Rejectomancy

[hester]

Hi guys! Just a quick question-I subbed a short to One Buck Horror in January (January 13th, to be exact-yes, I'm anal). At the end of February I sent a status e-mail, just to make sure they'd gotten it, and received a very polite e-mail in return saying they'd received the story and were hoping to get to it within the next week or so.

It's now been 70 days (thank you Duotrope!) and I haven't heard back.

So I'm wondering-do I just let it go? Should I send another status inquiry? I don't want to be a pest .

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

[Aggy B.]

Originally Posted by hester

Hi guys! Just a quick question-I subbed a short to One Buck Horror in January (January 13th, to be exact-yes, I'm anal). At the end of February I sent a status e-mail, just to make sure they'd gotten it, and received a very polite e-mail in return saying they'd received the story and were hoping to get to it within the next week or so.

It's now been 70 days (thank you Duotrope!) and I haven't heard back.

So I'm wondering-do I just let it go? Should I send another status inquiry? I don't want to be a pest .

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

What do their guidelines say about status queries? If you've passed whatever the "query after X number of days" mark for One Buck is, I would send another note. Be polite, ask if there have been any changes to the status of your story.

It's not pestering to follow up on a submission.

[Aggy B.]

And, I just withdrew Call-Center from IGMS. I was previously unaware of OSC's religious affiliations and stance on certain issues or I wouldn't have subbed there in the first place.

Oh, well. Guess that means I get to find another market.

[defcon6000]

Huh. I know IGMS is suppose to be PG-13, no sex or strong cursing, but didn't think it extended to religious stuff. I mean I read a story on there about a nun with a gun.

[hester]

Thanks so much, AggyB!

I think I will check in again-I just checked Duotrope and the magazine's website, and they say it's okay to check in after thirty days...so (deep breath) here goes!

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

'Thank you for sending us "It Was a Dark and Story Night." We did not select it for publication. Based on our editorial team's review, please do not submit another story prior to 12/10/2015'

Lol, that'd be hilarious... Until I got one!

Originally Posted by Aggy B.

And, I just withdrew Call-Center from IGMS. I was previously unaware of OSC's religious affiliations and stance on certain issues or I wouldn't have subbed there in the first place.

Mr. Card is a noted Mormon and has even written fiction books with a religious bent. I wasn't aware that he pressed any of his religious views on his magazine, though. What did you hear, if you don't mind sharing?

[Aggy B.]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Lol, that'd be hilarious... Until I got one!


Mr. Card is a noted Mormon and has even written fiction books with a religious bent. I wasn't aware that he pressed any of his religious views on his magazine, though. What did you hear, if you don't mind sharing?

I heard he's a homophobe. He's entitled to his opinion. But I don't want my work associated with that viewpoint in any capacity. So, I won't be submitting anything further to IGMS.

[V1c]

Originally Posted by Aggy B.

I heard he's a homophobe. He's entitled to his opinion. But I don't want my work associated with that viewpoint in any capacity. So, I won't be submitting anything further to IGMS.

Yeah, apparently that came out in a "scandalous" way a while ago, nice to see someone else who won't submit there because of it. (plus, my stuff tends to have a queer bent, know your market and all that)

Sucks to lose a market though.

[Aggy B.]

Originally Posted by V1c

Yeah, apparently that came out in a "scandalous" way a while ago, nice to see someone else who won't submit there because of it. (plus, my stuff tends to have a queer bent, know your market and all that)

Sucks to lose a market though.

That it does. (Especially since this particular story is just a hair short for a couple of the other pro markets which means waiting 'til I get past my two week hold at Strange Horizons.)

But, I'm a firm believer in consistency so I'll put my stories where my mouth is, so to speak.

[alexshvartsman]

Originally Posted by hester

Hi guys! Just a quick question-I subbed a short to One Buck Horror in January (January 13th, to be exact-yes, I'm anal). At the end of February I sent a status e-mail, just to make sure they'd gotten it, and received a very polite e-mail in return saying they'd received the story and were hoping to get to it within the next week or so.

It's now been 70 days (thank you Duotrope!) and I haven't heard back.

So I'm wondering-do I just let it go? Should I send another status inquiry? I don't want to be a pest .

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

They've been generally behind lately, but I do see a steady stream of 40-45 day rejections on Duotrope, so yours must be up for serious consideration.

