First response and it's not good news - just funny.

The first of my packets was waiting for me when I got back, so I opened it quickly to get the horror over with.

Standard form rejection letter: "Sorry but we are not taking on new authors at this time". It's a polite fib, since their website is requesting new submissions, but at least it is polite. And from the page order in the envelope I can see that the last two pages of the extract were read, which is better than some agencies managed with the last one.

So, responded in good time, read the manuscript, and sent a polite form rejection; what else could you want? What red flags could be raised by such a standard letter? The reason they may drop quietly off my submission list for future books is, to be honest, slightly petty. The rejection letter stands out and not in a good way. You see, the form letter has three spaces on it - room to write the author's first name and the story name. These are three very common english words.

They got them all wrong.

Now it may just be me, and I may be being picky, but that really does not give me confidence in their attention to detail - particularly since all three words were on the letter, the synopsis, and every page of the manuscript. If these weren't obvious typos I'd wonder if it was meant for someone else.

On the other hand it gave me a laugh, and is definitely a unique rejection letter to start my collection with.