Rejectomancy

[alexshvartsman]

Also, as to Result Jelly I withdrew my submission from them a while back as well. A market that won't disclose its staff, or at least its senior editors, is a huge red flag.

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

In short, I would not query yet. Those guys are on the ball, and they allow simultaneous submissions precisely because they know their response would take a while.

Oh, good to know. Thanks for the info. Sadly I already queried this morning, so hopefully it doesn't get under the editors' skin. Also, congratulations on the sale!

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

Also, as to Result Jelly I withdrew my submission from them a while back as well. A market that won't disclose its staff, or at least its senior editors, is a huge red flag.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. As a side note, I've tried out three new markets in the last few months and, so far, none of them are working out. Result Jelly is the first to lose my faith, next will probably be Michael Moorcock's New Worlds Magazine. The third is Nameless Mag (two weeks now and no duotrope updates). I'm not a fan of that website at ALL, but the association with a co-writer of Logan's Run (and the pay) intrigued me.

[mhaynes]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

... Nameless Mag (two weeks now and no duotrope updates). I'm not a fan of that website at ALL, but the association with a co-writer of Logan's Run (and the pay) intrigued me.

I just went to their site. Apparently, about a week ago they revamped it heavily. In my opinion, it's a lot better than it was before. I still wouldn't call myself a fan of the (current) design. If you've seen only the new design and hated it, well... You would have really hated the original design, I suspect.

Because of the original website, I spent a lot of time researching the editorial team before submitted. They've put out a well-reviewed product (The Bleeding Edge anthology) in the past:

http://davidagranoff.blogspot.com/20...anthology.html

I'm not too worried about the lack of responses so far. I think some publications like to get everything they want to consider for a reading period in and only then make a decision on any piece, so that could be at work here. And they did put 90 days as their estimated response time on Duotrope...

Just my two cents on this market.

[alexshvartsman]

I'm generally very welcoming of new 'zines, trying to support them (scar them for life?) with my submissions. In case of Nameless, I just couldn't get past their website design. I'd be actively embarrassed to link to my own story if it appeared on the site like that. I'll gladly submit to them if and when they address that issue.

As to New Worlds -- they're definitely legit (but VERY slow to respond).

I did have a good experience with Earthbound Fiction despite the anonymity of their staff, but I see now that they posted the names of their staff on the Contact page. Good move!

Another interesting "anonymous" 'zine is "Nine" -- so far they seem quite active and responsive, even if they're anonymous, so I'll keep subbing.

[alexshvartsman]

Thanks for the heads-up, Michael.

It's far from perfect, but it's not making my face melt anymore. Guess I should sub something. Though they want "bleak" and I don't do bleak particularly well. Even my horror stories tend to have happy endings

[mhaynes]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

Though they want "bleak" and I don't do bleak particularly well. Even my horror stories tend to have happy endings

As you've seen, I've got no difficulty with bleak... Which makes my occasional non-bleak things an interesting change of pace

[Sai]

Form R from Analog, though I finally spent some time re-subbing pieces that were rejected earlier this month. Fly, my pretties, fly!

[mhaynes]

Personal R from Allegory today with nice comments. I like their "What I Liked/Why I've Rejected" set of notes that they sent with this rejection. I'll definitely submit here again.

[defcon6000]

Got an R from Shadows & Tall Trees. I wish more markets could be as swift as them.

Do you guys mean this New Worlds?

Can't say I'm a fan of Earthbound, I haven't liked anything they posted on their site. Not to mention their site requires flash which is annoying, to say the least.

[alexshvartsman]

I kind of liked the Christmas-themed story they posted. The first month's winner was... confusing. But hey, they showed great taste by buying one of mine, so...

Allegory sounds well-worth submitting to. And it has one of our own as an associate editor, too. Gonna send them something soon.

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by defcon6000

Do you guys mean this New Worlds?

Yeah. The guy running it is VERY nice and very quick to respond to queries, but the first issue keeps getting pushed back and they seemed to have stopped reading until it's finished. He recommended I sim-sub it somewhere, but the only markets I want to try next don't accept sim-subs.

[mhaynes]

Well, I got my R from Stupefying Stories just now. Basically they said they'd held onto it long enough already.

Heck, if they were maybe going to buy it, I would've been OK with them hanging onto it a bit longer.

But, I suppose if they hadn't decided to buy it after this long, they probably weren't going to decide to buy it ever. Ah, well...

Defcon, thanks for the nudge towards "Shadows & Tall Trees" -- I was only vaguely aware of them and think they might be a good market for a story of mine if it doesn't get accepted by the place I've currently got it on sub to.

[defcon6000]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

I kind of liked the Christmas-themed story they posted.

But it was an infodump, not a story. : /

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Yeah. The guy running it is VERY nice and very quick to respond to queries, but the first issue keeps getting pushed back and they seemed to have stopped reading until it's finished. He recommended I sim-sub it somewhere, but the only markets I want to try next don't accept sim-subs.

How come there isn't a site listed on duotropes, then?

[Izz]

Originally Posted by defcon6000

How come there isn't a site listed on duotropes, then?

iirc, they have a facebook page rather than a website.

[defcon6000]

Ew, Facebook.

[Izz]

Haha. That was my first thought, too. But i guess it's free and easy for millions of f-bookers to find if they should so desire.

(i'm on facebook and have an author's page and a page for C&C, but i'll admit i don't like it very much)

[Lillie]

Sorry about all the Rs

I've had a few too. Don't know where from. Places I've forgotten now.

Meh.

[Izz]

*hugs*

[SmallThing]

More for the rejectioneers.

[Aggy B.]

Originally Posted by mhaynes

Well, I got my R from Stupefying Stories just now. Basically they said they'd held onto it long enough already.

Sorry to hear that. I'm still waiting on mine. >_< (Though mine's not been there 50 days yet so I can't really complain.)

[Kitty27]

Sorry,guys.

[mhaynes]

Originally Posted by Aggy B.

Sorry to hear that. I'm still waiting on mine. >_< (Though mine's not been there 50 days yet so I can't really complain.)

Yeah... On the one hand, I get that it's nice that they don't want to just hang onto things indefinitely. It just seemed like sort of a strange email to get, at least at first.

Oh, well. I subbed the story out to a different market last night, one I'd never subbed to before, so we'll see how that goes.

Onward.

[pangalactic]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

The withdrawal request at Borderlands 6 was from me. The story has sold elsewhere, and I'm waiting for permission to announce the sale (it's a very nice market!)

Borderlands Press editors responded promptly to my withdrawal. They apologized for not getting to my (and other) stories sooner, stating that they received 700+ submissions and will be reading all of them. They're busy with their writing workshop in January and will likely get cranking on the slush next month.

In short, I would not query yet. Those guys are on the ball, and they allow simultaneous submissions precisely because they know their response would take a while.

Thanks for that Alex, it's much appreciated. To be honest I don't have a chance of them buying my story, but I'm not subbing it anywhere else in the meantime on the off-chance I'd love to be in one of those anthologies.

[alexshvartsman]

Originally Posted by defcon6000

But it was an infodump, not a story. : /

Shrug, I enjoyed it.

If there's one thing I learned from reading/grading entries in a Flash Fiction contest is that fiction is extremely subjective. When asked to grade stories on a 10 point scale, most of the entries receive scores ranging all the way from 1 to 10. There's no concensus.

To me, that's another reason to submit, submit, submit. A story that's going to be a "1" for one editor, may be a "10" for the next.

[KitCat]

*hugs to replace the R's*

I just got another one this week from Vestal Review, which means i'm down to one out and waiting on a contest to finish.