December 27, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
I’m writing after getting such a positive response to my poems from Left Curve, which they wish to publish for their Spring 2002 issue.
I was at a complete loss as to how to send out my poems until you accepted me at Writer’s Relief. What a relief! I immediately trusted you and all who work with you, rare for such a control freak as I am. I was right and well rewarded. The first time you sent out my poems, I received acceptances to two, fine literary journals, with Left Curve publishing multiple poems. There’s no way I could have done this on my own-in choosing the poems; having them professionally set up; knowing where to send them, how to send them, and perhaps most importantly, to have such encouraging belief in my work.
Now as you know I’ve published my first book, We Too Are Alive: Poems After and Before 9/11/01. The profits will be donated to the Uniformed Firefighters Widows and Children’s Fund.
I don’t think-I know-I could not have written this book without having first had the support and know-how of all at Writer’s Relief.
Thank you.
Best to all at Writer’s Relief and the world for a better 2002,
Amy G.
December 14, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
Thanks . . . You know, I just have to say this. Before I started writing full time, I was in high tech, and I had the opportunity to manage customer relationships at many levels, so from firsthand experience I know a lot about the challenges of that.
The way you manage your company, and the way you respond to your customers, the tone you set with your team, and all the rest . . . It’s a textbook quality example of how to delight and retain customers. I’ve just been so impressed with that because I know how challenging it can be to balance a client’s expectations and the financial needs of a company and employees’ job satisfaction and all the rest, and you guys really do all that well. You are really customer driven, and operate with a very high sense of integrity. Somebody should write a case study about your business and teach it in grad school-an example of how to do it right.
M. J. G.
December 2, 2001
To Whom It May Concern:
Why I recommend Writer’s Relief:
I used to research magazines for hours, make lots of detailed notes, then send off one submission. I’d be exhausted for weeks. Three or six months later I’d get rejected. It would be another month or two before I got up enough gumption to repeat the process.
Writer’s Relief takes care of all my details. They’re kind, thoughtful, and on-the-ball. Their responses to my questions are fast and accurate. I have the delightful feeling I matter to the people who work there.
Since I signed on a year or so ago, I’ve had three essays and one poem published. My grasp of math is as shaky as my ability to organize details, but it seems to me this is a 400% improvement from the years when only my filing cabinet read what I wrote.
Writer’s Relief makes me possible as a writer.
Daniel J.
November 6, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
Writer’s Relief is awesome. After being their client for only a few months, I learned that two different journals wanted to publish three of my poems. I appreciate Writer’s Relief’s efficiency, the clarity of their requirements for their clients, and the punctuality of their communications to us. I love working with them.
Thank you.
Suzanne B.
November 5, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
I’ve been meaning to tell you how grateful I am to Writer’s Relief.
Before I signed up with you folks, I’d send out a few stories here and there-to places I thought would be interested. Well, they weren’t, and I became quite discouraged. On the recommendation of a writing teacher, I decided to try out your service. I was delighted to be accepted by you. (Already my confidence was out of the cellar.) Then I saw that you were sending my stories to places I’d never dreamed of sending them. Anyway, with a full-time job, how would I have the time for this kind of research?
Well, I’ve been through three rounds and three stories with you now. One story has been accepted by Partisan Review, another by Pangolin Papers. And I know what I have to do to edit that story that didn’t make it-yet.
I’ve been a publishing professional for years, but getting my own work published was one job I couldn’t do for myself. Thank you, Writer’s Relief!
Regards,
Harriet R.
October 30, 2001
Dear Ronnie and Company,
I received an acceptance this week from the Berkeley Poetry Review and want to thank all of you for the terrific job you’ve done in helping me get my work out and circulating. I’ve been writing for thirty years and have had success in getting my work published if and when I could keep work circulating. I could never figure out how to keep track of what I sent and where. You have solved all of that with a terrific organizational plan that is easy to follow. I love the step-by-step instructions as well as your excellent tracking of rejections, acceptances, and comments.
I’m perfectly happy to stick to the writing and let you do the boring but necessary other part. Thanks so much.
