Lovely Girl   +  success

Have you ever gotten an email like this?Dear Susan,
Thank you for sending your idea to X Magazine. Unfortunately, we are not accepting new writers/just assigned that story/currently experiencing funding issues/not interested at this time. I will contact you immediately should things change.
Sincerely,
Editor Ellen*
If you're like me, you were initially psyched to get a personal response. But as you read between the lines, you suspected that you've just received the classic brush-off. Editor/writer relationships are not that different from boy/girl relationships in that overanalyzing messages for hidden clues is pretty pointless. To quote the now legendary Sex and the City episode that spawned an almost-as-successful book: "He's just not that into you."For more on deciphering the messages of editors and agents, check out Agent Obscura's post about "Things Agents Say." Nadia writes in the comment section that she posted the entry in a NyQuil-induced bout of sarcasm, but if you read her blog on a semi-regular basis, you know that brand of sarcasm is her trademark.*Not an actual email, written purely for demonstration purposes.