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Do let me know if this is off-topic. My question relates to the publishing process, and the typical ramifications of an possible action could have on one's future ability to be published.

Getting pissed at editors when they reject you is obviously not a good idea. If however, they say something of the ilk, "Your work is not what we're looking for", is it unwise to ask something of the ilk:

"Out of a desire to learn, may I ask, what does this work do to not satisfy your desired aspects?"

Of course, it has to be done with tact, but if we assume that this question does not come off as passive-aggressive (which might be impossible), would the question itself typically have bad consequences? For example, assuming a friendly formulation, would they still typically look at the question itself as insulting, or as a telltale that the writer is hard to work with/has a bad personality?

EDIT:

In my specific case, the work in-question is a short poem, though I've decided to not modify my question with this, as I want to keep it general. However, I included this edit in case anyone wants to give more concrete advice pertaining to my exact situation.

user110391
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1 Answers1

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Asking for feedback with positivity and politely is always good. So well, the short answer is a bug Yes.

However, I would rephrase your following sentence:

"Out of a desire to learn, may I ask, what does this work do to not satisfy your desired aspects?"

As:

"Out of the desire to learn and understand, may I ask about your expectations so that I can try to meet those in the future?

Reason for changes:

  1. The words "what does this work do to not satisfy" sound argumentative as you are questioning their decision. Those may leave bad taste.

  2. It's always better not to use negative words ("to NOT satisfy"). Because in that case they would be pointing fingers about the weaknesses. And, when a person verbally talks about others' weaknesses, then he/she becomes more convinced about it - because once they thought and discussed internally, now they are repeating it verbally once again.

Himanshu Jain
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