Sincerely,
MJK
October 29, 2001
Dear Staff of Writer’s Relief,
I am a medical writer/editor who writes fiction as well. Although I have written a lot of poems and short stories, I sent very few things out prior to becoming a client of Writer’s Relief. I find your service excellent. I had two poems accepted this year thanks to the marketing of Writer’s Relief. In addition, your service has kept me very organized. I recommend Writer’s Relief to any busy writer. It will make your writing life much more successful.
Sincerely,
Elaine W.
September 10, 2001
Dear Ronnie,
I happily write this letter of endorsement of Writer’s Relief.
Although I work regularly as a writer in the film business and contribute regularly to a number of publications, including the Los Angeles Times and Salon.com, I had no experience with the labyrinthine world of literary journals specializing in short fiction.
After my first miserable time-consuming effort to assemble my own entirely untargeted list of journals, I was immensely relieved to find the Writer’s Relief ad in the back of Poets & Writers, sparing me the frustrating, mind-numbing, full-time job of doing this myself.
Not only have I just been invited to publish my first short story-months ahead of my one-year personal deadline-I find that the continual schedule of deadlines has forced me to produce at times when I was busy with other projects or competing interests. Despite the myriad reasons not to write-I’m happy that my commitment to the Writer’s Relief deadlines has kept me on a regular submission schedule-not only improving my chances for publication, but more important, improving my writing. It really is not enough to want to write and publish; you have to throw work into the marketplace to see if it will sink or swim.
But the best thing is that Writer’s Relief allows me to exist in the happy delusion that every rejection letter is meant for someone else. I put it in an envelope and send it to its proper destination-somewhere in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey-wherever that is!
You see, only words of encouragement and letters of acceptance are meant for me.
Bonne chance mes amis,
Susan E.
August 28, 2001
Dear Ronnie,
I want to thank you for all that you and your staff have done for me in the past year. Your professional, no nonsense service certainly made a difference in my submission process. Not only were five of my pieces accepted, but also the excellent proofreading pointed out a number of chronic punctuation errors that I am now able to catch right away.
I would certainly recommend your submission service to other writers. Thanks again to you and your staff.
Sincerely,
Lisa S.
June 28, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
I’d like to thank you and your staff for your help in organizing me, prodding me, pushing me, and getting me published! I’ve recently had stories accepted by Potpourri (who, by the way, has put my story online); Oxford Magazine (part of one of my stories is on its website), Baltimore Review, Willow Review, and others.
I really feel as if Writer’s Relief is a family committed to supporting its members.
Thanks again.
Pearl S.
June 20, 2001
Dear Ronnie and the Staff at Writer’s Relief,
I would like to express my thanks to you for the help and guidance you have given me over the past six months.
Before you began to send my materials out to magazines and agents, my writing life was chaotic and my submission rate low and rather haphazard. Your willingness to organize and proofread my submissions, to provide me with deadlines, and to continually urge me to do new work has turned me from an amateur, unpublished, and insecure writer into one who takes herself quite seriously as a writer. I appreciate further the helpful advice you gave once a manuscript was accepted for publication or requested from an agent and the constant encouragement the staff provided when rejections came at the rate of two or three a day. Knowing you are there to put the finishing touches on my exchanges with the unknown world of publishing has strengthened my commitment to the craft of writing and my confidence that further successes await me.
You have changed my writing life.
Many thanks,
Karen G.
June 19, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
Just a brief letter to let you know how much I appreciate your services. When I began to write seriously again and submit my work without your assistance, I experienced only “beginner’s luck.” My first poem won second prize in a national award. Then came the bleak times. I submitted poems over and over again, even mentioning the award in my cover letter with only rejections as a response.
After seeing your ad in Poets and Writers, I decided to explore what you have to offer. Within only three years I have published two poems in the international magazine 100 words; two more in a liberal arts periodical, RE:AL; and one in a forthcoming Potpourri. This has given me the recognition to do readings at bookstores and represent myself as a published poet. It has also greatly increased interest in the presentations that I do in local schools.
