Put'n'm Down

The latest rejection of The Search for Plupreme comes from G. P. Putnam's Sons (i.e., Penguin):

We have read and discussed your proposal and regret to say we will not be making a publishing offer for it. This decision is based on our own judgment of its sales potential with us and the needs for our current list.

Thank you for thinking of Putnam and best of luck placing your book with another publisher.

      --The Editorial Department

They discussed my proposal? Wouldn't that be wonderful? If I could only believe it to be true. I envision the day some brave junior editor shows up at the weekly editorial meeting and during her five minutes pitches Ashley's quest to discover a new color--my vision resting on the courage, confidence, and persuasiveness of some overworked and underpaid assistant hoping to one day to discover the next Laura Joffe Numeroff or Peggy Rathman. (Should I remind them that Bill Martin, Jr., Paula Danziger, and several other luminaries have all recently passed away, creating a vacuum I'm willing to fill?)

This time the form letter also included the suggestion:

Be sure to follow the guidelines below for future submissions.

Oops, had I committed some egregious infraction of editorial policy (aside from omitting any mention of my multiple submissions to ten publishers...shhh!)? But no, I read the guidelines and I had followed them precisely.

They also reminded me:

If you would like to receive a catalog, please send a 9x12 envelope with the appropriate postage.

Well of course I agree that reviewing a catalog of a publisher's most recent list is a great way to learn what they are looking for and what they have recently published. It's the "appropriate postage" ambiguity that frustrates me: how the hell am I supposed to know how large or heavy their catalog is and how much postage is required if the publisher won't say?

Their parting comment was:

A great resource for children's book writers is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (www.scbwi.org).

OK, so next time I better find a way to remind them of my membership in my cover letter. Maybe it would help if I held a prestigious position in a local chapter. Hmmm.