Rejectomancy

SmallThing

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Still waiting on A&A. Still waiting on a couple of lit fic markets, some of which are well past due. Still waiting, still waiting...

At least I'm almost ready with a new batch of stories to begin making the rounds.
 

Pemako

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R from Shimmer. Waah!

Another newbie question - just about everything seems to be closed to submissions right now, which makes the Waah! even worse. Is this common? Is it the time of year?
 

Aggy B.

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R from Shimmer. Waah!

Another newbie question - just about everything seems to be closed to submissions right now, which makes the Waah! even worse. Is this common? Is it the time of year?

Some places (like Strange Horizons) close periodically when the slush pile gets large. They don't have set submission periods, but they aren't open every month either.

Some places (like Realms of Fantasy and Lightspeed) are closed due to restructuring of the publication/how they receive submissions. (Lightspeed is still open to sci-fi, just not fantasy.)

Could be due to the time of year too. It's not really uncommon for mags to close periodically. It just sucks when they all do it at the same time.
 

Izz

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Pemako, yeah, a lot of venues close down over December. There'll be a flood of reopenings in Jan, though.

Oh, and Realms of Fantasy has died again, fyi. Not sure if it'll be resuscitated this time around, either.
 

Aggy B.

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Pemako, yeah, a lot of venues close down over December. There'll be a flood of reopenings in Jan, though.

Oh, and Realms of Fantasy has died again, fyi. Not sure if it'll be resuscitated this time around, either.

Well that sucks. That's what I get for linking to the submissions page in my bookmarks. I kept thinking they would be reopening. I'll mark it off the list of potential markets. :(

Crickets today. Will probably hear back from IGMS tomorrow. They are sending out 29 day Rs right now and I'm at 28 days. >_<
 

loldoc

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Actual (redacted) rejection:


Thank you for submitting $$$$ to %%%%. We are going to pass on your story.

We found your story quite funny and clever, but we are probably prejudiced against humorous stories, at least when it comes to purchasing them to publish. I'd like to think that &&&& and I have a sense of humor (my wife would probably disagree), but, though we don't have anti-humor specifications in our guidelines, we probably should.

I've enjoyed reading each of your submissions, and I look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

Whatever happened to, "No Funny No Money?"
 

loldoc

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I think my crickets might've discovered immortality.

18 submissions out. 10 responses are overdue or at least above average Duotrope response times. A couple of them by a big margin.

Sigh.

Ahhh... aside from hell to which the slushpile rejects are consigned, there is the limbo for those awaiting editorial decisions.
 

zanzjan

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though we don't have anti-humor specifications in our guidelines, we probably should.

IMNSHO, if they really enjoyed the story but won't publish it solely because it's humorous, then they *absolutely* should state that in their guidelines. Otherwise they're just wasting writers' time, and their own to boot.

Good luck with the story elsewhere.
 

Polenth

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Another newbie question - just about everything seems to be closed to submissions right now, which makes the Waah! even worse. Is this common? Is it the time of year?

It's common, but you can use the time to polish up some new stuff, start a novel, eat too much food... all ready for January.
 

Project Deadlight

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One of my three at Glimmer Train - the one I thought they'd like most - got a form today...

...followed by my second higher tier R from One Story. Given the amount of personal rejections listed on OS's duotrope though, I am thinking this is less of an achievement than I used to.
 

mhaynes

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Yesterday was a double-R day with the fine folks at Apex and IGMS returning stories to me.

This, combined with me finally getting around to taking a last pass through one of my October shorts, made yesterday a triple-submission day, though...
 

Aggy B.

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Bah. Form R from IGMS for The Collections Agent. I'll have to check my lists but I think anywhere else I would submit next is temporarily closed. I guess I can wait a couple of weeks to send it back out.

ETA: Figured I'd try Stupefying Stories while I wait for Strange Horizons to open back up. :)
 
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defcon6000

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A round of hugs for everyone. :e2grouphu Sorry guys.

I woke up to a form R from Flash Fiction Online -- at least they aren't slothful like duotropes has them pegged to be.
 

alexshvartsman

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@Project Deadlight: DSF has published some dark fantasy/horror stuff before, but I imagine that to be a really tough sell there. Dark fantasy without much of a horror element would fare better (see "Like Origami in Water" by D. Walters Grintalis for an excellent example).