Besides the excellent submission service, I appreciate the examination copies of magazines that accept my poems, so that I can see the caliber of the publication before I sign a contract. Your quickly-returned calls with knowledgeable answers to my questions have also been reassuring.
Working with Writer’s Relief has expedited my success as a published writer. I often feel like I have an office full of friends in New Jersey. Keep up the attentive and effective approach to doing business.
Very best regards,
elsbeth h.
June 19, 2001
Dear Ronnie & Staff,
I would like to thank you very much for your help in assisting me to realize my long-time goal of becoming a published poet. Before I began working with Writer’s Relief, I was inspired to write but not very disciplined in my approach to doing the required editing of my work or regularly doing the detailed work involved in putting together submissions to literary journals. When I did submit my work at all, it was at best a haphazard choice of magazines and just one submission at a time. It probably would have taken at least the next decade to get one poem published under those circumstances.
I am happy to say that, in the last month, which was my seventh month with Writer’s Relief, I have had two poems accepted for publication in two different literary journals. I’ve also received numerous encouraging notes from editors of other journals. I find that following the Writer’s Relief submission schedule has made me much more disciplined in my approach to writing and editing my own work. It also helps me feel much less isolated as a writer, because someone else also shares an interest in the acceptance of my work.
I also want to let you know that the members of your staff to whom I’ve spoken on the telephone (Barbara and Mary Ann) have been a pleasure to deal with and very helpful when I have questions. I look forward to sharing many more happy acceptances together!
Linda P.
June 11, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
When I signed on with Writer’s Relief, I had no idea what to expect. I now have seven poems coming out in journals and many more who have expressed interest and asked to see more of my work. Clearly I could not have accomplished this on my own. It would have taken months of research to find out when each journal reads and where to target my poems. Keeping track of my submissions alone would have seemed daunting enough to stop me from sending out poems for months at a time.
Because of the logical and efficient way submissions are handled, acceptances are inevitable.
It has been a pleasure to work with you and your terrific staff.
Sincerely,
M.S. G.
May 30, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
I wanted to write and express my appreciation for the excellent support you and your staff have provided during the last two plus years. When we started out, my fiction had never been published anywhere. Since working with you, my short stories and poems have (or are scheduled to) appear in eleven publications, including The MacGuffin, The Licking River Review, Inkwell, and Pangolin Papers.
But the last thing I am most excited about is during the time I’ve been your client, I wrote my first novel and signed with a literary agent. There is no doubt in my mind that without your guidance and the excellent query package you and the team at Writer’s Relief helped prepare, this first-time novelist would still be searching for someone to represent my book. For that matter, I might still be writing my book.
Instead, of the first thirty agents who received the query package for Bonita Rain, four requested the full manuscript, and two who received it both wanted to represent my book.
Writer’s Relief prepared a mailing list of reputable agents. You gave me excellent advice in drafting the cover letter and the synopsis, and you helped me work through which chapters to include in the package. Your team created a meticulously-proofed document that was completely professional in appearance and conformed to literary agents’ standards. You helped me understand the reasonable odds of a first-timer finding an agent without getting discouraged.
These were all things I had come to expect from our work together on my short stories and poems, but what I didn’t fully appreciate until we got into the agent process, was the “know-how” that you have in securing book representation. I especially benefited from having you as a sounding board during the time I was determining which agent would be the best for me.
Writing is a tough business to break into, and a beginning novelist needs luck. I was lucky finding an agent for Bonita Rain so quickly, but I think my luck really started when I became a client of Writer’s Relief.
Thanks for your honesty, excellent support, and the professional way you and your team provide service.
Sincerely,
M. J. G.
May 11, 2001
Dear Writer’s Relief:
Thank you for assisting me with my poetry. I appreciate your time and consideration. I’ve been writing for quite awhile and it’s always a pleasure to see my work in print (Comstock Review, Columbia, Paterson Literary Review, and Slant). It has increased my list of publications on my resumé and I look forward to additional publications.
Best,
Cheryl D.
