Rejectomancy

soapdish said:

So *not* where I saw this going.

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Not trying throw this *ahem* Euorpean beach party off track... but this is me reporting my 10-day personal from Waylines. Very encouraging rejection; they said the story has some great bones, just needs some sculpting of the flesh.

Oh Waylines, you crazy-nice magazine, you.

9 day rejected from Apex. Thinking I need to take a fresh look at this before casting out again.

I got my Waylines too. They told me the story was well written, but it needed a little something extra to stand apart from similar stories. I think I'm being a little too subtle with my twist ...

Though I am sorry to hear about the rejections, I am liking that everyone is getting such nice/personal ones from Waylines. I'm almost hoping to get one of my own.

soapdish said:

Though I am sorry to hear about the rejections, I am liking that everyone is getting such nice/personal ones from Waylines. I'm almost hoping to get one of my own.

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The secret is great beta-readers

Niccolo said:

The secret is great beta-readers

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Ah HA! So I *do* have a chance at a personal rejection too!

11-day form from Waylines followed by a 118-day form R from Lore.

13-day form rejection from Arc. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

I've finally done it, I've done what I've been told every new writer needs to do. I've written my turd* and got the first rejection on it. I'm not depressed or discouraged, I'm tracking it in some mix of sadism and horror as I inflict it upon slush readers.

*You know, that awful story you finished you know nobody will like but you read it to yourself in a corner and giggle like it's some sort of guilty pleasure. I've heard some include luchadors, and exploding, and exploding luchadors who headbutt bulls. Mine isn't so base and it includes no luchadors but the description gives a proper impression and for all its faults, by God, I love it.

Wonderful Mr. Aziz! Congrats on getting that story out there!

Sorry to hear that, Aggy! "Meh" indeed. If I may ask, did you get a second-round notification or did you find out with a query? I'm right at the query door but haven't knocked yet. They've been all over the place with response times lately.

Condolences to all the other recent rejectionees.

Aggy B. said:

I did receive a "short-list" notification back in December (I think.) It came about 1-2 months after I'd hit the query point.

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Thank you, even though that means my 90-day sub hasn't been read yet, in all likelihood.

Getting so close carries its own sting, but remember that it's better than a procession of forms. (Yes, everyone says that.)

O'Dandelo said:

Getting so close carries its own sting, but remember that it's better than a procession of forms. (Yes, everyone says that.)

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And we all dang well mean it!

Shimmer form after just a day. This is a blarg moment, indeed.

10-day form from Arc.

Condolences to my fellow rejectonauts. I'm on a serious dry spell here since my encouraging sales last year, and my new year's optimism is starting to slip. But trucking, we are keeping it on.

Aggy B. said:

Gah. Very long rejection from LORE (subbed last August). It had been shortlisted, but in the end... a pass.
Also a very fast rejection from Grim Corps Magazine.
Meh.

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Sorry, Aggy. At least it was a long wait for a close call instead of a form, but yeah - I get that it's even harder is some ways to know you came close.

Sorry to everyone else with recent R's too.

Holy rejectolanche!

For 3/4: DSF, Apex, West Branch and Read Short Fiction all passed in under 20 days.

Could someone point me toward ARC submission guidelines? I'm failing to find them on their site.

alexshvartsman said:

Could someone point me toward ARC submission guidelines? I'm failing to find them on their site.

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Here ya go Alex: https://arc.submittable.com/submit

Sorry for the long R's everyone, esp the close call at Lore, Aggie, but I'll bet that means that story will find a market soon. And sorry for the super fast one, Niccolo - always a slight shock - hope you don't read too much into it; a lot depends on who grabs your story from slush and what order they read in; longer isn't necessarily better IMO). And sorry for the rejectolanche, Tienci. Ouch!

A 47-day personal rejection from Gordon Van Gelder at Fantasy & Science Fiction. A rejection is a rejection is a rejection, but still, I'm pretty pleased to receive a personal response from GVG .

Sai said:

Here ya go Alex: https://arc.submittable.com/submit

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Thanks, and commiserations on the F&SF R. I got a personal from them today as well, but it was from an associate editor and not GVG.

Rats. 22-day R from Shimmr for the story that was passed up to the editorial board. Both target markets for this have now considered and passed on it. At least both markets gave personal responses, so may set this aside for a bit 'til I have the motivation for some revision work.