Closure, I need closure!

You may think the testy rejection note, or perhaps the downright mean one (I've never gotten one of those) is as low as it gets trying to find a place for your work.

Wrong.

The worst is no answer at all.

Which is why I would prefer to send a query via snail-mail with an SASE, though it costs money rather than send an email to an agent who openly tells you, "We only respond to work we are interested in."

Why is this? Because, they say, they get so many solicitations.

Balderdash, I say.

It takes no longer to hit the "reply" button and type "no, thanks" and hit "send" than it does to stuff a rejection note into an SASE and put it in the outbox.

Most of those you email will give you a response.

Thank you, gentlemen and ladies. I greatly appreciate it and so do millions of other sub-par and otherwise unpublished writers.

To the rest of you, I'd like to impress upon you to just hit that reply button. You don't even have to thank us, just say "no." It will make us sleep better. Really.

Yours in rejection,

Phil