Rejectomancy

That was the one that had the death threat in green comic sans.

It didn't get an R, it got a cease and desist.

Thanks for the POVs!

Lillie, that's strange, my Analog page still shows that a Sep 16th sub was the "most recent submission" rejected. (But Lore has a 29th, which I've noticed has steadily increased over the last few days too). Am I missing something?

Zan, I checked out Section 3 (and more) of Slushkill. Interesting stuff! I had always assumed, at least with e-submissions, that they took them one day at a time. The idea that someone might go in and weed out the obvious R's never occurred to me. I have a feeling I'll probably obsess over the data anyway, but maybe only after it's past the average rejection date by a week or two.

I don't know what you mean by 'steadily increased'.

For instance, on Lore, on the 29th Sept there was a 0 day rejection. Of course that immediately became the most recently sent sub for which duo have had a response.

As Lore seem to be rejection around the 55-60 day mark, then that will remain the most recently sent response until the end of November, unless they speed up their response schedule, or unless there is another surprisingly quick R.

And as Zan says, these very quick Rs will be to do with something other than the story.

Do you look at the list of recent responses? If not just click where it says 'view report of recent responses from this market.

That's the best way of seeing if your R fits into the current pattern of the magazine, or if yours is unusual.

To use Analog as an example, looking there you would expect and R to take 35-45 days, on average.
The 13 day R is clearly very unusual, and so is the 81 day R. Both these stand out from the others.

We can make a guess and say that the very quick one was rejected for something other than the story. Maybe it was so badly formatted it was unreadable. But we cannot know, we can only guess.

With the 81 day R, the obvious guess is that they were thinking about it, and it got through the first wave of slush rejections.
But again, we can't know, unless it was one of us, and they announce it here.
Another possibility would simply be that the story had been mislaid for a while.

But really, you shouldn't obsess over this stuff too much. You should treat it as for 'entertainment purposes only'.
Just keep writing and subbing.
That's the most important thing.
When something gets an R, it don't matter if it was quick or slow, just get it back out there.

Good luck.

Lillie said:

To use Analog as an example, looking there you would expect and R to take 35-45 days, on average.
The 13 day R is clearly very unusual, and so is the 81 day R. Both these stand out from the others.


Good luck.

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Or... the slush reader could have been on a plane, and they were delayed, so they had a spare half hour they don't normally have to reject some work.

Or... it's Stephen King or Bradbury, and the magazine read it before us mere mortals...

Or... well, I've never set much stock on Rejectomancing the Time. When I was rejecting work, the time it took me to reject someones story could vary from ten days to ninety, simply depending on what else I was doing.

Lillie said:

I don't know what you mean by 'steadily increased'.

For instance, on Lore, on the 29th Sept there was a 0 day rejection. Of course that immediately became the most recently sent sub for which duo have had a response.

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You're right! And thanks for the info on the report. I didn't even notice it before you mentioned it. However, the strange thing is I've been looking at that number on the main page and I could swear the number moved up over the course of seven days and didn't remain the 29th on my browser. Obviously the obsession got to my brain and I'm hallucinating.

It's fun to look at the stats and guess. But really, you shouldn't read too much into it all, or take it too seriously.

I can't explain how you saw it change, just one of them things, I suppose.

Good luck with your subs!

Got a nice personal R from Bete Noire (3rd PR in a row) but had a total suckfest of an email from BlckStatic about my story that has been out 110 days. I had already queried this one and queried again just because i wanted to send it elsewhere and the editor told me they don't think they got it! Aghhh!!!

Aggy B. said:

Still crickets. Going home to write and slow cook a massive pork roast.

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I have a pork tenderloin in the crockpot, kindly cooking itself for me right now... but I can't wait to head home and write tonight, too.

I suddenly have 3 or 4 short story ideas I'm wild to write. Sometimes I think I'm most inspired when I'm trapped at my desk at work, pounding away in Excel...

Re Duo, I think now that I know how it works better I probably will just forget about it, except when I get the emailed R's and A's.

Also, today I got a rejection from Intergalactic Medicine Show. My first wave of shorts has been systematically rejected after 35-40 days of waiting. (Except for a horror short sale to Rymfire, a very small ebook publisher). Now for the second wave in 35-125 days...

