Rejectomancy

Hugfaces, Lil. Sorry to hear about the R and hacketh'd email (thanks for the tip on Gmail, btw! I'm thinking of switching from hotmail, and that will help if I do), but a response is better than waiting, always. I'm in crickets mode myself, and it's torture.

Had to query Daily Science Fiction yesterday. Usually, they reject my work in about a week. But it's been a month already.

mfowler76 said:

Had to query Daily Science Fiction yesterday. Usually, they reject my work in about a week. But it's been a month already.

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Hopefully that's a good sign. Or do you mean you queried and got a rejection only then?

Shelley

Clarkesworld form reject. 's a pity. Sent out again.

I've not got as many responses this month as normal... been a bit quiet. Need to actually finish something, and submit something new.

Good luck on that one, Milo!

I got an R today from Mud Luscious. I don't feel terrible about it, since it was just a little ditty I wrote on a lark, but it's so "out there" I'm not entirely sure it would fit into even the weirder markets Shelly cued me to.

Oh well.

Sorry about the R's everyone. And JC Romel, it's kind of fun writing those out there pieces though. Even if you can't find a market, it's still worthwhile. When I write something super strange, it always feels good, like I'm writing just for me and not anyone else. hehe

I'm hearing a whole lot of nothing over here. I have several things on sub, but zip, zilch, nada coming in. Though a story I sent to Niteblade has crept passed their usual response time frame.. and they've sent rejections out for things sent after me. *crosses fingers*

faerydancer said:

Sorry about the R's everyone. And JC Romel, it's kind of fun writing those out there pieces though. Even if you can't find a market, it's still worthwhile. When I write something super strange, it always feels good, like I'm writing just for me and not anyone else. hehe

I'm hearing a whole lot of nothing over here. I have several things on sub, but zip, zilch, nada coming in. Though a story I sent to Niteblade has crept passed their usual response time frame.. and they've sent rejections out for things sent after me. *crosses fingers*

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It was a total blast writing that odd little piece. And I hope to write many more!

Oh, and good luck with your subs! I know the feeling of having subs out longer than the expected dates. I once had a piece at Clarkesworld for a week, and it was literally the most tense week of my literary life. I had never been there longer than two days (and haven't since, sadly). And I have one story out at a market now that has, according to duotrope, responded to subs that have come in since mine, which could mean that maybe I'm passed an initial reader? Possibly? Oh, wait, check that: I actually have three stories out like that right. Ok, nervous time.

EDIT #902: I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but Duotrope has this feature down below the average times that tells you when the market sent their last response, and also the date of the most recent sub they've responded to. You can then click on a link below that which shows you that market's reports for the last 30 days, and it really gives you a way better sense of how long it's taking them to respond than the averages do. Especially if they're a busy market.

zanzjan said:

Yes, that particular feature is the cause of many hopeful sighs and wretched wringing-of-hands.

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Yes. Yes it is.

JC, did you know that you can go into your control panel, and do a market search on that far out piece, as long as you've entered one or two basic things, like genre, chosen flash or short story, that kind of thing. You can go broad or narrow it down. You might find a suitable market that way (if you haven't tried it). If there's no search next to it, only update, then you just haven't entered enough about it to do a search, easily fixed.

Sorry for everybody's Rs, and good luck with what's out there!

Sheley

shelleyo said:

Yes. Yes it is.

JC, did you know that you can go into your control panel, and do a market search on that far out piece, as long as you've entered one or two basic things, like genre, chosen flash or short story, that kind of thing. You can go broad or narrow it down. You might find a suitable market that way (if you haven't tried it). If there's no search next to it, only update, then you just haven't entered enough about it to do a search, easily fixed.

Sorry for everybody's Rs, and good luck with what's out there!

Sheley

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Shelly, you know, I was aware that I can further refine my search, but to be honest, I haven't even bothered. That's really stupid and defeatist of me, and thanks for taking an interest. I'm actually going to go do a search right now and see if there's some other place for it, as well as take another look at those markets you linked me to before.

((((Hugs))))) for Milo and JC.

Good luck to everyone waiting!

That 'recent responses' on Duotrope sends me crazy.
I'm always looking, trying to guess if they have read mine yet.

mfowler76 said:

Had to query Daily Science Fiction yesterday. Usually, they reject my work in about a week. But it's been a month already.

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Milo,

DSF typically takes 2-3 weeks to reject stuff. They used to do it in a week, but I think now that people see they are a serious market and aren't about to go away, their slush pile has grown. If your story is being kept longer, they are seriously considering it. Right now they seem to be running at around 20 days average, as per Duotrope.

Good luck!

Got a response from a small anthology I submitted to earlier this week; it wasn't a rejection or an acceptance, but a 'maybe'. I guess I should be happy that the editor liked it well enough not to reject it flat out, but then again I'm really not sure how to feel. It's kind of like saying: "Hey, got your story. I like it, but not enough to give it a shot... yet .If something better DOESN'T come along before the submission period ends, I guess I'll accept it." Maybe that's too critical of me, but meh. The crickets have gotten louder.

Ah, I see. This could indeed be the case. Thanks for your input!

I guess I just felt a little iffy about it. I've never gotten a response like this one before.

I just made a terrible mistake and looked at Redstone Science Fiction's page. They only have four stories left from the 1st/2nd of May, and mine's one of them. Now I'm insanely nervous. This is my favorite story of mine by far, and I feel like it's starting to run out of places. The rejection's really going to hurt...

On the other hand, and just because I'm weird, the rejections I got from a few other places were a very, very welcome break from those damn crickets.

Just heard back from One Buck Horror. They passed on my latest, "Mirrors."

Blah.

Sorry to hear that, JC. I just subbed there today. Eep!

It's all been crickets over here. It's times like this when I wonder if my email is broken. Don't mind me while I go crazy. =)

(((((JC and Nat)))))

Sorry to hear about the Rs.

Bjorn, that's really encouraging! They've read it and they liked it. I think that's great.

Nice personal rejection from Ideomancer.

Bjorn, most anthologies won't accept unsolicited work before the submission period ends. It's nice to know you've made the first cut. It says to me your story is good and will eventually sell to someone, even if this market passes.

Response from Daily Science Fiction today: "Your story is still under consideration." Short and sweet -- I'll take it. And I'll try not to hold my breath in the meantime...

I subbed "Tomorrow's Dawn" to them on May 29, and this is the first time in 7 that I haven't received a 1-week rejection.

Write on, everybody!