Rejectomancy

Marzioli said:

You know, I don't believe the unsubscribe option was always included in Mr. Amen's poetry advertisements. But I sure as heck took him up on the offer this time when I saw it.

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Yup - I hit unsubscribe as soon as the magazine announced it was going to all poetry.

Eliza C said:

Yup - I hit unsubscribe as soon as the magazine announced it was going to all poetry.

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Then I take it you missed out on their delightful Mark Nipple fiction issue?

Double R Friday! 20-day from Bete Noire and 9-day from 3&5--nice to see a newbie market being so quick.

Marzioli said:

Dun dun duuuuun! Yeah, on hindsight it's fine. But the first ten minutes after that 40+ day wait...!



On a more general note, Deep Cuts unleashed my masterpiece back into the marketplace with a long and painful 110-day rejection! One of the editors graciously offered to let submitters know specific reasons why a story was rejected, provided you email her first. That's pretty dang awesome of her. I have a few ideas how to improve it, but if she could narrow it down that'd be sweet.

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Take helpful hints from editors with a grain of salt. More than once I've sold a rejected story ... to the same magazine which rejected it.

First time, rejection: 'Just not right for us. Descriptively confusing. Resolution feels forced.'

Second time, acceptance: 'Love the noir feel of the piece. Contract will be in the mail.'

Same editor, diff. comments a year apart. Why did I resubmit a story which was originally rejected?

Ummm ... didn't know any better.

This has happened to me twice btw. (The second time the submissions were about seven years apart so perhaps the editor forgot she originally rejected it.)

I don't recommend anyone do this, unless there's a new editor in place. Seriously.

Just commenting because editorial comments can be so all over the place and so often purely subjective.

jaksen said:

Just commenting because editorial comments can be so all over the place and so often purely subjective.

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Totally agree.

Sometimes it's nice to know why an editor didn't care for a story, just so you can better understand what kind of story they're looking for in the future, but their comments don't carry over to other markets.

As a recall from Alex's panel judges, their comments were, yes, all over the place. They each had their own issue with the story (for one it was present-tense, for another it was the voice).

jaksen said:

Just commenting because editorial comments can be so all over the place and so often purely subjective.

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Good advice; thanks for sharing! I feel like I'm getting to a place in my writing where subjectivity definitely plays a part in my rejections, but I think I'm new enough that there's still room for improvement. Hopefully her comments will involve the structure and pacing more than her own distaste for the subject.

V1c said:

I forgot where Amen was from, thanks for the reminder.

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This...

Sorry for all the rejections...I'm seeing a lot of red on my Duotrope, so any day I'll have one or a million to post.

7-day R from 3&5. Not sure if "we enjoyed reading your work and invite you to submit again in the future" is personal or form, but I listed it as personal on Duotrope.

Eliza C said:

7-day R from 3&5. Not sure if "we enjoyed reading your work and invite you to submit again in the future" is personal or form, but I listed it as personal on Duotrope.

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Any info about these guys pop up on the web yet? From their site, I was worried it'd be some kind of Horror on the IP kind of thing (i.e. pro-pay with token production values).

Eliza C said:

7-day R from 3&5. Not sure if "we enjoyed reading your work and invite you to submit again in the future" is personal or form, but I listed it as personal on Duotrope.

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Nope, I got the same response. My rule of thumb for R's is that if they actually mention something specific about the story, like the one I received from Bete Noire said they had seen the concept done before, then it's personal.

I've noticed too many form R's tacking on the "we enjoyed this" line, I guess to soften the blow.

Marzioli said:

Any info about these guys pop up on the web yet? From their site, I was worried it'd be some kind of Horror on the IP kind of thing (i.e. pro-pay with token production values).

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Not that I've seen. Just heard about them on Duotrope.

Anybody heard word on when Analog is going to start moving again? New editor, first of the month, maybe? I've had one sitting there forever...

MeretSeger said:

Anybody heard word on when Analog is going to start moving again? New editor, first of the month, maybe? I've had one sitting there forever...

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This is the longest my sub has ever held out at Analog, and with their back log of about 116 Duotrope subs you can bet then have at least three times that many unreported.

Marzioli said:

This is the longest my sub has ever held out at Analog, and with their back log of about 116 Duotrope subs you can bet then have at least three times that many unreported.

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yeah! I keep clicking on to duo and see when the last response was... once the pile starts getting gone through it will take quite a while...

3-day form R from Clarkesworld.

2-day form R from At Year's End. I thought this one was a lot stronger than the last one, too. Hmph. I hate when I'm wrong.

Personal R from Plasma Frequency on the story I'd been waiting on. I was shortlisted, so that's a plus

11-day form from Strange Horizons to alleviate the crickets. On to the next.

4-day rejection from the new magazine, Waylines. Quick response, personal R and their comments were very in-line with what other markets have found good and bad about the story.

Not necessarily wrong -- there's a big difference between "not strong" and "not right for that market at this point in time", and so far you only have proof of the latter.

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Thanks, zanjan. Of course you are right. I've sent it out again.

Since then I've accrued (on a different story) a 40-day form R from DSF and subsequent 1-day form R from Lightspeed.

Hugs to all on the R's.

Hugs to all the Rs, folks. My crickets are like the plague over here. Drowning in them.

1-day R from 3&5. Have to say, pretty impressed with their times (which is rare for a newbie market), but now they ask for a 7-day waiting period.

defcon6000 said:

1-day R from 3&5. Have to say, pretty impressed with their times (which is rare for a newbie market), but now they ask for a 7-day waiting period.

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I got the same thing from them - a 1-day R from 3&5 today and a request to wait 7 days, on top of my 1-day R for different story at Clarkesworld.