Rejectomancy

Gnome

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18 day personal from AS IM. The slush reader wrote a whole paragraph about how stupid and silly my ending was and suggested multiple alternate endings that would make my story sad instead of silly. I don't know if I will send this one back out.
 

Aggy B.

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18 day personal from AS IM. The slush reader wrote a whole paragraph about how stupid and silly my ending was and suggested multiple alternate endings that would make my story sad instead of silly. I don't know if I will send this one back out.

Doesn't sound like they're doing their job correctly. It's one thing to say "I didn't like this because I thought the ending was silly." And an entirely different thing to say "This ending was silly and the story would be better if you do X, Y or Z with it because drama!"

Maybe sit on it for a few weeks and then see if you feel differently about it.
 

ACFantasy

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PD: It was mentioned in my rejection that the slush readers liked it and passed it up to the editor, who made the call to reject it.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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32 day form R from Fant@sy Scr0ll M@g.

I have a story out at 1de0mancer for 32 days by now. They say to query after 30 days... should I?
 

V1c

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I tend to give at least 50% above their expected time before querying, longer over the holidays.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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According to the submissions grinder I'm the longest out. I guess I might wait until 40 days...?

Also, 0 day form R from The D@rk.
 

Ty Schalter

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20-day R from F&SF. C.C. Finlay said he was glad to see another story from me in the queue, and encouraged me to keep submitting.

Peace
Ty
 

vintager

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I like the new management at Apex. They just presented me with the lowest tier rejection, but I found the wording to be quite nice:
"We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, we don't feel it is a good fit for us and we're going to have to pass on it at this time.

Thanks again. Best of luck with this.
Sincerely, Lesley Conner"
Somehow it sounds better than their old rejection forms.
 

Ty Schalter

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I like the new management at Apex. They just presented me with the lowest tier rejection, but I found the wording to be quite nice:
"We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, we don't feel it is a good fit for us and we're going to have to pass on it at this time.

Thanks again. Best of luck with this.
Sincerely, Lesley Conner"
Somehow it sounds better than their old rejection forms.

Totally agree here. Lesley, from our brief interaction, is really helpful and professional.

Peace
Ty
 

Zyrallus

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Useful 5 day personal from Acidic Fiction. Good notes on what works and what doesn't.
 

William Green

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This one is strange; I just received a rejection email for a story I sent to the Colorado Review Jan 2014 that had already been declined in April.

Some sort of glitch in their email perhaps, but it is a completely different email than the first.
 

JJ Litke

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After waiting 28 days, I checked my story status on DSF, and it says they decided not to publish. I never got an email (I did get the autoresponse, and I do check my junk folder). So should I mark that and never responded in The Grinder?
 

Polenth

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18 day personal from AS IM. The slush reader wrote a whole paragraph about how stupid and silly my ending was and suggested multiple alternate endings that would make my story sad instead of silly. I don't know if I will send this one back out.

ASIMs anon slush reader thing doesn't work well in my experience. They can say anything and everything and there's no one checking up on them. I've had personal insults in ASIM rejections, which crosses the line in my opinion.

The story I had rejected there with the worst response sold somewhere else. So don't take what they say to heart.
 

DarkSongofErrin

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51 day rejection from Bide for some poems. I was holding out hope! I think one of the poems I submitted is quite possibly the best piece I've written out of poems, short stories etc. Unfortunately it didn't make it.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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After waiting 28 days, I checked my story status on DSF, and it says they decided not to publish. I never got an email (I did get the autoresponse, and I do check my junk folder). So should I mark that and never responded in The Grinder?

I don't think so. You know what happened to it, that it was declined, which isn't the same as not getting a response at all. I recently submitted to DSF and never got an email saying my work was accepted, but it's on their site on my account as in the queue. I thought it might have been a glitch, but this makes two of us, so probably we should email them saying their email system has stopped working.

Has anybody else submitted to issue #7 of F1ction V@le? Feb. 1st was their deadline for final decisions, but I haven't heard anything yet.
 

Ty Schalter

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15-day form R from Strange Horizons, 15 days after C.C. Finlay passed on it. Dang, dang, dang. Trying to figure out the best market for this one, because I *really* believe in it.

Peace
Ty