Rejectomancy

[mhaynes]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Painful 43-day form rejection from Apex. After it passed the thirty-five day mark I had hope it was going places...

Ouch, indeed. That "hope" can really sting...

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

And Anatoly, you should definitely give Izz's Comets & Criminals a shot. It's a new market, but it publishes quality stuff.

Seconded. I enjoyed the first issue and need to see about picking up the second.

Originally Posted by Lillie

I just looked at their guidelines. It says this.

By submitting your horror short fiction work to Dark Moon Books, you are assigning Dark Moon Books exclusive First World Rights for both print and electronic versions for a period of six months after publication. After that time period, you are free to resell your story as a reprint as long as first publication information is included. You keep all other rights including the original copyright.

To me it sounds like they have rights to your story from the moment its submitted, regardless of whether they accept it or not.
Am I reading it wrong?

That's how it reads. May not be what they mean, but they went onto my "Do Not Submit To" list anyway.

[alexshvartsman]

Originally Posted by mhaynes

That's how it reads. May not be what they mean, but they went onto my "Do Not Submit To" list anyway.

I'm not sure this is problematic. If you're interested in submitting a story there, I'd just query for clarification. Pretty sure they meant to list the rights they're asking for on the stories that get accepted.

I'm more concerned with the pay rate. They don't take flash and they pay 1c/word or less. I'd consider sending them a trunk story if I had one that fits, but doubt I'll write something specifically for that market.

[victoriajakes]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Painful 43-day form rejection from Apex. After it passed the thirty-five day mark I had hope it was going places, what with the common 5-15 day rejections they have been serving for the past few months. No such luck.

Hugs for you! That's a hard one. Did you get any kind of tier? Does Apex even do tiers? I'm at 23 days now, but I guess this is a sign to not get hopes up.

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by victoriajakes

Hugs for you! That's a hard one. Did you get any kind of tier? Does Apex even do tiers? I'm at 23 days now, but I guess this is a sign to not get hopes up.

Thanks (and to Alex too) for the sympathy! I've received a few rejections from Apex before, but this is the first from their new email system. Judging by the formal, simple response, I believe it was standard form rejection. The only difference is that it was sent from the submissions editor and not the Team.

[Project Deadlight]

Just had a double rejection for the same story... Not sure what to do with him now. He had been turned down 16 times and I have always thought he was a bit of a runt so maybe I should retire him? But some of the comments back have been quite encouraging.

And big group hug for all the Rs. February will be our month...

[KitCat]

aw *hugs for all the R's* good luck you guys, you'll get there

[Sai]

Originally Posted by Project Deadlight

Just had a double rejection for the same story... Not sure what to do with him now. He had been turned down 16 times and I have always thought he was a bit of a runt so maybe I should retire him? But some of the comments back have been quite encouraging.

And big group hug for all the Rs. February will be our month...

Don't retire him, just put him on the backburner until you are a famous author and can have sell all your trunk stories . Or wait until a new relevant market comes onto the scene and sub it there.

[ohthatmomagain]

2 Rs today.

But I got 3 new blog followers and more participants for the Bible in 90 days challenge I'm hosting (huzzah!).. I didn't stay down about the Rs for long

[Marzioli]

R from Flash Fiction Online. I suppose they only include some kind of reader responses when it makes it to higher stages?

[alexshvartsman]

Sorry about the R, Sam.

Originally Posted by Marzioli

R from Flash Fiction Online. I suppose they only include some kind of reader responses when it makes it to higher stages?

That has, indeed, been my experience. (Got one of each form and personal, so far.)

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

Sorry about the R, Sam.
That has, indeed, been my experience. (Got one of each form and personal, so far.)

Thanks! Good to know.

[defcon6000]

Finally got my R from Washington Pastime -- no biggie, it was a sim-sub, anyway. But I got double whammy, said "the prose is could use some fine-tuning" AND my "pacing needs smoothing out". They're really stepping up on these form R's.

