Bukowski Writes a Sample Rejection Slip

This is a rejection slip, and most of what we receive must be rejected otherwise our magazine would be ten miles long and nobody could afford to buy it even if we could afford to print it.

We too have been rejected and will be rejected again and again. In this business you must expect it. And when it happens you can either quit or write better or try another magazine.

It's true that sometimes a rejection is unwarranted. Our opinion is neither final or anything else. It's only our taste or lack of it. But we can only proceed as best as we think we might know how...

-Charles Bukowski to William Packard
July 13, 1984