Write funny for a chance to be published in Writer’s Digest magazine (Plus, a photo prompt)

When we first raised the call for submissions for our new Reject a Hit feature in WD magazine—basically, a humorous fake rejection letter to a hit book, courtesy of a curmudgeonly or fool-hearted editor—we didn’t know what we’d get back. Sometimes features like that take off, and other times, with rosy cheeks, you quietly sweep them under the editorial rug.

But witty submissions started rolling in, with writers riffing on everything from The Cat in the Hat to The Bible. And now some of us WD editors find ourselves sneaking off to the Reject a Hit folder at different times of the day for brief escapes from bouts of copy editing or battles with Excel spreadsheets.

The submission doors are once again open for reader-submitted Reject a Hits. As we ask in the magazine: What harsh rejection letters might the authors of some of our favorite hit books have had to endure? Help the rest of us find out by rejecting a hit in 300 words or fewer and sending your piece to wdsubmissions@fwmedia.com with “InkWell: Reject a Hit” in the subject line. (And for a sneak peak at writer Kinda S. Lenberg’s letter from our October issue, which started shipping to subscribers yesterday, click the image above.)??

A Promptly writing prompt—a photo prompt from the Kentucky State Fair by request—follows below. ??Happy writing/rejecting!

* * *

WRITING PROMPT: State Fare
Feel free to take the following prompt home or post a
response (500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring) in the Comments section below.
By posting, you’ll be automatically entered in our
occasional around-the-office swag drawings.
If
you’re having trouble with the
captcha code sticking, e-mail your piece and the prompt to me at
writersdigest@fwmedia.com, with “Promptly” in the subject line, and I’ll
make sure it gets up.

Something goes wrong—very wrong—at the State Fair's new specialty burger booth.

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