Rejectomancy

William Green said:

Normally, I'm stoic in the face of rejection, but I have to be honest, it really bugs me when a magazine's guidelines stress the importance of including a SASE, and then sends their reply by e-mail.

I might look at this as a simple mistake, but that's just happened for the third time this year.

At the risk of burning a bridge, I hastily fired off an email questioning this practice. I'll let you know the response, if any.

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I had the same thing happen not too long ago. I didn't send off an email about it, though. What's the big deal? I don't need the paper slip. It could be that your submission had been past up to an editor and he or she thought an email would be quicker or the SASE had gotten away from the story.

Tamlyn said:

Got a standard form yesterday with a 'PS An almost for us' at the end, and I'm pretty sure that made it worse! Normally I'd just file it away. That made me want to go cry and break things in the corner

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Those ones are tough. Hope you weren't crying and breaking things for too long.

150-day rejection from Red Sun Magazine. They let me know I came really close, down to the final list of choices, and encouraged me to send more. Still, back to the drawing board. lol

Fifty-day rejection from One Story. I thought maybe it was a higher-tier rejection, but I think I've gotten the same rejection before from them. I think I've gotten this a bunch of times from them, leading me to believe it's just a standard form.

Six day form from 5himm3r.

Forty-eight day form rejection from the Kenyon Review. And now they are closed to new submissions. I think their yearly contest is coming up, though.

And a long awaited response from Granta. Also, a form rejection. They too now have closed their submissions. I really want to send them a new story. I've been watching some panel discussions about literary journals on youtube. The editor of Granta really said some great stuff that inspired me to dig deep and make my writing feel more important. The videos are kind of old, but I love when editors share insight.

Anyone else notice that Submission Grinder is down? I rely on that site so much!

DetectiveFork said:

Anyone else notice that Submission Grinder is down? I rely on that site so much!

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I just did. I thought it was an error on my computer at first, but when I realized it wasn't I popped over here to see if anyone else was reporting it too. Crossing my fingers it's back up soon.

Submission Grinder is back up - they lost data from Oct 28 forward, so you may have to reenter data on your recent subs.

I gotta admit, reentering the two rejections I got during that time felt like getting them all over again.

DetectiveFork said:

Anyone else notice that Submission Grinder is down? I rely on that site so much!

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Okay. This hurts. The Missouri Review has officially rejected all of the stories in my MFA thesis. This was a 35-day person rejection. They have taken time to say something about my story almost each time. Those were the stories I had the most confidence in. I really love The Missouri Review. I don't want to send them anything that isn't my best work. I'm nervous to send them one of my newer stories. Do any of you struggle with confidence after a place rejects what you think is your best work over and over again?

After sending several stories I considered to be a perfect fit to a specific magazine only to have them all rejected, I came to the realization that perhaps my work is just not a good fit for them. I'll still submit, but they're no longer at the top of my list.

What I really stings is having a story rejected by a magazine that's published you before. That really gives your confidence a hit, makes you start wondering if your previous acceptances were flukes or mistakes

It's worth keeping in mind that any good market gets more pubishable stories than they can possibly accept, probably far more. Sometimes they choose based on a theme, sometimes they may get stories that are too similar, and sometimes it could come down to little things like word count. You can't let one market's rejection define your writing or career.

All the rejections ever in the last few days. They always seem to come at once, don't they?

Tamlyn said:

All the rejections ever in the last few days. They always seem to come at once, don't they?

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Yeah, even if you've spread out your subs, they bunch up coming back.

That's what I'm afraid of: 8 out on sub, oldest at 157 days, newest at 12 days. Gah... You gotta know they're all gonna come in within days of each other and beat my confidence down hard.

JJ Litke said:

Yeah, even if you've spread out your subs, they bunch up coming back.

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2 rejections today, and the first one was my 200th lifetime rejection. A rather dubious milestone, I think. Although, it did get me sparked up to writing again - I haven't done any in over a month. :O

Congrats, CharlyT! You're way ahead of me.

CharlyT said:

2 rejections today, and the first one was my 200th lifetime rejection. A rather dubious milestone, I think. Although, it did get me sparked up to writing again - I haven't done any in over a month. :O

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Motivation by rejection is the reaction of a writer who will eventually have many works published

Three rejections today. A 68-day form from Crazyhorse, 27-day form from Southern Indiana Review, and a 94-day form from The Cimarron Review. I really don't like getting more than one rejection on any given day. Three just makes me feel bad.

Just when I thought I was probably done hearing back from anyone for the rest of the year, Harper's got me with standard form rejection.

Sorry to hear about the rejection train pulling into the station! Hopefully those little stories will find their homes sooner rather than later!

If you want to be extra depressed, check your spam folder.

I thought I was doing well with Asimov's until I checked into their online system and saw I'd already had an R - spam folder.
Likewise, thought I must be under consideration at Persistent Visions. Couldn't find their R in my spam folder (but it clears itself out every so often), but they said they had sent me one.

As above I had looooooads of stories out from 180 days down to 1 day and I've had about a gazillion rejects this week.

I think the markets should only be allowed to send out acceptances tomorrow (whether their editors celebrate Christmas or not!)

I'm still very new to w1s1, and to submitting my work in general. My first rejections are just now starting to trickle in.

I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten a nice personal rejection from Metaphorosis which included some very useful feedback on my writing. Does anyone know any other markets that tend to provide good feedback with their rejections? Particularly ones that take science fiction and cyberpunk? As new as I am to all this, I think feedback is the most useful thing I can expect right now. Especially when I can get feedback while getting in the habit of putting my work out there.

I had a nice R from Metaphorosis recently too. Will have a think about markets with personal Rs as there are a few. Someone recommended Everyday Fiction as being good but I can't recall if they're paying or not.

Got a story acceptance from Daily Science Fiction today. Super happy as only my second sale. But story may require edits so won't get too excited until it's all confirmed

Condolences to all on the recent Rs!

Peace
Ty