Rejectomancy

Izz · Dec 13, 2013

6 day R from Shimmer.

zanzjan · Dec 13, 2013

Bummer.

Izz · Dec 13, 2013

zanzjan said:
Bummer.

It's okay

I'll find some place the story fits eventually (it's now out to market #26

).

Aggy B. · Dec 13, 2013

Izz said:
It's okay I'll find some place the story fits eventually (it's now out to market #26 ).

Dammit! I thought I held the record for most markets with no acceptances on a single story.

Aggy, thinks there should be an award for that

Aggy B. · Dec 16, 2013

8 day (brief but) personal R from Shimmer. She said flash is a hard sell for her (which I knew) and she didn't feel it fit well with the magazine.

Aggy, maybe it has too much of a horror feel

fihr · Dec 16, 2013

Well, I did not win a place at WoTF this quarter, but my congratulations to those who did. I'm not as disappointed as I expected, maybe because I hadn't been trying for this competition before now - but very glad to finally know the result.

Eliza C · Dec 16, 2013

So sorry, fihr. I was really hoping we'd get to hang out together in LA :-( Awesome showing, though, for your first submission there!

fihr · Dec 16, 2013

Thanks Eliza - yes, meeting up with you would have been a real highlight for me, too. A real shame I didn't make it this time in particular. But though this is ultimately a rejection, I am still pleased my submission did so well.

Aislinn · Dec 17, 2013

Sorry to hear that, Fihr - still, an amazing achievement. I hope I have something good enough to enter one day!

fihr · Dec 17, 2013

Thanks, Aislinn. Your writing is already good! You should enter.

ajoker · Dec 17, 2013

I got a 20 day rejection from Beneath Ceaseless Skies today.

I liked the description but while the conceit was amusing I found it wasn't enough to maintain my interest and the characters were not developed enough for my tastes.

Which while technically a run-on is completely fair enough. There is no character development at all, actually.

It's nice to have a story freed to fly to another market though.

alexshvartsman · Dec 17, 2013

Aggy B. said:
I had stopped submitting there for a long stretch after they published "The Things" which I felt (and that's just me) crossed a line in regard to publishing what is essentially fan-fiction.

But, for the curious, the previous 23 were:
Lightspeed
Apex
Asimovs
IMGS (which I withdrew because I won't sub there anymore)
Strange Horizons
Analog
Tin House
Shimmer
Redstone
Ideomancer
DSF
Escape Pod
Shock Totem
Tor.com
Waylines
Nightfall
Grim Corps
The Colored Lens
Buzzy
Betwixt
Luna Station Quarterly
The Dark
Stupefying Stories

Some of the token/semi-pro were due to other markets not being open or already looking at one of mine when I was looking for "next on the list". Or because I thought they would fit better.

Aggy, still subbing that sucker

Thanks for sharing Aggy, it's always nice to see how others are submitting/valuing markets.

There are few non-flash pieces that I don't send to the triumvirate of CW, LS and F&SF first (assuming all three are open, of course). For flash, Nature and DSF are typically my first stops.

Melinda Moore · Dec 19, 2013

R from ASIM with a useful tip.

gettingby · Dec 19, 2013

I haven't been submitting the way I was, but I just got a nice rejection from Mcsweeney's Quarterly. Because it took so long, it gave me time to get better. So, if they kind of liked my last story, maybe they will love the next one. We'll see.

Aislinn · Dec 21, 2013

3 days form from Ellery Queen - they seem to have a new form R and a faster turnaround.

6 days form from Read Short Fic.

Batspan · Dec 22, 2013

Fihr --
Sorry to hear that. Glad it was a short wait, though. And it's a great show of confidence in the level of your work that you got that far on your first shot!

Sorry for the recent Rs, all. I have nine still out in the vast silence.

Sai · Dec 23, 2013

None of my stories were chosen for the Apex flash fiction contest. It was still a lot of fun though, and now I have a bunch of dark Christmas stories to sub next year

.

Melinda Moore · Dec 23, 2013

Four day form R from Shimmer.

Sai · Dec 26, 2013

50-day rejection from Shock Totem. Will this be my last rejection of 2013? Only time will tell...

M. H. Lee · Dec 27, 2013

25-day personal from F&SF. Prose was vivid but the tale didn't quite hold him.

Eliza C · Dec 29, 2013

39-day personal from DSF.

Thought I might finally crack this market. Oh well. Reviewing Duotrope, though, I saw out of 13 subs to them, the first 8 were form Rs and the last 5 have all been personal. Maybe next time.

Eliza C · Dec 29, 2013

aaand, two more...

double 57-day Rs for my two stories sent to Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women

Aggy B. · Dec 29, 2013

17 day R from the Electronic Voice Phenomenon. (They have, btw, the the most ridiculous acknowledgement note I've ever received. Kind of fun, but also kind of unnecessary.)

pdichellis · Dec 29, 2013

The year in rejections:

It looks like I’ll close out 2013 with about 30 rejections (but I received a handful of acceptances, too, so I’m okay with it).

EQMM and Shotgun Honey led the field with four rejectamundos each, including one for an SH anthology. (But SH also sent an acceptance. Stay tuned for some braggin’ after publication.)

The most-snubbed story was rejected seven times (and is still unsold), but in hindsight, I caused some of those by submitting to markets that weren’t a good fit.

My favorite form rejection came from Todd Robinson’s superb crime zine Thuglit. Here it is, word for word, except I substituted aster**ks in a word the editors spelled out.

Thank you for submitting to THUGLIT,

Unfortunately, for one reason or another, we will be unable to use your story in our upcoming issue. We apologize for the form letter, but due to the number of submissions we receive, we are unable to offer individual critiques or comments. That said, competition for the magazine is fierce, and while your story didn't make the cut this time out, we encourage you to submit again to us in the future.

In the meantime, we'll just go f**k ourselves.

Best,
THE THUGLIT EDITORS

Love it!

Best wishes,
Peter DiChellis

Melinda Moore · Dec 29, 2013

pdichellis said:
The year in rejections:

It looks like I’ll close out 2013 with about 30 rejections (but I received a handful of acceptances, too, so I’m okay with it).

EQMM and Shotgun Honey led the field with four rejectamundos each, including one for an SH anthology. (But SH also sent an acceptance. Stay tuned for some braggin’ after publication.)

The most-snubbed story was rejected seven times (and is still unsold), but in hindsight, I caused some of those by submitting to markets that weren’t a good fit.

My favorite form rejection came from Todd Robinson’s superb crime zine Thuglit. Here it is, word for word, except I substituted aster**ks in a word the editors spelled out.

Thank you for submitting to THUGLIT,

Unfortunately, for one reason or another, we will be unable to use your story in our upcoming issue. We apologize for the form letter, but due to the number of submissions we receive, we are unable to offer individual critiques or comments. That said, competition for the magazine is fierce, and while your story didn't make the cut this time out, we encourage you to submit again to us in the future.

In the meantime, we'll just go f**k ourselves.

Best,
THE THUGLIT EDITORS

Love it!

Best wishes,
Peter DiChellis

LOL! Thanks for sharing it.

Rejectomancy

Doing the Space Operatic

killin' all teh werds

Doing the Space Operatic

Not as sweet as you think

Not as sweet as you think

We’ll see what happens from here…

Head down

backstab x 2!

Head down

My Religion is kindness -Dalai Lama

Book lover/Spy

Book lover/Spy

We’ll see what happens from here…

We’ll see what happens from here…

Not as sweet as you think

Murder! You want fries with that?