Rejectomancy

Polenth

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Ditto. Unless you count: "Thanks for your interest in Cr0wded Magazine." --lol!

Whatever happened to the 2 readers they were going to have?

Apparently only 10 people looked at my story. Meh. Next time I'll submit flash.

Try Twitter-length fiction. Almost guaranteed to be read!
 

alexshvartsman

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Ditto. Unless you count: "Thanks for your interest in Cr0wded Magazine." --lol!

Whatever happened to the 2 readers they were going to have?

Apparently only 10 people looked at my story. Meh. Next time I'll submit flash.

10 is good. My story was only read by 5 people:

5 members of the crowd read your story. The average number of reads was 5.87
Your story's average star rating was 2.8. The average rating for all stories was 2.06 stars.


Did your rejections include the "While both the crowd and the editorial team enjoyed your story, sadly we only have room for so many." language? Curious if that's standard or higher tier form.
 

Eliza C

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I got an untied sl one too. They always make me smile. Got to love that guy...

On the downside I just realised that every single novel query (of 30) had a typo in. Including the two that got full requests. I must have read it 1000 times and still it got through. Aghh!

Been there, done that.

Oh, and my one and only submission to US came back with a response that was so bizarrely off-base that it makes me wonder about subbing to them again. He called my fantasy story "historical fiction" (it had magic in it right from the beginning paragraphs - really - and was subbed in the science fiction/fantasy category), then said he doesn't read historical fiction and so couldn't determine if it was accurate. Hmm.
 
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defcon6000

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10 is good.
Not if they downrate you. :(

My avg. was 1.9... <looks> OMG! I haz comments! I guess the system was slow on putting them up.

Received 6 comments, 2/6 positive reviews, 4/6 not-so-positive. Very little love for horror-humor, it seems.


Did your rejections include the "While both the crowd and the editorial team enjoyed your story, sadly we only have room for so many." language? Curious if that's standard or higher tier form.
Nope, didn't get that at all. Probably due to my low rating. *sigh*
 

Marzioli

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I got 2.4. One of the readers that (probably) gave me 1 star (probably) shouldn't be judging stories:

"I'm pretty sure it's might for 'they were a mite weaker.'"

No, actually it's not, and this is part of the reason why slushies shouldn't be average schlubs. :D
 

defcon6000

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No, actually it's not, and this is part of the reason why slushies shouldn't be average schlubs. :D
QFT

The more I think about this system, the more I find it very flawed. Any idiot can submit, then go around downgrading stories because they don't fit his/her tastes, style, etc. And yeah, I can see it in the comments. In some ways, it's better to be overlooked and only have a few readers.
 

Sai

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In the interest of accurate rejectomancy (or is that an oxymoron?) here are the stats for my story which was accepted by Crowded: Only read by four people apparently (my story was just over 5k so I think the length might have kept away more readers). Only three comments, but they were favorable with some good advice in there about darlings that could be cut. The story got a 3.25 rating.

In some ways, it's better to be overlooked and only have a few readers.

Yeah, I think that nails it in my case (we need a 'nodding sagely' smiley).
 

O'Dandelo

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I think the turnout for Cr0wded was so minimal that I wonder if they'll continue with the system. It's a good idea on paper, but I don't think anyone's story was even looked at more than a handful of times.
 

O'Dandelo

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Mine was read 7 times. 4500 words. Not sure how that compares to the rest of you. But I remember there being very few over 10 when I looked through the slush on the last day.
 

akaSylvia

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My story was flash and mistakenly listed as having 1 word (it actually had 750 words) which was odd.

18 members of the crowd read your story. The average number of reads was 5.87.

Your story's average star rating was 2. The average rating for all stories was 2.06 stars.


The main complaints focused on the fact that it was a vignette rather than a story (guilty as charged).
 
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Marzioli

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21-day personal rejection from Stupefying Stories: "Good writing as always from you, but it's a bit too far off into the weird spectrum to work for us." That's the kind of rejection I can stand! And, yeah, the work was a very surreal fantasy.
 

Project Deadlight

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21-day personal rejection from Stupefying Stories: "Good writing as always from you, but it's a bit too far off into the weird spectrum to work for us." That's the kind of rejection I can stand! And, yeah, the work was a very surreal fantasy.

At the very least it makes me want to read the story!
 

Marzioli

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It's a tough sell. I keep getting decent responses, but no bites. :(
 

Niccolo

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Got my Crowded R, too. I knew the story wouldn't be accepted once I noticed everything longer than 2,000 words was only getting three or four views :Shrug: but it was worth a try.

Still waiting on Shimmer and Buzzy....I think they lost that one...
 

defcon6000

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Got my Cr0wded R, too. I knew the story wouldn't be accepted once I noticed everything longer than 2,000 words was only getting three or four views :Shrug: but it was worth a try.
Would you mind sharing your Cr0wded stats? :D Trying to get an idea of what ultimately worked and what didn't.

So far, I think longer, lesser viewed stories had a better chance. Which sounds odd considering these were stories meant to be chosen by the crowd. Perhaps they should call themselves Overlooked, instead. :tongue
 

Marzioli

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They still have two members of staff read it. But, yeah, it's sure be a lot easier to make it if you didn't have to worry about the crazier members of the crowd.
 

defcon6000

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They still have two members of staff read it. But, yeah, it's sure be a lot easier to make it if you didn't have to worry about the crazier members of the crowd.
Does the staff vote or effect the views? Because that would really alter things.
 

O'Dandelo

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For the curious, my Cr0wded story's exact stats: "7 members of the crowd read your story. The average number of reads was 5.87. Your story's average star rating was 3.57. The average rating for all stories was 2.06 stars." My story was about 4400 words.

I think the only stories that got significant numbers of views were 500ish words and less. It's probably safe to say that those readers weren't exactly serious about the process, if they were choosing only short shorts.
 

Niccolo

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Would you mind sharing your Cr0wded stats? :D Trying to get an idea of what ultimately worked and what didn't.

So far, I think longer, lesser viewed stories had a better chance. Which sounds odd considering these were stories meant to be chosen by the crowd. Perhaps they should call themselves Overlooked, instead. :tongue

Sure thing :) My story was read 5 times and was 6,600 words long, with an average rating of 1.87 stars. I'll be man enough to admit that the story wasn't very good (one of the first I ever wrote) so I doubt its rejection had anything to do with the length, though the shorter stories were definitely getting more attention.

Defcon, out of personal curiosity, did your story involve "Armstrong"?
 

fihr

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Is it the case that those who submitted were also voting on one anothers' stories? Might that bias the ratings some people gave? Also, I assume the authors' names were hidden?

I didn't sub a story there, because I didn't think I could read and rate enough stories on top of other commitments.