ETA: re-reading those sentences, and it sounds like their prose could use some smoothing out.

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by defcon6000

ETA: re-reading those sentences, and it sounds like their prose could use some smoothing out.

I lol'ed in real life. (In the past, while reading through dozens of their personal R's someone had posted online, I noticed they made many similar mistakes).

[defcon6000]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

I lol'ed in real life. (In the past, while reading through dozens of their personal R's someone had posted online, I noticed they made many similar mistakes).

Maybe we should form a club "Reject the Rejection Letter".

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by defcon6000

Maybe we should form a club "Reject the Rejection Letter".

Exactly. I've already thought of one:

"Dear Editor, your rejection letter doesn't quite fit our needs at this time. I liked the concept, but noted uneven prose."

[defcon6000]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

"Dear Editor, your rejection letter doesn't quite fit our needs at this time. I liked the concept, but noted uneven prose."

Brilliant!

[Pemako]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

"Dear Editor, your rejection letter doesn't quite fit our needs at this time. I liked the concept, but noted uneven prose."

I love it!

[Kitty27]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Exactly. I've already thought of one:

"Dear Editor, your rejection letter doesn't quite fit our needs at this time. I liked the concept, but noted uneven prose."

LOL!

I like it.

[Marzioli]

Non-response from Result Jelly. I waited patiently for 108 days, but in that entire time they never rejected a single duotrope user. They claimed it was because they never received any duotrope user submissions, and then that they accidentally lost 80+ submissions (all, or some, presumably, duotrope). Then they just stopped updating anything--not their blog, not twitter and not their facebook page.

I'm not sure what they're playing at, but two other facts (besides the duotrope matter) made me wonder about these guys:
1) They jumped out through the gate as a pro market with no stated source of backing (i.e. a publishing house, a well known author, or any indication of experience at all).
and
2) They refused to tell me the name of their editor when I asked directly. (Their response was, "'Dear editor' is fine").

Anyway, now to query Borderlands 6 (101 days) and, maybe Bullspec (90 days), about the stalls. I noticed Borderlands had a withdrawal request (down to 30 total pendings). And Bullspec is still in the hundreds, despite having been closed for months. Curious.

[pangalactic]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Anyway, now to query Borderlands 6 (101 days) and, maybe Bullspec (90 days), about the stalls.

I'm waiting on responses from both of those markets myself. Have you subbed to any Borderlands anthologies before? I don't know how long I should be expecting to wait.

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by pangalactic

I'm waiting on responses from both of those markets myself. Have you subbed to any Borderlands anthologies before? I don't know how long I should be expecting to wait.

I haven't. They have a great reputation, though, so I don't suspect they'll just leave us hanging. However, it is strange that the deadline was October and they don't have a single update to the status of the project since then. Unfortunately I don't know if that's uncommon either.

[Aggy B.]

Meh. Crickets. Still waiting to hear from Stupefying Stories and Apex.

[mhaynes]

FWIW, there were about 20 rejections from Bull Spec earlier this week on Duotrope.

I'm still waiting there (~105 days) and Stupefying Stories (got to be getting close to 80 days) myself...

[JenWriter]

Crickets here. At 19 days at Shimmer so expecting a response any day now...

[alexshvartsman]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

I haven't. They have a great reputation, though, so I don't suspect they'll just leave us hanging. However, it is strange that the deadline was October and they don't have a single update to the status of the project since then. Unfortunately I don't know if that's uncommon either.

The withdrawal request at Borderlands 6 was from me. The story has sold elsewhere, and I'm waiting for permission to announce the sale (it's a very nice market!)

Borderlands Press editors responded promptly to my withdrawal. They apologized for not getting to my (and other) stories sooner, stating that they received 700+ submissions and will be reading all of them. They're busy with their writing workshop in January and will likely get cranking on the slush next month.

In short, I would not query yet. Those guys are on the ball, and they allow simultaneous submissions precisely because they know their response would take a while.