The longest you've waited for a rejection

I once got one back after two years. Truth to tell, I'd just figured I wasn't going to get an answer on that one and had forgotten all about it.

I sent one out 11 months ago, still waiting for that one

Almost seven months and counting for two partials...

Two years, after repeated assurances that my submission was still under careful consideration. Finally, out of the blue, it comes back with nothing more than a Post-it note attached:

Sorry, too mature for middle readers, which is as high as we go.

I guess a griffin, a bear and a dragon drinking coffee makes it "too mature".

I might have a winner...

I once submitted an article in 1999 and received a rejection....in 2005. For the first two years I received a bi-annual postcard saying that they were still considering it...and in their defense, I did move in summer 2002...but I had queried them long before the move and sent a change of address to them and had heard nothing, so I just assumed....and then I got an e-mail from them in January 2005! It took me a very long time to figure out what they were talking about!

JoeEkaitis said:

Two years, after repeated assurances that my submission was still under careful consideration. Finally, out of the blue, it comes back with nothing more than a Post-it note attached:

Sorry, too mature for middle readers, which is as high as we go.

I guess a griffin, a bear and a dragon drinking coffee makes it "too mature".

Click to expand...

It was the coffee.

I have 1 query from a year ago I've yet to hear back from, and it's funny because that particular agent's address is 10 miles from my house.
But the longest was about a year. It included an apology, saying my work had been misplaced and only recently found ("in the slush pile" was left unsaid )

Sometimes they never come back at all.

I think the postman steals them.

The longest for me is 6 months...I sent a personal essay, and after several replies from the editor, saying "We're still reading it," it finally got the axe.

Maldon said:

I once submitted an article in 1999 and received a rejection....in 2005.

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I believe we have a winner! No one can beat SIX years, can they? I'm actually cringing in anticipation of someone topping that length of time.

Arrowqueen nearly had the contest sewed up with eternity, only we can't measure infinity...

Just recently I received a rejection for a submission I sent in May of 2005. So that's 15 months later. They did write a nice note on their stationery stating that recently they were cleaning out an ex-editor's desk and file cabinet and found my ms. but couldn't use it.

Wonder if that editor kicked the bucket or was fired.

Four months, I believe. However, all the queries I have sent so far have been electronic, and it's not uncommon (according to their websites) for uninterested agents to simply not respond to email queries.

Ah well.

Long enough that I don't even remember sending it out or who they are.

About a year.

BardSkye said:

I once got one back after two years. Truth to tell, I'd just figured I wasn't going to get an answer on that one and had forgotten all about it.

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Same here. Two years. I had forgotten about it, and it occurred before I dated my SASEs. I figured it out by the weird "o" that it was when I had a certain typewriter.

Uh, yeah. Back in the typewriter days.

The last rejection slip I got arrived in 4 days, so that was clearly an impressive piece of work that I submitted.

Almost 2 years later, after the book had been published elsewhere.

Oh, and another about a year and a half later when they finally found my ms--seems I'd been unfortunate enough to mail it to NY just before 9/11, and all the ms's were tossed aside for fear of anthrax.

Rejection

I've never waited more than a few months for a rejetion, but I have waited more than two years for an acceptance. So long that when the acceptance letter came I tought it was a mistake. I couldn't recall even writing a story with that title, and had to check through my submission files before finding it.