May 10, 2001
Dear Writer’s Relief:
I’m extremely glad to have your help in publishing my poetry. Although I have a Ph.D. in Literature and have published previously in a number of journals, including Talisman, The Malahat Review, and Exquisite Corpse, I’ve found that I must submit to many magazines just to obtain one acceptance. This process is incredibly laborious and time-consuming, what with determining which periodicals to send to and which poems to send and with typing cover letters and envelopes. Having you take over most of the procedure gives me more time and energy for my writing, and your ability to match poems of mine with particular magazines brings results-like the acceptance of a recent poem by the Hawai’i Review. My friends who use Writer’s Relief are similarly happy. Thank you for making my whole writing life easier and more successful!
Sincerely yours,
Marc H.
May 8, 2001
Dear Ronnie and all at W.R.,
In the beginning when I signed on with Writer’s Relief, I was a little skeptical but desperate. Being then a full-time caregiver for a parent, I found I had little time to do the writing I wanted to do and even less to spare for sending out my poems. In addition, I must confess what little sending out I had done over the past four years had not been very successful. All that rejection had me so frustrated and depressed that frankly I had just stopped trying.
Still, I had been writing poems for many years (about 25) and didn’t want to just give up on myself-and the poems entirely. I thought some of them really deserved to “see the light of day” but never would, the way things were going.
The fact that many more markets can be targeted through the services of W.R. has made all the difference for me. I just couldn’t reach all around and cover so many bases on my own.
I still receive many rejections, but the odds have improved considerably. And now they don’t send me into depression because I know this is the reality in today’s world of poetry, but also there are many more markets out there: if one editor says NO, the next may very well say YES.
This, to my own amazement, is the truth as proved by my own experience. I have had six acceptances in less than a year, which I know would not have happened without the assistance of W.R. Of course it couldn’t have happened when I was in my overworked/depressed state and not sending out any poems. And there wasn’t much chance of publication with my previous minimalist/spasmodic approach either.
For me this year the improvement is about 600 percent. So yes, I appreciate W.R.
With sincere thanks,
Jean L.
May 7, 2001
Dear Writer’s Relief,
This is just a note to thank you for all your help. Having used your services for the past 6 months, I could not imagine proceeding in the future without your team behind me. While I had some publishing success previously, I’ve had more poems accepted in the past few months than in the previous 2 years-in such magazines as Poem and Oregon East. Your assistance allows me to concentrate on writing and keeps my work in constant circulation-two critical prerequisites for any writer.
Thanks again,
Chris K.
May 6, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
Sincere thanks to you and your staff for the consistent, quality work you’ve provided, enabling me to work both as a poet and visual artist.
Your guidance, kindness, and expert suggestions have helped me find publication in Outrider Press, Permafrost, RE:AL, and White Pelican Review.
I hope to continue with your service as long as possible.
Thanks again for your assistance, and constant updates.
Sincerely,
Lisa R.
May 2, 2001
Ronnie,
After four years of trying to pursue the publishing bit for myself, it is so gratifying to find your “relief” and especially to find that you are so very organized (big need for most creative people) and so available-call that “user friendly.”
I consider myself very lucky to have had a short story accepted for publication so soon. Wow!
I look at your service like this: I hire a CPA to do my taxes, a lawyer to give me legal advice, a realtor to sell my house, and a dentist to fix my teeth. All of these professionals do a service for me that I am not trained to do. Now I have hired you to help me with publishing. I’m so glad I did and more than that I’m so glad YOU decided to create this business.
Frances B.
May 2, 2001
Dear Ronnie and Staff,
I’d like to thank all of you at Writer’s Relief for your help in securing agent representation for my novel, Gothic Romance. From the first round of submissions, I received one request from an agency to read the entire manuscript, and a referral which led to the agent who loved my book. From the second round of submissions, I received two enthusiastic responses to the manuscript. The best thing about using Writer’s Relief, aside from the fact that it helped me achieve my goal of finding an agent, was that I am no longer bothered by rejection letters or take them so personally. The sheer number of queries I was able to send out because of Writer’s Relief was like compressing years of my own submission efforts into weeks.