When looking at Duotrope I generally ignore reports like a 0 day reject to a 60 day market or some such. I assume the person who reported it didn't bother to input the correct date when he/she subbed the story, either due to being lazy or simple human error.

Duotrope is an amazing resource but always keep in mind that all reports are user generated and not always accurate. That's why their listed acceptance percentages are always much higher than the real number of stories bought by any given market, and the number of reported subs is probably at 10-20% of the real total.

Lillie said:

But really, you shouldn't obsess over this stuff too much. You should treat it as for 'entertainment purposes only'.

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Easier said than done, isn't it? Duotrope is insidious for the many different ways to play with the stats they provide, trying to divine meaning and pattern and figure out what those darn editors are up to. What makes it especially seductive is that, since it has to do with the writing, it feels like you're being productive....

Still crickets. Gah. I need to get some more stories written and out there but I've dried up recently. Bad Chris.

*hugs* Sorry about all the Rs guys.

And yeah, I wouldn't obsess over Duotropes statistics, as they are not 100% accurate (probably not even 70% accurate).

"There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics."

Hello! This thread has been a constant companion to me for the past few months while I was sitting on what turned out to be two consecutive 68-day waits (for form rejections). I only have the one story making the rounds at the moment (it takes me forever to finish a story), and it's currently sitting DSF at fifteen days out.
As for Duototrope, its value seems to be in how you use it. If you want rocket science, you won't get it, but it's good for hazy fortune telling. I like having an idea of when a market is sending rejections for people in your bracket of days out, and then rejoicing if I dodge the bullet.
By the way, is anyone else superstitious about checking their email before looking at Duotrope's Recent Responses? Just in case seeing other people's rejections will result in your own?

defcon6000 said:

*hugs* Sorry about all the Rs guys.

And yeah, I wouldn't obsess over Duotropes statistics, as they are not 100% accurate (probably not even 70% accurate).

"There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics."

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Dude, I can't even understand Duotropes' statistics. So that makes it easy for me to not obsess over them.

(and don't anyone EVER explain them to me, or you'll kill my blissful naivety. )

Project Deadlight said:

Got a nice personal R from Bete Noire (3rd PR in a row) but had a total suckfest of an email from BlckStatic about my story that has been out 110 days. I had already queried this one and queried again just because i wanted to send it elsewhere and the editor told me they don't think they got it! Aghhh!!!

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Sorry, but is nobody going to give me any sympathy???

110 DAYS!!! Then to be told AFTER AN IGNORED QUERY ALREADY, that they never received it??? I thought this was a place for love and hugs...

Project Deadlight said:

Sorry, but is nobody going to give me any sympathy???

110 DAYS!!! Then to be told AFTER AN IGNORED QUERY ALREADY, that they never received it??? I thought this was a place for love and hugs...

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Okay. You get my sympathy. Do with it what you will. That is an excruciatingly long wait.

Project Deadlight said:

110 DAYS!!! Then to be told AFTER AN IGNORED QUERY ALREADY, that they never received it??? I thought this was a place for love and hugs...

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You have my sympathy too. That's harsh. Like, shower-with-your-clothes-on-because-they-took-long-enough-for-you-to-think-it-sold harsh. Next beers on me.

zanzjan said:

Well, no, it's really not.

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I haven't weathered the hundred plus day wait yet, so to me a hundred days does seem like an excruciatingly long wait! But, I just subbed to Bull Spec AND Electric Literature three days ago, which, I'm sure you know, are both steady at around 200 days of wait for even rejections. In 200 days, I'll read your response again and finally, experientially, know what you mean.

Izatright said:

I haven't weathered the hundred plus day wait yet, so to me a hundred days does seem like an excruciatingly long wait! But, I just subbed to Bull Spec AND Electric Literature three days ago, which, I'm sure you know, are both steady at around 200 days of wait for even rejections. In 200 days, I'll read your response again and finally, experientially, know what you mean.

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Currently, I've had two stories out for over 150 days.

To be honest, it's so long ago, I can barely remember sending 'em out.