Rejectomancy

335-day form kerplutz from AHMM, making 17 consecutive rejections since April.

69-day "doesn't meet our needs" form from Persistent Visions, with a line about hoping to see more from me when I have it. First R from this brand-new market; was hoping I'd get a little traction since they're specifically looking to pub previously unpubbed authors.

Peace
Ty

pdichellis said:

335-day form kerplutz from AHMM, making 17 consecutive rejections since April.

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That's a long wait.

CharlyT said:

That's a long wait.

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Yep. AHMM averages over 300 and has been running 330-340 this summer. But at least that's faster than Tin House, which has been running well over 400. I've got one there and don't expect to hear until year end. Lots of stories chasing these editors' eyeballs.

A shiny new R for my collection. I think this one has to be shelved now, I can't think of anywhere else that would consider it.

15 day personal R. Said they had a hard time finding the horror element, and dual POV is "very difficult to pull off" in a short piece. Not sure if that means I totally bombed the latter or if it just wasn't working for them. I knew this one was a long shot. I've been scratching my head over the genre since I first wrote the thing (vaguely surreal, gothic dark fantasy with strong romantic element but definitely not capital R romance). Alternating between 3rd past and 1st present in 3.4k words was definitely an experiment too. Kinda nice to know my gut feelings were spot on, but sadly my gut also says this one won't quite fit in anywhere.

A very lovely personal rejection from Blue Monday Review. they said my writing was "strong and effective", but the story wasn't the right fit. they also said it had a lot of potential and that they hoped I considered them for future submissions. Such nice words always take the sting out of rejections.

pdichellis said:

335-day form kerplutz from AHMM, making 17 consecutive rejections since April.

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I'm at 192 days and counting with AHMM, 335 is just bonkers. I thought Tor had a long wait, back when they were accepting slush. Yeesh.

shortstorymachinist said:

I'm at 192 days and counting with AHMM, 335 is just bonkers. I thought Tor had a long wait, back when they were accepting slush. Yeesh.

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Yep, you most likely have some waiting ahead. Duo shows ten responses ranging from 328 to 340 over the past 30 days and Grinder has two in the past week or so, 333 and 340.

I got one last year at 288, so nine to eleven months seems like a good rule of thumb for them.

Good luck!

pdichellis said:

Yep, you most likely have some waiting ahead. Duo shows ten responses ranging from 328 to 340 over the past 30 days and Grinder has two in the past week or so, 333 and 340.

I got one last year at 288, so nine to eleven months seems like a good rule of thumb for them.

Good luck!

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Thanks for the heads up!

In other news, got a BCS rejection that said they enjoyed the description but the pacing was slow for their tastes. My reaction was, "Eh, that's fair," and I sent it off to Kzine. Crossing fingers in 3, 2, 1...

Friday I got the R from Apex. I'm trying to be philosophical about it. At least my work is being noticed even if it hasn't been published yet.

I gotta say, I do wish that the R's didn't all come tumbling in at once. I've gotten 5 form R's in 4 days, including one that had gone on to shortlist.

I had ice cream for lunch today.

CharlyT said:

I gotta say, I do wish that the R's didn't all come tumbling in at once. I've gotten 5 form R's in 4 days, including one that had gone on to shortlist.

I had ice cream for lunch today.

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Ugh, I hate that. Sorry, CharlyT.

Ouch, CharlyT. That's a rough 4 days. I'd eat ice cream for lunch AND dinner in your shoes.

CharlyT said:

I gotta say, I do wish that the R's didn't all come tumbling in at once. I've gotten 5 form R's in 4 days, including one that had gone on to shortlist.

I had ice cream for lunch today.

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Oof, that's a blow, but you're taking it like a pro. All the pros eat ice cream, yeah?

CharlyT said:

I gotta say, I do wish that the R's didn't all come tumbling in at once. I've gotten 5 form R's in 4 days, including one that had gone on to shortlist.

I had ice cream for lunch today.

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HA! and a 6th one came in within 10 minutes of posting that message. The subs were even at a wide range of ages, anywhere from 8 days to 93 days.

The universe is a cruel place so I had a second bowl of ice cream. At least it's a gourmet flavour - roast pear with salted caramel ripple - so it's sufficient to drown my sorrows.

*momentarily delurks to commiserate*

CharlyT said:

HA! and a 6th one came in within 10 minutes of posting that message.

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Damn. *pours gin on your ice cream*

CharlyT said:

The universe is a cruel place

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It's a cold, calculating bastard of a universe. It rubs its hands together and gleefully waits until you've had the shittiest day ever, then fires a couple of rejections your way.


*resumes lurking*

CharlyT said:

I gotta say, I do wish that the R's didn't all come tumbling in at once. I've gotten 5 form R's in 4 days, including one that had gone on to shortlist.

I had ice cream for lunch today.

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Gah - been there. It sucks. Glad you had ice cream on hand.

Sympathies CharlyT!

I've had a few rejections lately but 'luckily' they've all been stories that have been rejected early or right on time. For me it doesn't hurt that much until they get to that middling stage where you start thinking 'oh maybe they like this one!'

CharlyT said:

HA! and a 6th one came in within 10 minutes of posting that message. The subs were even at a wide range of ages, anywhere from 8 days to 93 days.

The universe is a cruel place so I had a second bowl of ice cream. At least it's a gourmet flavour - roast pear with salted caramel ripple - so it's sufficient to drown my sorrows.

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That's rough! My record is 4 in a 24 hour period. 6 is just brutal! Hang in there!

Not the best of luck here lately. The other day I found out that Plasma Frequency folded. I only found out by going to their website. I'm assuming that the story I had there for consideration is free. I haven't gotten an email or anything, but I think it's a safe bet. Not the greatest start to the month.

And today I heard back from Uncanny. I got a form. A little discouraging, but I can, at least, assume the story is good. And I had an awesome weekend so that helps. Sent the story back out and it's back to the keyboard.

I got a form from Uncanny too, sigh, they've been thick and fast with the Rs in the last few days. Shame about Plasma!

113-day form from Analog today, plus a 24-day from Uncanny a few days ago and 21-day from Apex last week. Had a little tiny bit of hope for the Uncanny one, and quite a bit for the Analog. All low form Rs.

Reeeeeeeeeallly starting to wonder if I'm wasting my time.

Peace
Ty

Ty, have you tried posting in Share Your Work? Or you don't have to post your own stuff, I've gotten a lot out of just reading and critiquing other people's work there.

Gah, got one of those annoying rejections today where there's a personal comment which you're normally super thankful for, but they've made basic errors about the story / rejection factor in the comment. You can't say anything because realistically they probably decided story wasn't great and then read for the first thing they could mention to make it personal (this mag usually does good personals), so nothing would change, it would be rejected regardless, but a little egotistical part of your brain says but they were WRONG and if they only realised they would have bought your story for £$££$$$£$!