I don;t think it's unreasonable to query again, though I'd probably wait till it's been 90 days (since they confirmed that they have the story and are considering it already).

Good luck either way!

[alexshvartsman]

Originally Posted by Aggy B.

I heard he's a homophobe. He's entitled to his opinion. But I don't want my work associated with that viewpoint in any capacity. So, I won't be submitting anything further to IGMS.

I'm not aware of any evidence to suggest that Mr. Card is a homophobe, though his politics are certainly on the far right conservative side.

Personally I enjoy the work of authors and editors regardless of their political affiliation, be they on the right (Card, Goodkind) or left (Mieville, Scalzi) of the spectrum. I have no problem submitting to FFO, IGMS, Writers of the Future, Expanded Horizons, or anywhere else that I can think of.

[defcon6000]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

I'm not aware of any evidence to suggest that Mr. Card is a homophobe, though his politics are certainly on the far right conservative side.

No, I'd say he's a homophobe. Here's his "The Hypocrites of Homosexuality". Oh, and he wrote homophobic version of Hamlet.

I still enjoyed Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, of course, but he does say some vile things against gays, so I can understand not wanting to be associated with him or his name.

[Marzioli]

Homophobia implies fear or hatred for someone's same-sex proclivity. He definitely has strong beliefs about same-sex unions, but homophobe is a little unnecessarily derisive. As Alex said, the spectrum of beliefs authors possess is wide. There's no way we can agree with everyone, and some held beliefs are bound to be offensive. However, at least for me, I don't have a problem submitting to a religious market, so long as their outspokenness doesn't stoop to true hate-speech. A truly pluralistic society deserves freedom of speech and expression, and that includes a sexual proclivity as well as a religious disagreement with it.

Also, my first non-fiction piece is being considered right now by Brevity. They've been sitting on it for going on three days now. Since I've never submitted there before, I have no idea if that means anything. Granted, as a pro-market, I have to expect the inevitable R, but I remain hopeful anyway.

[Sai]

I don't agree with OSC's politics, but I still submit to IGMS becuase I figure that he's just one guy and that the publication is a much broader thing than just one person. On the other hand, I am struggling with whether I want to continue subbing stuff to WotF, as it's Scientology connections (and all the stories of human rights abuse) are getting to overt for even an opportunist like myself to ignore.

[Project Deadlight]

Hey guys,

I love that things are kicking off on this thread! A bit off topic but I think it is relevant to writing. I have to say I won't be subbing to them anymore. And I reckon "homophobe" has developed a much broader meaning than just simply being afraid a homosexuality and from the sounds of it this guy is walking right beneath that umbrella.

[OtterFactory]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Homophobia implies fear or hatred for someone's same-sex proclivity. He definitely has strong beliefs about same-sex unions, but homophobe is a little unnecessarily derisive. As Alex said, the spectrum of beliefs authors possess is wide. There's no way we can agree with everyone, and some held beliefs are bound to be offensive. However, at least for me, I don't have a problem submitting to a religious market, so long as their outspokenness doesn't stoop to true hate-speech. A truly pluralistic society deserves freedom of speech and expression, and that includes a sexual proclivity as well as a religious disagreement with it.

Also, my first non-fiction piece is being considered right now by Brevity. They've been sitting on it for going on three days now. Since I've never submitted there before, I have no idea if that means anything. Granted, as a pro-market, I have to expect the inevitable R, but I remain hopeful anyway.

I don't have a problem with anyone submitting to IGMS, but the fact that you're insisting blatant contempt for a minority group-- as long as no slurs are used (!)-- should be tolerated under the umbrella of free speech is rather troubling and boggles the mind. Under this logic anything vile can be protected under that old bugaboo of Free Speech-- racism, discrimination, etc. I'm hoping I misread your post, as I haven't had my coffee yet.

[mhaynes]

Bleah...

Form R from DSF for the story that got the leveled-up response from Asimov's. I know that every editor is different and with this being a longer piece (4500 words or so) I knew it had a harder road at DSF than a flash piece. Still, a bit disappointed. Ah, well. On to the next market.

[Sai]

Personal rejection from Strange Horizons where the editor had only nice things to say (well, except for how overall the story didn't work for him). But on the bright side, I only have to wait a week before I can sub to SH again. I broke the code!

