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Hi kids!
Many of you write to ask us not to edit your pieces. You are young people and do not understand the intricacies involved in this work. You may have written flawless language but even then certain things have to be adjusted, according to the tone and temperament of the magazine. You may have written a piece while you were angry or excited at some situation and may have used very strong language, but we might not consider it fit and so change it accordingly. Or you may have written a longer piece than required and so we edit and cut it according to the space we have. For instance, someone may write a letter using 500 words, but our space limit does not allow us to use it as it is and so we have to cut it. We take care not to miss out any of your important points but cut out the unnecessary details or rewrite it in a condensed form.
Sometimes you think that you have come up with a perfect piece but in fact it is not so. There are minute mistakes which you have overlooked or not recognized as wrong, but when some senior professional reads it he/she recognizes them immediately. Let me remind you we are here not to discourage you or find faults with you but to correct you and teach you informally.
Another thing which you need to understand is that everything which is not printed in the magazine is not bad, and rejection of your piece does not mean that you cannot write or you are a failure. If your contribution is not accepted there are many reasons for it. You see, we receive at least ten times as many contributions than we need and so we have to be very selective. We sometimes regret not using a piece but have to do so because the topic has been given more space than its due share. For example, if everybody starts writing poems on Mother or Friendship how many can we use? Would you like to read poems on the same topic all the time or would you like to read varied subjects; variety has its own charm. Or sometimes we just put a piece aside because contributions by the same writer have been used many times and just in order to give a chance to others we have to take that decision. There are some exceptions — and hence your complaint that some names appear regularly.
There are some kids who send half a dozen things at the same time, thinking that something would be printed, without working hard on any of them. The result is that nothing is worth printing. It’s better to write less and do it well than write a lot and spoil all.
And last but not least, it takes time to go through all the mail we receive, select the printable ones, get them processed etc. And it is not small task. And then the selected item has to wait for its turn and appropriate time. So don’t start losing heart if your stuff is not printed in a couple of week’s time as it might take months.
I hope you’ll be more considerate in the future, and not worry yourself and us unnecessarily.
Bye!
Ed
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