Poor submissions: arrogance

new grumble: arrogant cover letters on short story submissions (or any submission for that matter)

I think it's important for authors to submit with an air of confidence and professionalism. However, some people don't quite know how to pull that off and end up sending in works with a covering letter dripping in sarcasm, attitude, and arrogance. Authors demanding what rights they should get for their submitted works before they are accepted is really not the best way to get into an editor's good books.

'I demand first rights for my work, thank you.' is not the best way to approach. Not only does it tell the editor you are going to be difficult to work with, but it also demonstrates that he or she hasn't bothered to research your company well enough to know what sort of rights are offered. Many polite authors ask what they customary rights are and that is just fine.

The few arrogant submissions I've read have usually been completely wrong for Wyvern Publications and the covering letter tends to be an 'open' one. I like to call this the shotgun approach (and yes, I'm just as guilty of doing this with my own submissions). The author has written a story and then looked for publishers and agents who might publish the genre. It rarely works. It's best to find your publisher and then write for them (I'd not advise this for novels, as that's a pretty big investment, but for short stories, flash fictin and features, it's the best way to go)