The staff of Writer’s Relief was readily available when I had questions or concerns, and the editing and manuscript services provided were always professionally done, well organized, and timely. I recommend Writer’s Relief to any serious aspiring writer.
Thank you, Writer’s Relief!
Sincerely,
Diane T.
April 30, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
In November of 2000, my first short story went out to journals selected by Writer’s Relief, another short story was sent in January of 2001, and a third in March. It has been an exciting time for me as all three of my short stories have been accepted for publication. They are forthcoming in the Tulane Review, Willow Review, and The Chrysalis Reader. After having limited success getting published on my own, I heeded the advice of a fellow writer who suggested I contact your submission service, and I am so glad I did.
Now I have the freedom to write full-time and the security of having a knowledgeable and friendly staff at my disposal. I feel like a writer when I go to the post office every other month and mail out manuscripts to literary journals selected with my particular story in mind. I feel like a writer when I go to the mailbox and see an SASE. Sometimes, amid all the rejection letters, there is an exceptionally thoughtful one from an editor who is both encouraging and generous. And sometimes, just sometimes, there is an acceptance letter.
Thank you for all your help and support and for sharing my joy with me.
Sincerely,
J. Lorraine B.
March 21, 2001
Dear Writer’s Relief:
O.K. I admit it-I was a whiny baby during the submission process. My feelings were hurt. The daily rejection was almost more than I could endure. But thank you Ronnie and to all of your fabulous staff for encouraging me to continue on down that dry, dusty trail and for reminding me that the submission process is a numbers game. I am grateful that I was not going through that alone! I am very happy that I stuck it out because now I AM A PUBLISHED WRITER!
I never thought that being published would make such a difference, but it does. I have written most of my adult life so the idea of “being a writer” is not new. But going public takes it to a new level. I am inspired, encouraged, elated.
THANKS, WRITER’S RELIEF.
Gwen K.
February 22, 2001
Dear Ronnie, Barbara, et al:
Thanks so much for helping me to submit my writing. You did everything but lick the stamps! I am very pleased to have had my work accepted for publication, and of course, to have received a valuable education in the etiquette of submissions and the varied situations that may arise.
I appreciate your timely mailings, the wake-up-it’s-coming emails that precede them, and your advice regarding publishing matters. You present yourselves and your clients’ works professionally. It makes a big difference for me as a writer, and the deadlines give me added incentive to finish things up. Again, thank you for all your efforts on my behalf.
Sincerely,
Emily A.
February 20, 2001
Dear Ronnie Smith,
Thanks to your wonderful service over the past year I’ve achieved a life-long dream of publishing my creative work. My poems, essays, short stories, and artwork have been published or are forthcoming in Cream City Review, Harvard Review, Folio, International Poetry Review, Lullwater Review, Lumina, Portland Review, and Wisconsin Review.
In the Lullwater Review a color cover and a black-and-white reproduction accompanied a story. In the Wisconsin Review two images will be reproduced on their inside covers. The Portland Review has also been granted electronic rights for the story they published in their magazine.
Because I live in the country and make ends meet on a rather modest income, at first I thought your prices were high. I was uncertain whether I could really afford to commit this expense every other month to my budget. Then, as the year progressed and I saw how your program succeeds, I considered the expense well worth its while.
Your program has succeeded for me in several ways. First, I’ve had the sweet taste of seeing my written and visual work in print. I’ve been fortunate so far in beating the 1 in 100 odds. Most batches of work we’ve prepared have received a positive response.
Second, your schedule provides an effective structure which propels me forward. It’s very motivating to have another party involved-one that has expert knowledge that makes this project possible and relatively easy to participate in.
Third, I must say this: It is fun! I enjoy the extra mail in my box even though the majority of these letters is a flow of rejections. This process has totally changed my attitude toward rejections. I now find rejections entertaining and amusing. I perform textual analysis on the rejection letters to enjoy the different style each magazine employs to say “No thanks.” I feel part of the cultural life of the nation no matter how the magazine responds to my submissions.
