Rejectomancy

((((KitCat))))



Maybe I'll get something from them soon. They've had mine for ages.

Had two, yes, TWO, rejections for the same piece from FFO telling me my piece wasn't formatted correctly. Felt like a prize idiot the first time, but I can not for the life of me find out where I haven't followed the guidelines on the second submission?! Tearing what little hair I have left out?

That's odd. They want standard manuscript.

No identifying info, no headers or footers

doc, rtf, txt.

Didn't send a docX, did you? My kid sent me one of them, once. I couldn't open it.
I had to open it online and cut and paste into word. Proper PITA.

Project Deadlight said:

Had two, yes, TWO, rejections for the same piece from FFO telling me my piece wasn't formatted correctly. Felt like a prize idiot the first time, but I can not for the life of me find out where I haven't followed the guidelines on the second submission?! Tearing what little hair I have left out?

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Gah sorry to hear that... Did you remove your contact info from the manuscript?

alexshvartsman said:

Gah sorry to hear that... Did you remove your contact info from the manuscript?

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Yeah - first time I scrubbed it but overlooked the name right beneath the title. Doh! Then second time I double checked every point. Just checked again and am totally baffled.

I'm wondering if the story itself is perhaps too like one of the "don't send us these" types they mention and that is counted as a formatting error... I didn't think it was, but you lose objectivity with your babies sometimes.

What was the file name?

You didn't have your name as part of the file name, did you?
I do that sometimes. One or two places ask for it.

Project Deadlight said:

Yeah - first time I scrubbed it but overlooked the name right beneath the title. Doh! Then second time I double checked every point. Just checked again and am totally baffled.

I'm wondering if the story itself is perhaps too like one of the "don't send us these" types they mention and that is counted as a formatting error... I didn't think it was, but you lose objectivity with your babies sometimes.

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Hmmm... What about length? I vaguely recall that, while they are looking for flash, there's a lower word count limit (maybe 500? I remember not being able to send them a 350 word story for sure). Just throwing possibilities out there.

No, not that either. I think that is a market I might have to leave for a year and hope they forget me... On the plus side I don't write much flash anyway.

Lillie said:

What was the file name?

You didn't have your name as part of the file name, did you?
I do that sometimes. One or two places ask for it.

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My filenames always have my surname in them. I'd never thought of removing them, actually. Hasn't been a problem yet but I'll have to keep an eye on that!

sorry for all the rejections

just got a form r from Ellery Queen...that one was totally expected tbh.

One more R for the week in the form of a flash contest.

This week was a tough one - four rejections for my poor ego, lol. After a good sulk and licking my wounds by playing video games (blowing stuff up is good therapy), I'm sending out my second short story of the year today.

So at least I'm on target for my bi-weekly goal for this year. I guess that's something, right?

Ugh, 110-day R from Title Goes Here, and on top of that, can't sub to them for another 90 days. : /

Abyss and Apex rejection.

(((((Hugs for all the rejections))))))

Just got just got one from One Buck Horror. Ah well, maybe one day!

Prisoner24601 said:

This week was a tough one - four rejections for my poor ego, lol. After a good sulk and licking my wounds by playing video games (blowing stuff up is good therapy), I'm sending out my second short story of the year today.

So at least I'm on target for my bi-weekly goal for this year. I guess that's something, right?

Click to expand...

Yay! Blow stuff up

Well done for being on target!

Sorry for all of the rejections I finally got an "In-Progress" from 100wordstories. It's more than I've gotten up to this point lol.

Here's to a great week!

I'm sorry to say that I didn't have the person fortitude to keep what now in hindsight are the most entertaining rejections I received. I remember one that started off along the lines of "not what we are looking for".... but then took an insulting turn by saying that their publishing house was looking for well-developed characters and unique original voices.... blah blah.. -- it felt an awful lot like "we're looking for a GOOD story, not this crappy stuff that YOU submitted."

I believe I shredded it.

Dannica, there's a good chance it was a form rejection, something they send out to everyone.

Some publications even like to include their submission guidelines along with the rejection. Every time I get one of those, it makes me think I screwed up the GLs somehow, but it's just how they do things.

Yeah, I've had forms that said stuff like that.

I have also had personals (one in particular) that detailed where my characters/story weren't developed, and where my voice was deficient (for them).
It was very useful.

What's the famous one? Analog?
Where the R includes a huge list of everything they don't want, and the first time anyone gets it, they think that all those things were wrong with their story.
So they come here and cry a bit until someone tells them that everyone gets that.
Lol

Analog is one, Nature is another--off the top of my head.

Coffin Factory 71-day Rejection. It feels weird to have this back. I'm actually looking forward to editing it and resubmitting.

Edit: I take it back. Editing this thing is a chore! That's what I get for writing non-genre work. (For the most part, I don't have a passion for it).

R from nanoism-- I'm getting used to those lol

Hugs for everyone.


Received a 66-day R from Bull Spec. Fun, Fun.