[MeretSeger]

Originally Posted by alexshvartsman

I would totally enjoy a market which told you not to submit for X days based on how much they liked/disliked the story:

'Thank you for sending us "It Was a Dark and Story Night." We did not select it for publication. Based on our editorial team's review, please do not submit another story prior to 12/10/2015'

Ha!

"Here is a link to our 'seasoning algorithm'..."

[MeretSeger]

Originally Posted by OtterFactory

I don't have a problem with anyone submitting to IGMS, but the fact that you're insisting blatant contempt for a minority group-- as long as no slurs are used (!)-- should be tolerated under the umbrella of free speech is rather troubling and boggles the mind. Under this logic anything vile can be protected under that old bugaboo of Free Speech-- racism, discrimination, etc. I'm hoping I misread your post, as I haven't had my coffee yet.

bbm.

It is protected. I may not like it, but to protect the vile protects the rest of us. Speech has to be protected. Actions not.

[Aggy B.]

Originally Posted by Marzioli

Homophobia implies fear or hatred for someone's same-sex proclivity. He definitely has strong beliefs about same-sex unions, but homophobe is a little unnecessarily derisive. As Alex said, the spectrum of beliefs authors possess is wide. There's no way we can agree with everyone, and some held beliefs are bound to be offensive. However, at least for me, I don't have a problem submitting to a religious market, so long as their outspokenness doesn't stoop to true hate-speech. A truly pluralistic society deserves freedom of speech and expression, and that includes a sexual proclivity as well as a religious disagreement with it.

Religious disagreement is one thing. Advocating civil laws that would marginalize and effectively punish homosexuals who remain "unrepentant" and active in the lifestyle is a whole different can of worms.

Originally Posted by OtterFactory

I don't have a problem with anyone submitting to IGMS, but the fact that you're insisting blatant contempt for a minority group-- as long as no slurs are used (!)-- should be tolerated under the umbrella of free speech is rather troubling and boggles the mind. Under this logic anything vile can be protected under that old bugaboo of Free Speech-- racism, discrimination, etc. I'm hoping I misread your post, as I haven't had my coffee yet.

Ah. Now here we disagree. Free Speech means just that. And censorship never turns out well because each party just turns around and labels the other group's views as "hate speech" or "over the line." The only effective counter-measure to bigoted speech is clearer, more effective non-bigoted speech.

Aggy, wondering if this discussion should be split into its own thread

[MeretSeger]

This would be a good point for another thread-it's important, especially for writers, but not in rejectomancy...imo.

[Marzioli]

Originally Posted by OtterFactory

... the fact that you're insisting blatant contempt for a minority group-- as long as no slurs are used (!)-- should be tolerated under the umbrella of free speech is rather troubling and boggles the mind. Under this logic anything vile can be protected under that old bugaboo of Free Speech-- racism, discrimination, etc.

It should. The problem is, if the majority decides what is acceptably free in speech, then the minority is always going to be victimized. This might have the unfortunate side-effect of protecting the crazy a-hole from time to time, but it also has the benefit of protecting the misunderstood progressive, or the moralist, or any individualist. Policing how we interact with each other is part of our social contract. But trying to police how each other thinks is far more dangerous than it's worth.

Also, I'm no Card-spert, so I'll defer to Aggy on the matter. And for the record, I don't defend any radical laws subjugating minorities of any sort, just a person's right to say it.

Crickets today. Still no word from Brevity, but I'm expecting several responses, including from DSF and IGMS.

[OtterFactory]

Ha, didn't mean to get all off-topic there, and even worse I phrased my argument pretty badly. I shall shut up and let the thread go back to its original programming, unless a new thread is started.

I'm moderately past all ART's for my submissions and am dreading the break of the cricket-calls. Help!

[Marzioli]

I'm past due on a few (DSF, ASIM, Expanded Horizons, Lore), and due today on others (IGMS, maybe Brevity). Horror on the Installment Plan has me worried with their Duotrope disqualification. Now I can't see if the man is rejecting or accepting things. Nameless is supposed to drop rejects and acceptances within a week, according to their Facebook response.

I'm running out of markets to submit to for the majority of my stories, assuming I keep up my top-to-bottom approach. I've been getting pretty good responses from semi-pros, but, due to said approach, I have to collect like 7 or 8 rejections to get it. Fun fun fun!