@defcon: There's a new editor in chief over at FFO and they're promising much faster response times. I've been seeing 2-4 day rejections on Duotrope since they opened for subs. My story is at 8 days currently, so I'm hoping that means it made it past the slush.
 

mhaynes

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There's a new editor in chief over at FFO and they're promising much faster response times. I've been seeing 2-4 day rejections on Duotrope since they opened for subs. My story is at 8 days currently, so I'm hoping that means it made it past the slush.

Ah ha. Thanks for this tidbit of information. I generally avoid markets which take over 100 days on stories unless there's a really compelling reason to submit there. (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine is the main exception I've made. And, I'm talking about periodicals here, not themed anthologies where you might wait a long time if you're an early submitter.)

Maybe it's impatient or arrogant or something but I don't feel like having one of my stories sitting around in someone's slush queue for months on end without a really good reason.

</grumpyoldman>
 

Marzioli

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Maybe it's impatient or arrogant or something but I don't feel like having one of my stories sitting around in someone's slush queue for months on end without a really good reason.
</grumpyoldman>
Yeah, I feel the same way. I don't think it's arrogance, though. To me, it's a non-market, especially since I haven't sold to a pro-pay market (or semi-pro, for that matter) yet. If and when I do, and on a regular basis, I might consider a 100-300 day wait more acceptable, provided it's on my publisher bucket list. One day, for instance, I wouldn't mind selling to Tor. Maybe in ten years, once the trunk overflows with my unpublished diamonds. :D
 

Aggy B.

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Ah ha. Thanks for this tidbit of information. I generally avoid markets which take over 100 days on stories unless there's a really compelling reason to submit there. (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine is the main exception I've made. And, I'm talking about periodicals here, not themed anthologies where you might wait a long time if you're an early submitter.)

Maybe it's impatient or arrogant or something but I don't feel like having one of my stories sitting around in someone's slush queue for months on end without a really good reason.

</grumpyoldman>

My "strategy" with long-wait markets is to take one story I feel is strong enough for a pro-market (since most of the "we'll get back to you in eight months" markets are pro) and sub to one "big" name. (The New Yorker, for instance.) Then I work the faster markets with everything else. As the time for response from the "big" market gets close, I sub a different story to a different "big" market. (Tor.com, for instance.)

Then it's just rinse and repeat 'til I get an acceptance. Which I have not yet, from any of my "big" markets. But some day soon....

Aggy, dreaming big
 

alexshvartsman

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Ah ha. Thanks for this tidbit of information. I generally avoid markets which take over 100 days on stories unless there's a really compelling reason to submit there. (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine is the main exception I've made. And, I'm talking about periodicals here, not themed anthologies where you might wait a long time if you're an early submitter.)

Maybe it's impatient or arrogant or something but I don't feel like having one of my stories sitting around in someone's slush queue for months on end without a really good reason.

</grumpyoldman>


I tend not to submit to the much slower markets, either. (For example, I've never submitted to TOR.com and probably never will).

But even at the faster markets my stores have been sitting around for a very long time lately. *eyes Duotrope database where half of the submissions are now in red*.
 

mhaynes

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My "strategy" with long-wait markets is to take one story I feel is strong enough for a pro-market (since most of the "we'll get back to you in eight months" markets are pro) and sub to one "big" name. (The New Yorker, for instance.) Then I work the faster markets with everything else. As the time for response from the "big" market gets close, I sub a different story to a different "big" market. (Tor.com, for instance.)

Then it's just rinse and repeat 'til I get an acceptance. Which I have not yet, from any of my "big" markets. But some day soon....

Aggy, dreaming big

That seems like a good approach. I think it's fair to say that The New Yorker counts as a "special" market. (Assuming you're writing the sort of stuff they publish.)
 

loldoc

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I no longer have any clue about which of my stories are saleable. My one pro sale lost the Escape Pod contest and got rejected by a token market before finding a home at NATURE. My three personal favorite stories are still circulating, though rapidly running out of pro markets. And a few others sold to the first or second market submitted and I still don't know what I did right. One of them I banged out in an hour the night before a deadline, and revised it once for word count. [shrug]