Rejectomancy

Sara K.

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26-day form R from Apex. The more time I spend with this story, the more I'm unsure about it. Anyway, I have another market to try regardless.
 

fairphyllis

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26-day form R from Apex. The more time I spend with this story, the more I'm unsure about it. Anyway, I have another market to try regardless.

Me too, me too. Ugh, still no good news with any of my submissions. I am sort of starting to hate them all and morale is low for writing new ones! A temporary dip, I hope. :)
 

JJ Litke

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Hang in there, Phyllis. It took me many months to make a sale. Just keep reading what they publish, so you get a feel for the markets and sub to the best fits for a story. Then keep writing, and keep subbing.
 

fairphyllis

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Hang in there, Phyllis. It took me many months to make a sale. Just keep reading what they publish, so you get a feel for the markets and sub to the best fits for a story. Then keep writing, and keep subbing.

Thank you so much for the encouragement! :)

I've been reading less in the past week or two. I think I'll take a bit of time this afternoon to read a story in each of my target markets. That usually fires me up and inspires me!
 

fairphyllis

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Hey does anyone have experience submitting to LitMag? My submission there is older than recent rejections on Grinder..though I know not to get my hopes up because of such things...
 

zanzjan

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Welcome fairphyllis!

Sorry I haven't been around much, folks. Distracted by life things. I've added a few more Rs to my tally, but I've been trying new things so it's not unexpected.
 

Tamlyn

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I've collected a few of the long-sitting Rs of late. I knew they were going to take ages when I subbed them, but now I have to think about the stories again.

Really need to sit down at some point and actually get the stories out there again.
 

pdichellis

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My May mini-rejecta-lanche:

1-2. Form dumps from a crime magazine and a horror antho. Both stories went back out as a multi sub to a crime-horror market.

3. Personal veto from an online crime zine. Note was: Loved the dialogue, barfed at the ending. Ironically, for the story's next market I think I need to change the dialogue (remove some f-bombs) and keep the ending (because I like it.) But I need to think it over for another day because I respect what the editor noted.
 
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CharlyT

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I'm not sure what's happening in the markets lately, but the response times from markets seem to be dragging on hellishly long (for me and my nerves). I got a 99 day form R from Issues of Earth Science today - and it's not even my oldest sub. I've got many hovering around the 70ish day mark and I'm crossing my fingers *hard* that they don't all come in on the same day.
 

fairphyllis

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I'm not sure what's happening in the markets lately, but the response times from markets seem to be dragging on hellishly long (for me and my nerves). I got a 99 day form R from Issues of Earth Science today - and it's not even my oldest sub. I've got many hovering around the 70ish day mark and I'm crossing my fingers *hard* that they don't all come in on the same day.

I am having the exact same experience. I haven't heard anything from my markets for ages. My newest submission is 15 days old, and my oldest is 99. A couple of the markets show up on Grinder rejecting more recent pieces than mine, but mine are not the oldest pendings. Makes me want to finish a story just for the quick in and out of a Clarkesworld submission. Haven't done one of those for a while.
 

Sara K.

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My 18-day form rolled in from DSF. Not sure if I'll take that sub any further.

Other than that, waiting on crickets mostly.
 

eyeblink

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I sent a story to Interzone on 31 May 2016 - yes, almost a year ago. I chased it up on Thursday evening by email and had an apologetic reply on Friday morning. He read it and enjoyed it but didn't think it was right for IZ (doesn't surprise me - that's usually the case with something that's not accepted or rejected within a month or so).but for whatever reason the rejection email didn't get sent.

Oh well. I do have other places I can send this to, even for a story that's 13,000 words long.
 

William Green

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I sent a story to Interzone on 31 May 2016 - yes, almost a year ago. I chased it up on Thursday evening by email and had an apologetic reply on Friday morning. He read it and enjoyed it but didn't think it was right for IZ (doesn't surprise me - that's usually the case with something that's not accepted or rejected within a month or so).but for whatever reason the rejection email didn't get sent.

Oh well. I do have other places I can send this to, even for a story that's 13,000 words long.

I've had a few submissions get similarly forgotten like that. It's an awful feeling when you go from thinking, "Wow, I haven't heard back yet, they must really be considering it", to several months later thinking, "Shit, I still haven't heard back yet, something must have gotten lost."

I feel like missing submissions happens more often than we'd like to think. It seems most of us have a story (or two, or three!) of this happening. As a result, I no longer have any hesitation to query a place if I think something is wrong. They say they reply within four months, but six have passed? I'll send a quick email saying, "Hi, I sent such and such piece on such and such date. Is it still under consideration, or did I unfortunately miss your reply?"
 

shortstorymachinist

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Ugh. Remind me to stop checking the Grinder so often. I had a piece at Uncanny approaching their 45-day-please-query mark, so I checked Twitter to see if they had said anything, and they tweeted that all pending pieces were with the editors-in-chief (I interpreted this as a bump?) and I got all hopeful only to receive a form R from one of the other editors five days later. *sigh* I'd much rather just forget a sub is out until the R pops up in my inbox.
 

zanzjan

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Remember as well that pretty much everybody in SFF publishing will be heading off to Helsinki for Worldcon in the next few weeks, so that'll slow things down as well.
 

PastyAlien

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Ugh. Remind me to stop checking the Grinder so often.
I'll remind you in a second. I'm just gonna check the Grinder first...

I had a piece at Uncanny approaching their 45-day-please-query mark, so I checked Twitter to see if they had said anything, and they tweeted that all pending pieces were with the editors-in-chief (I interpreted this as a bump?) and I got all hopeful only to receive a form R from one of the other editors five days later. *sigh* I'd much rather just forget a sub is out until the R pops up in my inbox.
Ugh.:Hug2:Also, quit checking the Grinder, SSM. *checks Grinder*
 

zanzjan

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It's really not healthy to check the Grinder so often, yanno.

(obscures other browser tab from people in thread, points in opposite direction, shouts "LOOK a squirrel!")
 

PastyAlien

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shortstorymachinist

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I'll remind you in a second. I'm just gonna check the Grinder first...

Ugh.:Hug2:Also, quit checking the Grinder, SSM. *checks Grinder*

It's really not healthy to check the Grinder so often, yanno.

(obscures other browser tab from people in thread, points in opposite direction, shouts "LOOK a squirrel!")

What's it they say about kicking an addiction? Not being friends with other addicts, or something? :greenie
 

mistri

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Urk. I have a piece still at Uncanny. *checks inbox* still there for now anyway.

I refresh the Grinder about 98 millions times per day.
 

shortstorymachinist

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Urk. I have a piece still at Uncanny. *checks inbox* still there for now anyway.

I refresh the Grinder about 98 millions times per day.

*crosses fingers frantically* You have my full support.