Rejectomancy

Good luck Lillie! If you find a good literary market let me know. I have a sci-fi piece that has gotten several Rs, and I'm thinking that it might play better to a non-genre audience. I sent it to The Washington Pastime to see what they think. After that maybe I'll try to New Yorker just for the fun of it .

Rejection from FFO. Just pretty much a flat out R, didn't even get the 'some of our staff really liked it' rejection that my last piece got. Oh well. I'm starting to consider publishing a bunch of my flash pieces together in one little e-book, but I'll try a few more markets first.

Oops. Just accidentally sent a story out with the attachment uploaded to Hotmail's SkyDrive instead of actually attached the the email. I'm guessing that'll be a straight no, then. Oh well.

Yeah, it was FFO that sent my literary masterpiece back today.
And I got a very basic form too.
Must be the day for it.

It's not usual for me to write something like this story, and I'm a bit hacked off with it, because I really don't know what to do with it. And I don't feel like doing loads of market research for one single piece of flash.

So I'm going to sit on it for now.

Good luck with yours

pangalactic said:

Does anybody know what the usual turnaround time for Bull Spec is?

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I'm on day 75 so far. Unfortunately they didn't post a date for querying. If I don't get a response by 90 days I'm going query then.

Marzioli said:

I'm on day 75 so far. Unfortunately they didn't post a date for querying. If I don't get a response by 90 days I'm going query then.

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Thanks, Marzioli. I'm on 82 from the date of submission but I was CC'd in on an email one of the slush readers sent about 70 days ago asking the editors to take a look at the story. I was thinking of leaving it until 90 as well, glad to see I'm not alone.

pangalactic said:

Thanks, Marzioli. I'm on 82 from the date of submission but I was CC'd in on an email one of the slush readers sent about 70 days ago asking the editors to take a look at the story. I was thinking of leaving it until 90 as well, glad to see I'm not alone.

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I'm at 99, with no communication of any sort so far.

pangalactic said:

I'm on 82 from the date of submission [for Bull Spec]...

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I'm at day 90 on the dot. The original email I received when I submitted said "You may hear directly back from a first reader via a form letter in the case of a rejection, or you'll be notified when and if the story is forwarded on for further consideration." I haven't heard anything either way since.

I'll probably just let it ride for now, but if anyone does query, I'd be curious to know what you hear.

Lillie said:

Yeah, it was FFO that sent my literary masterpiece back today.

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Ah, I was afraid of that when I saw your first post. Sorry to hear it got bounced.

I'm at 27 days now at FFO but just saw a 29-day form rejection come through on Duotrope, so... Guess I've just got to let that one ride, too.

And spend more time writing and less time scouring Duotrope.

SmallThing said:

I'm at 99, with no communication of any sort so far.

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Well, no cc for me, but I can't so NO communication.

This was the market I accidentally sent to a catch-all inbox. I adjusted my submission by 15 days less to reflect the editor's email that said he put it in the proper place. For this reason, and the fact that I've reread it and see it needs work, I'm pretty sure I'm in the inevitable R pile. Why others are getting their R's before mine, I have no clue.

Just got an R from BCS. Said they only publish works set in worlds with pre-modern technology. Duh - I feel dumb, submitting an entirely inappropriate story. Oh, well, on to the next market.

The confirmation letter led me to believe that they'd be notifying folks if stories were sent on to the editors, so I assumed there'd be a wave of form rejections, with my story in it.

At least I thought that somewhere around 45 days ago. As of tomorrow, that story can join my growing collection of subs out over 100 days. If the 100-day sub-dash were an olympic sport, I'd be kicking butt.

I decided this weekend to quit my job, such as it is. It's my own business, and the work's been sporadic since the economy went sour, but it's still leaving me feeling a little...out of sorts.

So, I think I need to write more. Maybe submit more as well. Better than spending my time biting my nails.

Good luck with the job quitting thing! I hope it works out for you, and gives you more time to write.

@Michael. Thanks. I'm not really bothered, just at a bit of a loss about what to do with it. It's an odd ball story for me.

Good luck with FFO to you and Izz!

And to everyone else waiting.

Thanks Lillie and Izz.

Lillie, if you give me an idea of what your literary piece is like, maybe I can help you figure out some other places to try. I'm not great with lit fic markets, but I've been trying to place a few stories, so I've been working on building a list. It's so much harder to sort through than the spec fic markets.

I have some experience with lit fic. markets as well, if you need suggestions.

Today I got the best rejection ever! She said she liked the story and that I could submit a rewrite if I like!

Thank you!

Celesta said:

Today I got the best rejection ever! She said she liked the story and that I could submit a rewrite if I like!

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I'd consider that to be more of a rewrite request than a rejection, and would strive to make the suggested changes and return the story to them ASAP, while it's still fresh in the editor's memory. Good luck!

Celesta said:

Today I got the best rejection ever! She said she liked the story and that I could submit a rewrite if I like!

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That's awesome!!!

That's awesome, Celesta!

Just got a response on my accidentally Skydrive'd submission saying they don't accept submissions through file-sharing services, which I'd expected. No indication on whether or not I'm OK to resubmit it properly - would a short reply asking whether that's OK be out of line, or should I just write this market off for this story?

Congratulations, Celesta!

Pan, I'd send it back to them. It's not like it got rejected, more like they didn't accept the sub.
I'd put in the cover letter that I was sorry for trying submit it through whatever it was, and here it is submitted correctly.

SmallThing said:

Thanks Lillie and Izz.

Lillie, if you give me an idea of what your literary piece is like, maybe I can help you figure out some other places to try. I'm not great with lit fic markets, but I've been trying to place a few stories, so I've been working on building a list. It's so much harder to sort through than the spec fic markets.

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OtterFactory said:

I have some experience with lit fic. markets as well, if you need suggestions.

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Cheers.

It's someone thinking about their sister. She drowned on a family holiday.
She was adopted, but the narrator wasn't.
He's just thinking about stuff through the funeral and the aftermath.

Not a lot happens. It rains.

I have no idea where to send it.
It was written for the bridge thingy on Camera Obscura and it got to the last round, but didn't win.
FFO rejected it pretty quick.

Now I'm stumped.