Friday, November 04, 2011

Rejection

I got a rejection yesterday. I've gotten lots of rejections before, and while having your art rejected isn't fun, this particular rejection was just mean. The rejection letter said something like, "We have deemed that your work is not of sufficient quality or artistic merit for our program."

Wha?

Two of the pieces I submitted, mind you, were good enough to appear on the cover of a certain well-known beading magazine. But they were not of sufficient quality or artistic merit for their program.

My sister, who is an up-and-coming science fiction/fantasy/horror writer, called me and understood exactly what had happened. She said, "There's a difference between CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and just plain criticism."

What I experienced was the latter.

It got me so pissed off. How dare these people go so far as to insult me and my work like that? Being rejected is hard enough; but getting a MEAN rejection is just, well, mean.

I may write a response to their rejection letter and suggest that in the future they refrain from using those particular sentences when turning down candidates for their program. Why? Because nice matters.

4 comments:

Karen Firnberg said...

There are ways to get the message across without being hurtful. I'm so sorry this happened to you. Hugs to you.

Christine Altmiller said...

after looking at your etsy site, it is obvious the problem is with them, not you! they need to chose their words more carefully.

VanBeads said...

Thanks, ladies. I'm over it now, but when I first read that rejection, it really hurt. I did email them and told them that they should choose their words more carefully in future. We'll see what happens.

TruDelight said...

How DARE they? Who do they think they are? Honestly, I NEVER! Tell us who they are, so we can all hate them for you! ;-D

In you e-mail to them, you might have asked them to be more specific in their generalizations. Knowing your work, it's consistent high quality, the time, energy and expertise that goes into the designing and creating such fabulous works of art, the very least they could have done would have been to be a bit more forthcoming about their "whys and wherefores." Doncha think?