Rejectomancy

renard79

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30 day form from FIELD for poetry. Non-spec poetry is more difficult...

I received a personal from Gay City Anthologies today. The editor had previously rejected a poem, and rejected my second submission also; however, he repeated that he likes my style and themes and personally invited me to submit to further anthologies for his press, including giving me the contact information for the editor of their new anthology. A win!
 

Eliza C

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92-day R from L0RE. Think it's form, though he said he "enjoyed aspects of this tale." This is the other of the two stories I recently mentioned as personal favorites that I'm having a hard time placing.
 

Marzioli

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Eliza, it's hard to say. The two main editors actually have different standard low-tier forms. One of them is very complimentary, the other is impersonal. This originally led me to believe I was getting different tiers, until I started to compare my rejection letters and learned better. But now that they do slush readers it may have changed.
 

Sai

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Not a short story rejection but I learned today that I was not accepted into Clarion San Diego. Oh well, there's still a slim chance that Clarion Seattle will take me.
 

Sai

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Huh, that's a really cool looking anthology, but I'm a pay-to-play kind of girl (writing-wise at least- if you want a story of mine, you can buy it from me) and they're a no-pay market. Besides, I think my 'Who stole the money from the school cafeteria?' mystery might not be hardcore enough for them :D.

Another day, another rejection. This time it's a really nice 19-day personal from Shimmer. They're advice is actually really good and specific, so hopefully I have better luck at the next place I send it too.
 

Eliza C

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Huh, that's a really cool looking anthology, but I'm a pay-to-play kind of girl (writing-wise at least- if you want a story of mine, you can buy it from me) and they're a no-pay market.

Ah - I don't write mystery, so didn't open the guidelines. Duo said token to semipro. Maybe TM if you haven't tried them - otherwise 'fraid I'm not up on mystery markets. (Sorry bout the Shimmr R).

Marzioli - thanks for the insight on L0RE. 1st time I'd submitted there.
 

Sai

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Ah - I don't write mystery, so didn't open the guidelines. Duo said token to semipro. Maybe TM if you haven't tried them - otherwise 'fraid I'm not up on mystery markets. (Sorry bout the Shimmr R).

That's cool. It looks like 'Shotgun Honey' pays $25 per story, but then they've got this other thing called 'Muzzle Flash Fiction' where they're looking for 700 stories but don't pay for them. It's not all clearly laid-out.
 

Marzioli

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Very nice personal R from Waylines. "This is a solid work of horror," however it wasn't fresh enough for their needs. Onward! Love this story, and it's been collecting positive responses from every market it's been rejected by, but always it's not *something* enough for their needs.
 
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Eliza C

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Very nice personal R from Waylines. "This is a solid work of horror," however it wasn't fresh enough for their needs. Onward! Love this story, and it's been collecting positive responses from every market it's been rejected by, but always it's not *something* enough for their needs.

Sorry Marzioli, but sounds like you're close there.

102-day form R for me from The Sun. Long shot market, but worth a try for my Shakespeare/Ariel story.
 

fihr

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101 day R from Dark Visions.

Sorry to all for the R's - especially those frustrating 'almost made it' ones.
 

Aggy B.

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Rejection from Waylines for my second-rounder. Obviously I need to try it elsewhere. It's been short-listed twice now. *sigh*
 

punahougirl84

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Sympathy and empathy for all those receiving spring rejections. The gray outside is not helpful for raising spirits.

I got a six-day from the Neverland's Library anthology (a Kickstarter project). It is a very nice rejection:

"Hi Dorothy,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

First, I would like to thank you for your submission. We appreciate that you've taken the time to submit a story for consideration to Neverland's Library anthology.

Both Roger and I have read your story, Kahuna, and while both of us enjoyed your writing style, and agree that you are a talented writer, unfortunately, we feel that it is not right for what we're looking for at this time. We would like to encourage you to submit again with us in the future. Also, please feel free to submit again to this anthology if you wish to do so as we allow up to two submissions per author.

Thank you, and we wish you and your writing all of the best going forward!
Roger ..."

I so wanted those kind words to be about me, but it is still boilerplate, fill-in-the-blank. I hope they catch their mistake (Both Roger and I read... Thank you, Roger) - for obvious reasons I was not going to edit their rejection form for them. And a six-day response is so NOT a delay!

Time to find another market!

Lee
 

punahougirl84

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Oh, and I must assume that a story I sent to Cicada back in June of 2012 was rejected. I never heard back and I'm sure I didn't forget the SASE! I see that they now accept e-mail submissions so I attempted to inquire regarding the status of my story but haven't heard back. This is where I sigh, right? LOL!
 

soapdish

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Very nice personal rejection from Niteblade. 7 days. Good news is that the prose was up to their standards. So I won't be shy about subbing there anymore.

But there was some confusion over what was happening and a lack of connection with the characters. Two problems that I have been trying to fix in this story and obviously haven't succeeded at yet.
 

renard79

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Very nice personal from Strange Horizons: "I will be surprised if this doesn't find a home; it's an interesting subject and an interesting treatment of that subject. Definitely keep sending it around."
 

alexshvartsman

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A personal 10-day R from F&SF with some nice things to say about the story.

I got a response from Neverland's Library after a few days confirming that they received the story, but no acceptance/rejection as of yet (at 18 days). I'm hoping that means potential good news.