5. Never send out a dirty or ragged manuscript. The editor is prejudiced by the first sight of such a manuscript, for he knows at once that it has been refused elsewhere.
* * * * *
Her manuscript decently dispatched, the aspirant will feel happy and well satisfied till shortly before the earliest hour possible for its return. Then begins suspense. She will sit awaiting with counterfeit calm the postman. She hears his tread on the pavement outside; he mounts the steps, knocks; there is the gentle concussion of a packet against the bottom of the letter-box. Is it the article returned? She still keeps hope. Even when one day the large envelope, addressed in her own writing, is put into her hands, she says to herself that the editor has only returned it for a few trifling modifications....
Invariably the thing does come back, sooner or later, with some curt circular of refusal. Moodiness and discouragement follow. But it is as wise to be annoyed by editors as to quarrel with the weather. Idle depression must instantly give place to renewed activity. The journalistic instinct, says Noble Simms in When a Man's Single, "includes a determination not to be beaten as well as an aptitude for selecting the proper subjects."
If at first you fail--as will certainly be the case; you may sell nothing whatever for twelve months--be quite sure that it is not--
Because there is a conspiracy among editors to suppress talented beginners.
Or because the market is overcrowded.
Or because your manuscripts have not been carefully read.
Or because editors do not know their business.
Try to convince yourself that the true reason is--