Editors Should Reject Rejection Letters

I've gotten used to rejection.

I started submitting manuscripts when I was 16 years old. At first it was an exhilarating process. I would type up a story or a play, do my best to proofread it, and finally package it carefully into a manilla envelope. Then, I would mail it off to New York or Chicago or Los Angeles.

Weeks later, my self-addressed envelope would come back to me. I didn't really expect to get accepted. It was only a tiny part of my subconscious that believed, "This is it, Wade, you've been discovered!" However, I did expect to find constructive criticism. I was hoping that the letter inside my SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) would reveal insight into how to make my writing better.

Instead, much to my dismay, I discovered a form letter that simply stated something along these lines:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your interest in our publishing house. We have read your manuscript with great interest. Unfortunately, we do not feel that your work would fit in with out current list. Good luck with all of your endeavors.

And those are the types of rejection letters I have been receiving in the mail for years. It should be noted that they do wish me good luck, right? Still, one can't help but feel that my manuscript sat on a slush pile for a month, and was eventually opened up by an over-worked, unpaid intern who glanced at the title and the author's name and then paper clipped a rejection letter, mailing it back to a hopeful, unabashedly naive young lad sitting in a little house in Washington state.

Of course, the editors are all very busy people. They don't have the time to create an individualized response to each and every hopeful writer. And perhaps, sad it it may seem, many manuscripts are hopeless messes; if an editor or an intern were to write back on honest critique, sucide rates of aspiring, talentless writers might soar.