting!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Rebecca. That last one was actually a real one I received -- even though I HAD checked the Writers' and Artists' Year Book. Funnily enough, when I replied to tell them that their entry was incorrect they didn't bother to reply.

Expand full comment

Iligitimi non curunbum.... 😉

Expand full comment
author

You mean illegitimi non corundum I presume, or was that another Holdenism? Most fitting as it happens

Expand full comment

Ooopsie! Keyboard butterfingers - I stand both embarrassed and corrected! Thanks, Terry! 🤣

Expand full comment
author

🤣

Expand full comment
Apr 15Liked by Terry Freedman

Liked this post, especially as it appears Ralph Steadman edited your first page!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Bryan. LOL

Expand full comment

Such a great experiment and role-play. This act could become a short story itself!

Expand full comment
author

Ha! I like the idea! Thank you, Kathleen

Expand full comment

Oh the comments. I’d like to know the back story of the people/characters commenting. Frustrated writer turned editor? Is one sitting in his Oval Office?

Expand full comment
author

Oval office: LOL. Some of the comments were helpful I thought. Your description is right to some extent in some circs. Certainly as far as some book reviewers are concerned!

Expand full comment

Love the last one. Short, to the point and unarguable!

Expand full comment
author

It IS arguable! That was the REAL one I'd received, despite the fact that the WAYB stated categorically that the publisher DID take that sort of material.

Expand full comment

Oh... well you wouldn't want them as publishers then. If their editors, with whom you would work closely, have no idea of the company's code, I would say a near miss.

Expand full comment
author

Almost exactly what I thought, Prue: a lucky escape

Expand full comment
Apr 14Liked by Terry Freedman

One of the best yet! 🤣👏

This is just like how I annotate thesis chapters from my students 😉

Expand full comment
author

What? You tell them not to give up the day job? LOL. Currently bingeing on Dark. I'm in 1953 now, and my brain is doing flip flops. Thanks a bunch. 😂

Expand full comment
Apr 14Liked by Terry Freedman

I've said worse 🤣

So glad you're enjoying ;)

Expand full comment
author

I don't recall using the word "enjoying" 🤣

Expand full comment

Oh, those editors...

Expand full comment
author

Quite!

Expand full comment
Apr 14Liked by Terry Freedman

This was just an experiment, and it wasn't even about MY writing and it still made my heart sink, my stomach queasy. I actually got a physical reaction, Terry. That last example killed me. After all the rejections I have received over the last 30 years, you'd think I'd be inured. I think all NEW writers should receive a book full of these examples, so they know what they are getting into. Beautiful!

Expand full comment
author

Thahnks, Sharron, and sorry about the reaction. I console myself with the knowledge that LOTS of successful authors were rejected by loads of publishers. I think The Godfather finally made it on the second trawl through the list of publishers. Much depends on who gets toi see the MS, what mood they're in, and whether they've had lunch (reseach has shown that if you're in court the judge is likely to pass a more lenient sentence if he or she has just had lunch. I hope this information proves to be of practial use to you. 🤣)

Expand full comment
Apr 14Liked by Terry Freedman

Ah, you are so right, Terry. Sometimes it is just the luck of the draw. I had five travels articles accepted for publication in the San Francisco Examiner -that editor took everything I sent him. I was in HEAVEN! Then a different man replaced him, who summarily rejected my things as if they were dog poop. Broke my heart ( temporarily, of course.)

Expand full comment
author

Haad the same experience, Sharron. It sucks, as you Americans might say.

Expand full comment
Apr 14Liked by Terry Freedman

Loved this! The last version made me smile hugely, as did "Keep the day job". It would be fun to see your comments to the editors' comments, "Dear Editor(s), you all failed to miss the point as well as my mad writing skills, where I draw the reader in not only to wonder, but to figure stuff out."

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Mary. That last one was real! I received it from a company that said, in the WAYB, that it DID publish the kind of thing I sent in.

Expand full comment
Apr 14Liked by Terry Freedman

Wowzers! I didn't expect that was the real one. Shocker. 😲

Expand full comment
author

Yes. Strangely enough, when I replied saying I HAD looked in the WAYB and that's what it said, they didn't reply. But who want to deal with such a nasty bunch anyway?

Expand full comment
Apr 14Liked by Terry Freedman

Exactly! Leave those unfriendly dogs lie.

Expand full comment
author

:-)

Expand full comment