Rejectomancy

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think
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Apparently the website hasn't been working for a little while, and Duotrope will be declaring it dead on the 14th if nothing changes.

That doesn't actually mean it is a dead market, but it certainly looks worrisome. Has anybody queried them recently and gotten a response? There's a 2-week old question on their Facebook page asking where the website is that they haven't responded to. Certainly doesn't look promising.

After waiting that long, I'd hesitate to pull it until I was sure.

ETA: Their domain expires on Sep 20th. If it doesn't get renewed by then, that may be a sure sign. But until then, the site could be messed up from an attack of some kind or a general server problem that hasn't been addressed.

Shelley

I do remember Izz had said they had some sort of server meltdown a little while ago and the website was down because of that. Maybe I'll just query again and see if I get a response. I really don't want to withdraw the story if there are just technical difficulties in play, but...

They've also gotten pretty far behind on the publication schedule which makes me think it may be time to try somewhere else. :(
 

JC Romel

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I'm not suggesting you do this, Aggy, but I would definitely withdraw my story. The latest submission they've responded to, according to Duotrope, was from December, and their last response was on the first of June. The site's down and your story has been there for like a year and a half.

Whether or not they're dead-dead is irrelevant. I'd pull out, sub the story elsewhere, and leave GUD alone until they get their stuff together. Right now you're only hurting yourself.
 

shelleyo

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I wouldn't bother to withdraw it. If you want to submit it somewhere else, then I think you should. Just let it ride at GUD. Either they'll get it together and contact you about it eventually, or they're dead and it won't matter. If their site's down, email to anything in that domain won't work anyway.

Either way, odds are long that the place you submit and GUD will accept at the same time. One way or the other, though, you've got the fact that GUD looks dead on your side if you have to withdraw it somewhere or tell them you've already sold it. It's not really a simsub if one market appears dead.

Shelley
 

ShadowFox

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... cut:lots of good stiff... No matter where you are on this journey, you're not alone, someone else has been there and persevered.


Yeah, I agree with everything you say. Thank you for taking the time to buck me up :)

alexshvartsman: By professional I didn't mean pay, I meant how efficient they were. Not sure I am qualified to recommend anyone. As I said, these are my first stories in the genre, so I don't want to steer you wrong.

Personally, I query at the end of three months or six months depending on the market stats. If I get no response to the query I submit to a new market. It may have got lost / caught in a filter. One and a half years is too long for any market.
 
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Tienci

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Re: ChiZine--I also received confirmation 32 days ago. The sub's been out for 61 days though, so as you can imagine, I'm eating my fingers...

Aaaaand the axe fell. Pretty much knew it would. The story's still out there though, with another market allowing sim-subs.
 

JC Romel

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Sorry, Tienci. I seem to have avoided the ax for another day, despite a HUGE day for rejections from them. Since this worked last night, let's try it again...


"Good night, Westley. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning."
 

Lillie

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You're not alone Tienci.

I got mine from ChiZine yesterday.

Good luck with yours elsewhere. And good luck to everyone who is still hanging on in there!
 

Tienci

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Thanks guys. Good luck JC, Brenda, Nathaniel, V1c (and anyone else still waiting)!
Lillie, can't wait to hear the news in the other thread. :)
 
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V1c

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I was in the reject pile :) Best to the rest though!
 

JC Romel

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I can't find any rhyme or reason to the way they're going through their slush. There are 16-day rejections beside 61-day rejections beside 41-day rejections. I had hoped that the fact I was subbed earlier than some of them meant I was in a "maybe" pile or something, but I just can't parse out the meaning here.

So I'm just going to save myself the heartache and assume an R is on its way.
 

faerydancer

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I'm with you, JC. I can't figure it out, either. Mine's been out 58 days. I seem to be right in the middle of all the rejections. Duotrope can drive a person crazy hehe
 

defcon6000

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Yeah, I noticed that about Chizine, too. Is it possible that some slushpile readers are faster than others?
 

defcon6000

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Boo, got a rejection from 10Flash. Apparently they don't like 2nd-person narrative. :( Ah well...
 

V1c

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defcon - that's probably exactly it. I've read slush many times in the past, but the main mag I did it for sent slush to their readers. Some were faster than others, simple as that. Sometimes the faster readers would then go in and grab new slush, so those sent in later would get an earlier response.
 

ShadowFox

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I didn't realise Chizine had closed for submissions, apparently all the write 1 sub 1 crowd have submitted them to exhaustion.
 

Lillie

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(((((((V1c and Defcon)))))))

Good luck with finding homes for your stories.
 

Sai

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Finally heard back from Strange Horizons. It was an rejection, but a personal one at least. It's kind of funny, in that the editor was specific about what he liked but vague on what he didn't. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment, but I would like to know more about how I can fix my story rather than being told what already works.

Oh well :). I'm still pretty happy to get a personal R, and I've sent the story to one of my tougher beta readers for feedback. I'm going to wait to hear from him before I send it to the next market.
 

zanzjan

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Hugs to Sai, V1c, Decon, and anyone else I missed.

Bummer of an R this morning here, but it came with really good comments. Going to let them percolate until I get home from work, and then look at the story again with a fresh eye.

-Suzanne