Rejectomancy

Hah, R from UFO first thing in the morning. I saw earlier people saying that UFO always gave personals, but was that only for the earlier submission round? Or are the forms so they stop themselves from telling me to burn my work?

caliph said:

Hah, R from UFO first thing in the morning. I saw earlier people saying that UFO always gave personals, but was that only for the earlier submission round? Or are the forms so they stop themselves from telling me to burn my work?

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Sorry about the form R. I'm sending out about 50% personal and 50% form. It's a combination of factors including the amount of reading load I have at the time and whether I have something constructive to say beyond "I didn't like the story arc enough" or "it didn't make me laugh." - which is pretty much the reason for most round 1 rejections.

Form R's from A&A and Nine.

Thanks for the comments on Interzone, everyone. I guess I'll wait a few more weeks and then maybe poke at 'em. In the meantime, I did just now get to enjoy the lightning fast rejections of Lightspeed which always take off a bit of the "I must hear something, now!" craze.

148-day form rejection from Writers of the Future. A bit discouraging: I was hoping to at least get an honorable mention. I really like this story, but I think I'm going to wait a day or two before I send it somewhere else (not that there's a lot of places to send a 16k novella).

18-day rejection from Cosmos. Does anyone know what their tier rejections are like? I usually get the "Unfortunately your story has not been selected for publication. Best of luck with finding a home for it elsewhere." But this time it was different.

For those of you wondering about standard rejections vs higher tier rejections, etc, a friend showed me this resource and it's helped keep my neuroses in check, kinda.

http://www.rejectionwiki.com/

I got back from vacation and had three rejections waiting for me. One was a personal that said the story was well written. I haven't gotten many personals so I was happy about that and turned right around and sent them another story.

Esopha said:

http://www.rejectionwiki.com/

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A good resource, I think. But Cosmos is not listed.

Sorry to hear about the R's everyone. Excellent way to go, gettingby.

Sai said:

148-day form rejection from Writers of the Future. A bit discouraging: I was hoping to at least get an honorable mention. I really like this story, but I think I'm going to wait a day or two before I send it somewhere else (not that there's a lot of places to send a 16k novella).

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Yeah - looks like the Q2 logjam has finally broken. Sorry you were in the 1st wave (or tsunami, as they're calling it over on the WotF forum). I'm at 131 days, so imagine mine is coming soon.

BTW - Aggy just posted in this thread that Luna Station Press is looking for 15k and above.

9-day R from Ideomancer. Apparently, I wasn't as original as I thought.

Unfortunately, this didn't quite engage our imaginations: The idea of Ariel as Shakespeare’s muse crosses our desks quite frequently, and it takes a great deal to make a version of that idea stand out. Therefore, I'm unable to accept this piece for publication.

Who knew?

At least the reject came from Leah Bobet, so it made it that far.

Eliza C said:

9-day R from Ideomancer. Apparently, I wasn't as original as I thought.

Unfortunately, this didn't quite engage our imaginations: The idea of Ariel as Shakespeare’s muse crosses our desks quite frequently, and it takes a great deal to make a version of that idea stand out. Therefore, I'm unable to accept this piece for publication.

Who knew?

At least the reject came from Leah Bobet, so it made it that far.

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That's funny. I almost want to write crazy stories and send them to Ideomancer just to see if I can elicit a similar response. Jack the Ripper was an alien? Yawn. Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison were actually the same person? Oh, if only I had a nickel for every time one of those stories crossed my desk. Elvis didn't die but became the new Santa Claus? Not another one.

Good luck with it at another market.

gettingby said:

I got back from vacation and had three rejections waiting for me. One was a personal that said the story was well written. I haven't gotten many personals so I was happy about that and turned right around and sent them another story.

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Well done! Keep going.

52-day form rejection from Buzzy Mag. Argh.

Just got word that I did not win Camera Obscura's Bridge the Gap contest. It was fun though. I'm sure I'll do it again.

Of course, it's been so long since I've gotten a response from anyone that the R is very welcome!

Me too Dee -- I've taken it slightly less well. I subbed well before the deadline so waited a third of a year.

My best story just got rejected by The Missouri Review. I really thought it had the best chance out of all my stories. I hate rejection.

R from Flash Fiction Online for failing at formatting. At least they're okay with a resub...and now I know never, ever to sub after three glasses of wine again.

Eliza C said:

9-day R from Ideomancer. Apparently, I wasn't as original as I thought.

Unfortunately, this didn't quite engage our imaginations: The idea of Ariel as Shakespeare’s muse crosses our desks quite frequently, and it takes a great deal to make a version of that idea stand out. Therefore, I'm unable to accept this piece for publication.

Who knew?

At least the reject came from Leah Bobet, so it made it that far.

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Hah, I have a story where Scheherazade becomes a muse. Maybe I should send that one to Ideomancer!

Eliza C said:

The idea of Ariel as Shakespeare’s muse crosses our desks quite frequently

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Ariel, the Little Mermaid?!?

Marzioli said:

Ariel, the Little Mermaid?!?

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Yeah - maybe I should rework it into that and resubmit

I'm not sure where to send it next. Ideomancer was the 6th try (1st not pro). It was in the final round at Penumbra and went all the way to the publisher at Ideomancer (unless L Bobet reads slush too), so I'm not ready to shelve it yet. I'm thinking something literary that takes genre might work. Anyone know of such markets besides The Pedestal and the Spilling Ink competition that was cancelled (my planned market for July)?

Dee Pratt said:

Maybe Glimmer Train? They have a Fiction Open contest that's open to "all themes and all writers." Of course, there is a $19 entry fee.

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I've read several issues of Glimmer Train, and I didn't notice any genre work in it. I don't think themes refers to genres, but i could be wrong.

I have to agree with Marzioli. I don't think Glimmer Train is the best place for genre work.