The Daily Rejection

Drachen Jager said:

You do exclusives? So far I've been studiously avoiding anyone who wants an exclusive.

But I'm thinking why bother giving anyone an exclusive?

I mean if you get the offer from them then YAY. If you don't then so what?

If by some twist of fate you get an offer after you'd accepted some place else, then hey, it's just one editor that's mildly pissed at you and probably won't even remember your name in a week.

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Short story market. Most don't accept simsubs, but they get back to you much faster than novel publishers. I always have a few stories out there, so it's not a big deal. And I don't want any editors even mildly pissed off at me.

Wow! I'm so happy I found this thread. After reading through it, I don't feel so all alone.

I got 2 rejections on Monday, then nadda. I think Monday is Magic Rejection Day for agents.

I probably have 12-15 queries out there, and one of them was sent in mid-November to an agency where you fill out an online form. I received acknowledgement of receipt -- twice. So, I know they got it. I never thought I'd say that I wish they'd just reject me so I can go on with my life. Closure, ya know?

I also have 2 requested partials out there and 3 fulls. One full was sent the end of January. After reading through the AW board postings, I know that a status query is probably a waste of time.

What's going on out there in agent land? Is it the economy? Has every wanna be writer in the world dusted off his/her MS and are querying agents? When I queried my last two books, I never waited this long for rejection. It poured in like water from a defective dike.

I hate to admit this, but I'd rather get my rejections promptly and move on. This silent treatment is killing me. AArrgghh!

I actually got an R today in one of my SASEs. I was shocked. I thought they just steamed the stamps off them and used them to correspond with signed clients.

Got mine for the day. The usual, though worded very nicely.

I am rejection. look upon my works ye mighty and despair.

i thought i was doing so well getting my short finished and out the door this week. BAM, 5 month old sub rebounds and hits me in the face.

re-subbed before i had a conciliatory ciggy

Got one today for a short I sent out a while back. The reason was length. I was a couple hundred words over what she was looking for.

Two today. I'm in the same boat as you ILSinTexas, I have a bunch of subs out that have been taking an awfully long time. My only consolation is that none of them have been rejected yet and I know some of the agencies use readers who (unlike the agents) appear to be rejecting in a timely manner so I'm quite sure I'm past the first round.

I got an e-mail R today from someone I queried by snail-mail. Where's my SASE?

I knew they were steaming the stamps off those things. Bastards.

I've only ever gotten one email response from a SASE, and that was from someone who stated on the website that they responded this way and asked not to include one. Have you checked the submission guidelines to make sure they all say to include a SASE?

I seriously don't think these guys are sitting around being sneaky and stealing our stamps.

Two already this morning. I'm on a roll! I bet it gets to three by later today lol.

In case you wonder, Kaitie sends out a lot of queries. Though the vast majority are still rejections.

"We really liked the style of the piece, but have decided not to purchase..."

Oh, well. Onwards!

kaitie said:

I've only ever gotten one email response from a SASE, and that was from someone who stated on the website that they responded this way and asked not to include one. Have you checked the submission guidelines to make sure they all say to include a SASE?

I seriously don't think these guys are sitting around being sneaky and stealing our stamps.

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These were SASE people and I followed their guidelines. They've got my lousy stamp and my shiny crisp envelope all printed up with the printer ink I bought by selling the last of my food stamps.

I've typically heard it's better to hand-write a SASE with ball point pen. That way if something happens and it got spilled on, it can still be used. Seriously, though. I don't think it's nefarious.

Anyway, I got my number three for the day on a snail mail. If it makes you feel any better, Miss Plum, I've got to send all these international mail and it costs me a fortune.

they stole your stamp

You know, I've actually had agencies be so kind as to pay the extra postage when their response letter weighs more than my stamps allow. Yeah, it might just be ten cents, but three people so far did it. That was pretty darn nice of them. They could have just trashed them.

I seriously don't think agents are out there stealing our stamps.

I think what they did was, they callously threw my stamp away.

It is possible for an author with 7 published titles under his belt to come out of retirement after 9 years and rack up some new rejection letters within mere weeks. Ah, nice to know the world didn't change while I wasn't looking.

*Frantically presses refresh button*

*checks spam*

*presses refresh*

Gods damn it, just reject me already!

*press*
*press*
*press*
*press*

I've been getting a steady trickle of two per day all week except for Wednesday which had a flood of five.

Total for the week so far, lucky 13!

One more came in late. The nicest rejection I've had yet on a query. It was a query +1st chapter submission and the guy gave me some very helpful notes. Said he loved the first few pages but after that it didn't quite have enough to keep him going.

Oh well, at least I know now that I have a couple good pages...

How funny that they're coming in threes lately. Three new in SASE form today. Still haven't broken my record.

You know, one of these days I'm gonna have to get a request for a snail mail haha.

Today's was depressing. I can honestly say it's the first time I've cried over getting a rejection. Yeah, I'm lame. Getting over it, though.

three rejections on the weekend. two yesterday. resubbed them this morning.

onwards and upwards

kaitie said:

Today's was depressing. I can honestly say it's the first time I've cried over getting a rejection. Yeah, I'm lame. Getting over it, though.

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Aw, Kaitie. Was it one you really wanted?

Sorry to hear that Kaitie. Hang in there and keep at it!