I now view Writer’s Relief as a partner in my project to send out my work for publication. When I think of what I would pay a secretary to perform the editing, letter preparation, targeting, tracking work, and preparing withdrawals-Writer’s Relief seems like an incredible bargain and not a luxury at all. Knowing my dislike of paperwork, it is unlikely that I would have sent out the same volume of work on my own as I did last year with your help.
Your staff has always been kind and helpful when I needed personal questions answered. I appreciate the boost you’ve given my work this past year.
Sincerely yours,
Janet R.
February 10, 2001
Dear potential writing clients:
I would like to start by saying that I don’t usually give endorsements for products or services, not even for my beloved Estancia Merlot. (Oh, dear. Was that just one?). But I am breaking precedent for Writer’s Relief. Why, you ask. Has Writer’s Relief turned you from a 20-publishing-credit weakling into a mighty National Book Award winner? Have magazine editors been pounding your door down desperate for a Tomasovitch original? Are you never alone on Saturday nights anymore? Well, the answer to all the above is no. But . . .
What Writer’s Relief has done for me is given me the time to write, develop as a poet. In the past, I would lose, on the average, close to 30 hours a month assembling submission packets, since I had to do the final edits of my work, research the magazines to which I was going to submit, put together cover letters and mailing labels, not to mention keep track of all those packages. (I now understand Wallace Shawn’s laments.) It was safe to say I was gaining more experience as an Administrative Assistant than I ever was a writer.
That being said, imagine a service that shoulders all those time-consuming, mundane, albeit necessary, tasks and you have just imagined Writer’s Relief.
Now that I spend more time writing and less time trying to place my writing, the quality of my work has improved. I know this based on the responses I am now receiving from the magazines and journals to which Writer’s Relief has submitted my work. I’m still getting a mailbox of rejections every week, but the quality of rejections has changed from the standard form letter to a personalized editor’s note, that tells me how much he/she likes the work, gives me criticism on specific pieces that were close to acceptance, as well as quite a few to polish this or that piece and re-submit. In the past, I was worried with the submission process as much as the writing process, and that cut the quality of my work in half.
For $225 a quarter on the average (cheaper than most monthly car and utility payments), Writer’s Relief allows me to concentrate on the business of writing while they worry about the business of business.
And lest you think I have not had success using Writer’s Relief, think again. I placed a poem in Inkwell magazine during my first round of submissions using Writer’s Relief, and I have two more pieces under serious consideration for acceptance on my second go-around.
If you are like me (i.e., 9-to-5 working slob), you know how precious every moment available for writing is. That being said, I can’t think of a better service than Writer’s Relief for allowing the writer more time to write, while still getting the work out there en masse.
Sincerely,
David T.
February 8, 2001
Dear Ronnie L. Smith:
The rejection letters I received were filled with praise for my fiction and yet over the course of one year no agent or publishing house ever accepted the novel. I had the best computer technology to help me with grammar, style, and format. However, what I didn’t have was professional guidance.
I began the long hunt for qualified editorial help in June of 2000. What I needed to find was a company that could tackle grammatical errors while looking for problems with content, style, voice, and punctuation. I required the intelligence of all my Bennington College and Columbia professors with the knowledge of my fourth-grade Grammar instructor. I wanted editors who could read both for technical errors and keep the story line in mind. I had not considered Writer’s Relief because their advertisements in Poets & Writers Magazine states their services are for helping writers place and organize submissions. I felt that if they aided writers maybe they could recommend a service that would assist me on all the levels I sought. They sent me their own price list and general guidelines to edit an author’s work. Although at first I was worried about the expense, I realized that it was minimal compared to the time I had already given to the novel.
Writer’s Relief gave me editorial guidance and structural assistance. Working through electronic mail, the editor I was assigned from Writer’s Relief was able to observe grammatical, punctuation, and tense errors, dialogue mishaps, as well as remind me of points my main character left unattended. Within a month I had a clean manuscript that I once again believed in. I completed my work with Writer’s Relief in August; in September I was accepted for representation by an agent, and by November he had sold the novel to Dutton Penguin Putnam Inc. I am of the firm belief that without Writer’s Relief, Inc. the manuscript would not have enjoyed the success it has now, and neither would I!
