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Ecotone Rejection LetterPosted by John Woodington on December 20th, 2012

Well, I thought I had seen them all.  I used to believe I had seen the smallest rejection letter in the literary world.  And then I decided to submit to the formidable Ecotone and, upon rejection, received this tiny slip in my much-too-large selff addressed stamped envelope:

 Yep.  That’s the rejection letter.  Below are some more images for you to fill your mind with, now that your head has exploded.

Um, that’s my pinky finger (who came up with that name for that finger, by the way?).  Now, I’ll give Ecotone the benefit of the doubt here.  I mean, even their name hints that they are an eco-friendly publication, which in turn suggests that they would waste the least amount of paper possible in the rejection process.

It occurred to me that there is something very strange about the whole rejection letter process.  I mean, when I receive a rejection letter in the mail, it comes in the envelope that I addressed and stamped.  It’s in my handwriting.  It’s like I’m rejecting myself, really.  I see that envelope and I think, “Geez, John!  How could you reject yourself?  What a negative person you are!  That was a good story!  It had literary merit and all that barf.  Man, maybe next time you’ll give it a closer read, John.”

And then I go back inside and send the story out somewhere else, and pray that I don’t reject myself again.  Not this time.