Was I rejected?

What this means

This means you were NOT rejected and that your work was good enough to hold for further consideration, but that does NOT mean you will be published, either. It means they are still thinking. In short, you made the first cut.

I hope they accept simultaneous submisisons, since they did not seem to give you any idea how long they planned to hold onto your work.

When I hold work for further consideration, I let the author know when he or she will receive a final response. I also let him know that he is free to submit the work elsewhere while it is on hold.

I agree with Sky completely. Not a rejection...but not a guarantee of publication.

Rejection

Mark Anderson said:

I received the following email about one of my submissions:

Your story, Inner Beauty, has been placed into the Insidious Reflections Slushpile. This does not guarantee publication, but we will hold on to the story for POSSIBLE publication in the future.

This market pays 5 cents a word and would be my first pro-level sale, so I'm loathe to say 'meh' and submit somewhere else if there's a possible (10%?) chance of publication. On the other hand, could this be some new way to say 'no' without being mean? Like when you apply for a job and they say 'We've filled the position, but will keep your application on file for 6 months in case of a new opening'?

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

No, you were not rejected. I've sold several stories to various magazines in just this manner. Sometimes editors need to hold onto stories for all manner of reasons, and quite often this means they will, eventually, buy them.

The odds are still not usually in your favor, but it does mean the story has a fighting chance.

I think it means

You have to read the magazine every month, to see if they owe you a check.