Respectfully,
Andes H.
January 25, 2001
Dear Ronnie,
I am writing to thank you and all your staff for the excellent, friendly, and helpful support you have lent me this past year. The work you have done for me I couldn’t do myself. It is such a difficult task to make all the connections to the literary reviews around the country. Likewise, it is wonderful to have your professional guidance regarding who would be appropriate to receive my work. You and your staff have lifted that onerous and bewildering job from me. And it has worked!
I am thrilled to have my work forthcoming in three publications this winter and hope that by spring I will learn of yet more work to be published in the coming year.
It is such an affirmation of my efforts to mail out 30 manuscripts with your solid support bolstering me. Each time I do, my hopes rise. I step away from the mailbox feeling deeply happy. When I look at my enormous folder of rejection letters-and some of them I admit are actually good to receive-I feel proud that I am a writer. Then when I feel despair and frustration, you are right there to remind me what it takes to get work published and that together we will accomplish it.
I thank all of you at Writer’s Relief.
Best regards,
Jebba H.
January 25, 2001
Hello:
This is just a quick note to thank everyone at Writer’s Relief for all of their fine efforts on my behalf. With your help I have had six short stories accepted for publication in the last eighteen months. Everyone I have dealt with at Writer’s Relief has been extremely professional as well as friendly and easy to work with. I look forward to continuing to grow my resume of writing credits with your invaluable help.
Sincerely,
Robert K.
January 16, 2001
Dear Writer’s Relief Staff:
For years I’ve known that the key to success in writing fiction was getting my work out and collecting those rejection letters. Yet the investment of time and emotional energy was always more than I could muster. When I saw your ad in the back of Poets & Writers, I knew that I would try you someday. It took another two years before I actually contacted you, but when I did-wow!
I dusted off a story I had always liked and revised it substantially before sending it to you. The first round of submissions got my short story “Out of the Drawer” out to more periodicals than it had been to in all its previous incarnations. I accumulated a pile of rejection letters, but they didn’t hurt so much. First, there were so many of them. Second, you had chosen the magazines, not I, so I wasn’t as invested in the outcome. Not only that, but “Out of the Drawer” found a publisher its first time out. Larcom Review, a fairly new and very attractive literary magazine, plans to publish it in the spring 2001 issue.
Submitting and accumulating rejection now seems like a game. I have another short story circulating and an essay that is about to go out. While not everything I write fits your profile for submissions-your model of submitting broadly has reenergized my career. Writer’s Relief, you have truly provided relief to my submission and rejection woes!
Sincerely,
Lynne W.
January 11, 2001
Dear Ronnie L. Smith,
I want to express my appreciation for your service over the last year. I’ve found Writer’s Relief to be everything I had hoped. Your comments and corrections on my poems have been beneficial. The work I send out looks professional (even the post office clerk comments on the exactness of the envelopes).
I’ve started to see the results of my efforts. I’ve had several poems accepted by such publications as PMS, Primavera, and Eureka. Your submission list makes it easy for me to know what is out at any given time, whether the publication indicated any interest, etc.
Writing can be a lonely, frustrating business. Your service helps me build my courage to keep trying, to face rejection, to know that acceptance is around the corner.
I send you and your staff my best for the new year.
Sincerely,
Virginia S.
January 11, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
I wish to thank you and your staff this past year for providing me with the structured discipline necessary to “break through” in publishing my poetry. With your method, I was able to place four poems this year with three different publishers, and now may use these credits to open other doors. That’s four poems better than I was doing on my own!
Thanks again.
Sincerely,
John S.
January 10, 2001
Dear Ronnie:
I am extremely pleased and grateful for the services of Writer’s Relief. Finally, I am past the hurdle of sending things out, and finally, I am having the gratification of circulating my work in the world of readers and writers. Your system and services are invaluable in negotiating around the stumps and stubble of getting published.
Sincerely,
Lynne P.
