The Daily Rejection, Vol. 2

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sockycat

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So I can finally share a small piece of good news: I just sold my first story to a SWFA qualifying pro market. It feels good to have a tiny bit of validation.
 

sockycat

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Thanks! Took everything in me to not respond with "are...are you sure?? am I being punked?"
 

Marlys

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Congrats, sockycat! Nice to pop in and see good news.

I got a rejection yesterday on the last story I had out. So I have five short stories I need to send back out, plus a novella that's been at two publishers for 4 months tomorrow. One was supposed to respond within 3 months and the other in 3-4 months, but since it's the holiday season now I'm not inclined to nudge. I will, though, get the MS formatted to fit the guidelines of the next two publishers on the list (if it isn't already). Onward!
 

Davy The First

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Those magazines, pro and otherwise, are so vital to the whole industry. Wonder when the Big Boys will realize that (in the form of funding them!)

oh, and congrats Sockycat... :)
 
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noranne

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I've not been writing much lately, but I have a very long winter break that will hopefully be very productive! I did complete a new short story and submit it. Don't have much floating out there, so not many rejections, which is actually frustrating. I'd rather know that at least my work is out there! I need to get through edits on MS6 for the AR Open Door and then do another good pass on MS7 so I can start querying it soon. I suppose at this point I'll aim to start querying mid-Jan, since the holidays are slow anyway.
 

Cannelle

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Congrats, sockycat!!! That's fantastic!!!!!! :hooray:

So.

Um.

Woke up this morning to find an email from the agent who has my partial. Didn't open it immediately. Made my daughter's breakfast and mine, then choked down my food while psyching myself up to open it. "It's okay to be rejected. Rejected means I'm trying, and just because it's not working NOW doesn't mean it won't ever work. I'm going to keep at this, because the only way I'll ever get anywhere is if I keep going." Got myself to a mental place where I was prepared for and okay with being rejected.

She wants the full.

*vomits everywhere* :roll:So once I send this, it'll be three fulls out. I'll send it this afternoon when my daughter is down for her nap so I can stare at the email in peace for forty minutes or so, making sure that I haven't attached, like, a copy of the paper I wrote for my English class five years ago or spelled the agent's name with twelve q's and an ampersand or something likewise horrific.

And then I'll go back to trying to figure out what on earth I'm writing next. I've got a kernel of an idea but am working on writing out some notes so that I have something resembling a plot. I came up with a few good ideas last night, so I think I'll just stick to freewriting notes for a little bit to get to know my characters better. My last novel, I was able to plot it out on notecards. I wrote out each scene (and wrote them all out of order), and that made it a LOT easier to go, "Okay, I need to get from card C to card D. What's something that can happen that bridges that gap, knowing what I know about them now?" It worked really well for me, so I'm hoping to do that again with this one, or whatever it is that I end up focusing fully on next.
 

sockycat

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Thank you everyone!! I was so excited to share the news here bc you guys keep me sane when a ton of rejections roll in. :)

And YAAAAAAY Canelle!! That's so exciting! Hopefully having your full in the hands of an agent will spur you to jump right into the new thing to distract yourself.

Noranne, I'm the same way. I'd rather get rejections than nothing because I feel like when my inbox is empty it means I'm not doing anything. If my submission counter on duotrope dips below ten being out to various magazines at any given time I get antsy. My goal is to be ready to query my latest WIP in February (eek) so I'll be right there with you working over winter break! My work gave us a whole week off paid for Christmas so I'm going to lock myself away and write.

I kind of lucked out with December, now that I think about it. The boyfriend and I leave Saturday for Jamaica and we won't be back until the 18th. I go back to work for four days and then I'm off for another week. No excuses to not get my editing done! :scared:
 
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Liz_V

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Cheers on the (full!) request, Cannelle!

Yay, sockycat! :snoopy:

R cookies to Marlys and anybody else who needs 'em.

noranne, go you on getting the new short done and out there!


I'm having one of those days where slumping in front of the computer and randomly web surfing sounds too ambitious. I'm gonna go take a nice hot shower (it's cold here), and then see about getting some work done.
 

Collie

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Picked up a ‘Dear Author’ form rejection today. I always sigh especially loudly at those.
 

Collie

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Oh sheesh, and another one. Agents really are clearing out their old mail. :/

I no longer have any queries out for this book, and once rejections roll in for the remaining fulls that are out it will be officially trucked. I hope to have the next book fully revised and ready to query in the late spring or summer, so the timing works out, I guess, she said, grimly adding sugar to the lemons to make lemonade.
 

Cannelle

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Sending you love, Collie. It's a bummer, but forward march! I'll be cheering on your next project!!!
 

Taylor Harbin

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So I can finally share a small piece of good news: I just sold my first story to a SWFA qualifying pro market. It feels good to have a tiny bit of validation.

I hate you so much, but I'm very happy for you. I just got a personalized rejection from F&SF, that is twice I have almost sold them something. Leslie just go around came back to me after only one day (which is very fast response time; the only other publication that gets back to me that quickly is Clarkesworld) and he said he "liked the idea" with the execution didn't grab him.
 

rocoroca

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Hi guys! *waves* Joining the rejection club with my first post!

I've been querying for a while now, and I just received a rejection from a top agent in my genre a couple of days ago, so that's a kick in the gut. I've got my MS out as partials and fulls with other agents now, so I'm trying to stay optimistic, but as the days go by, I can't help but think they're all going to come back with a rejection amongst the lines of "this book is trash and you're trash for sending it to me." It's hard to keep the self-doubt away during querying, isn't it?
 

captaincrow

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Hi guys! *waves* Joining the rejection club with my first post!

I've been querying for a while now, and I just received a rejection from a top agent in my genre a couple of days ago, so that's a kick in the gut. I've got my MS out as partials and fulls with other agents now, so I'm trying to stay optimistic, but as the days go by, I can't help but think they're all going to come back with a rejection amongst the lines of "this book is trash and you're trash for sending it to me." It's hard to keep the self-doubt away during querying, isn't it?

I feel ya. I was querying my trunked novel beginning of the year and the first rejection I got was from my dream agent. It would've been less painful if he'd just sent a form rejection but he told me he's currently not interested in this particular genre but if I had anything else querying down the line I'd be welcome to send it to him. Guess what. I did not have anything else down the line. (But soon, Mr. Agent. Soon ...)

I just recently read something along the lines of: Being a writer means constantly trying to balance wanting to dig a hole of self-doubt and bury yourself in it, and telling yourself what a f*cking genius you are.

And hey, apparently, you've got several partials and fulls out so that's quite something! :) Your novel is good enough to be interesting for agents so there must be (at least) one out there who finds it so interesting they'll want to rep it. And any agent who calls someone else's work trash doesn't deserve to rep anyone! :tongue
 

CameronJohnston

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Hi guys! *waves* Joining the rejection club with my first post!

I've been querying for a while now, and I just received a rejection from a top agent in my genre a couple of days ago, so that's a kick in the gut. I've got my MS out as partials and fulls with other agents now, so I'm trying to stay optimistic, but as the days go by, I can't help but think they're all going to come back with a rejection amongst the lines of "this book is trash and you're trash for sending it to me." It's hard to keep the self-doubt away during querying, isn't it?

Welcome, rocoroca. Oof, those first few rejections really hit hard don't they! So many people give up at that stage, which is a real shame. So glad to hear that you have partials and fulls out elsewhere though, that's hugely encouraging and you must be doing something right. The self-doubt sits there on your shoulder all the time, watching your progress and whispering in your ear. Hopefully you'll get some good news soon and you can tell it to get to *REDACTED* :)
 
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