Rejectomancy

Sai

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70-day form rejection from the Extreme Planets anthology (I guess my planet just wasn't extreme enough) and a 17-day form rejection from F&SF.
 

renard79

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Hi renard,

Sorry about the rejection. The "next market" is indeed part of our form, but it doesn't mean that we don't mean it! Everyone who reads submissions at UFO is a writer first, and we root for the submitting authors to find a good home for their stories, when the submission isn't a perfect fit for us.

Hi Alex,

Wow! Thanks for replying; I was afraid I'd offended you. I wish every editor was as transparent regarding this process as you. :)

Best,
Alicia
 

Aggy B.

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Ugh! Sorry to hear it was just a form R after that long wait. Oh well, at least the suspense is over.

Yup.

If Abyss & Apex kicks my magical realism short back in another 8-10 days, it'll be headed for Tor.com. (Since that story has already been to most of the big markets and headed deep into semi-pro territory. Might as well let it try the really big one.)
 

alexshvartsman

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Hi Alex,

Wow! Thanks for replying; I was afraid I'd offended you. I wish every editor was as transparent regarding this process as you. :)

Best,
Alicia

Hi Alicia,

If I didn't manage to offend you with a rejection, I sure as heck won't be offended by you commenting on it :)

I would dearly love to see more transparency from other markets. Maybe UFO can inspire others? I can only hope!
 

Eliza C

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67-day (or so) R from Glimmer Train. (I just discovered the online tracker says "complete" which translates to "rejected." Winners are announced tomorrow.)
 

Aggy B.

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[OFF-TOPIC]

You know. It routinely puzzles me why folks seem to think that editors are duplicitous. Or pandering. Do we really assume that editors don't want us to find an appropriate/good home for our work? Or that they don't think the story is good but simply not right for their publication?

Just because something is a form it doesn't mean the intent behind the standardized phrases is false.

To me, the worry and hyper-analyzation of "Do they really mean that? What do they really mean when they say 'This was a perfectly good story. Send it to the next market.'?" is just a milder form of G.D. McFetridge's paranoia. (And yes, that sentence was as much of a bitch to try and punctuate as it is to read.)

To me rejectomancy is useful for tracking trends in ebb and flow of submissions and rejections to specific markets. It's just a waste of time to sit there and wonder whether an editor (any editor) really means what the form letter states.

Seriously. Stop thinking and go write something. [/OFF-TOPIC]

Aggy, a bit contentious but in a pep-talky get-your-butt-in-your-chair kind of way
 

defcon6000

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I would dearly love to see more transparency from other markets. Maybe UFO can inspire others? I can only hope!
Haha, depends. I don't want editors coming on here or emailing me, to say I shouldn't consider their rejections "rough". :tongue

(Although I never did. But insecure editor is insecure editor.)
 

Marzioli

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[OFF-TOPIC]Just because something is a form it doesn't mean the intent behind the standardized phrases is false.
Perhaps on some level they mean it, but the value is divided up infinitesimally among the vast number of rejections they send out. And that's fine; I think they should be polite because no one likes a grouch! However, when they add special touches ("Your writing shows a lot of merit," or "I look forward to seeing what else you have," or "I noticed uneven prose") as form, that's just mean. Because there's no possible way that's always true, and therefore it is just polite and/or damaging nonsense.
 
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defcon6000

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I think Aggy's point was to not over think form rejections. Some form letters are very nice and encouraging, others are simply "thanks, but no thanks." I agree that a form R shouldn't sound like a personal *coughwashingtonpostcough* as it may be mistaken for actual advice. But in the end, all you can do is resubmit the story.
 

alexshvartsman

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I think it's fair for a writer to want to know for sure if they're receiving a form letter or a personalized rejection. 90%+ of all UFO rejections start out with a form and either have no personal message or put it in the P.S. (like DSF does). If I know the author very well, I may occasionally forgo the form altogether and just respond to them with a personal.


I don't want editors coming on here or emailing me, to say I shouldn't consider their rejections "rough". :tongue

But... I live here :)

Seriously, I think comments about UFO, Goldfish Grim or Comets & Criminals will obviously be treated somewhat differently on this sub-forum and are far likely to elicit direct editorial response (and hopefully without the writer feeling stalked in any way).
 

Kitty27

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304 days?

Good lord. Sorry about that,Aggy.


I got a very nice R for my YA novel. It was very encouraging. I have two UF's to get ready by September to occupy myself,though.

I've noticed a lot of y'all write short stories. Are there specific markets that you submit to? I have a lot of horror tales!

Sorry about the R's but we shall all keep pushing. Onwards and upwards!
 

Marzioli

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Higher tier form R from F&SF, 8 days.

304 days?
I've noticed a lot of y'all write short stories. Are there specific markets that you submit to? I have a lot of horror tales!
Oh yeah. For horror, I send it to: Apex, Shock Totem, One Buck Horror, and Fantasy & Science Fiction Mag. Duotrope.com spells out the available markets clearly. Good resource for short fic writing. They have a different query standard, though, so you may want to brush up before you send it out. Novel queries are much harder, so the transition should be easy.
 
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GreenRoom

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Higher tier form R from F&SF, 8 days.

Oh yeah. For horror, I send it to: Apex, Shock Totem, One Buck Horror, and Fantasy & Science Fiction Mag. Duotrope.com spells out the available markets clearly. Good resource for short fic writing.

Nice! I've never gotten a higher tier form from F&SF* (though I rarely submit there, though oddly I'm waiting for a response from them right now).

I got my first ever higher tier form from Lightspeed yesterday. It was cool to finally see the "nice writing/send more" in my inbox. :)

*By higher form, I mean from Gordon Van Gelder. I don't know what my first few rejects from F&SF were in terms of the form from the first reader, because I didn't know there were tiered rejections at that point, and threw the rejections away.
 

Marzioli

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Nice! I've never gotten a higher tier form from F&SF*
Heh, well, I haven't gotten a response from Gordon yet either. I just meant the highest of the three possible not-Gordon responses.
1. Didn't quite work for me - high, assistant editor probably finished it, but they didn't like it enough to send it up to Gordon.
2. Didn't hold my interest - middle, lost assistant editor's interest somewhere after the beginning.
3. Didn't grab my interest - low, assistant editor couldn't get into the story.

If you search hard enough you may find Gordon and company's cheat sheet about this, but it's documented on various sites now. Of course there are better rejections than high forms, such as personals, Gordon forms, and then Gordon personals. Still, it's nice to know that at about 4K it was still stable and well written enough to warrant slogging through.
 
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renard79

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Very encouraging 74 day poetry R from SH. Mentioned "a nice mix of familiar and futuristic details" and they "look forward to further work" from me.

Already sent back out.
 

GreenRoom

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Heh, well, I haven't gotten a response from Gordon yet either. I just meant the highest of the three possible not-Gordon responses.
1. Didn't quite work for me - high, assistant editor probably finished it, but they didn't like it enough to send it up to Gordon.
2. Didn't hold my interest - middle, lost assistant editor's interest somewhere after the beginning.
3. Didn't grab my interest - low, assistant editor couldn't get into the story.

If you search hard enough you may find Gordon and company's cheat sheet about this, but it's documented on various sites now. Of course there are better rejections than high forms, such as personals, Gordon forms, and then Gordon personals. Still, it's nice to know that at about 4K it was still stable and well written enough to warrant slogging through.

Interesting. I got my R from F&SF today. It fell into category 1 (didn't quite work for me), so I'm glad to know that was a better tiered R for F&SF.

For Lightspeed, the "didn't quite work for me" is the bottom tier form, but then, Lightspeed only has two (not three) tiered form rejections. So much to keep straight in my head!
 

J.W. Alden

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I'm back from vacation and back to the grind. Rejectomancy hugs and fireside s'mores for all!

Got an 11-day form R from Strange Horizons while at the airport. The temptation to spend all day staring at this story before sending it out again is strong.
 

Eliza C

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Got my first novel rejection! Other than hating it, they did say my writing was fluent! Woo!

That's encouraging that they didn't just say "thanks but no thanks." I've found it rare to get anything but a form R or a form request for a partial. At least with novels you can send out batch queries rather than one at a time, which helps. You might get an R one day and a request the next!
 

Marzioli

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Shimmer personal. They always say they like the concept, so I'm beginning to wonder if that's not a standard compliment before they unleash the critical hounds. Still, good suggestions overall, and always appreciated. Love that place, even if they don't gimme moneys!
 

Eliza C

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Shimmer personal. They always say they like the concept, so I'm beginning to wonder if that's not a standard compliment before they unleash the critical hounds.

I don't think so. I got a "clean and concise, but didn't cover enough new ground" so, in my very limited experience with them, it sounds like they tailor their comments individually.
 

Eliza C

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Well, I guess I didn't need to bother asking yesterday if DSF notifies authors if they move up -- 17-day form R from them today. This was one of those especially disappointing ones. I had this market in mind when I wrote this and really thought it had a chance. Oh well. Off to FFO tomorrow.