The Daily Rejection, Vol. 2

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Liz_V

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Aaaaand another short story rejection. This is the other half of the "if I'd only waited a day, I could've sent that story to that magazine and this story to the other magazine and they all would've suited each other better" -- so that was just a whole big bunch of the universe dinging me for not procrastinating and doing things at the last minute. Yeah, thanks, universe.

I gotta say, I'm really getting fed up with the calendar games involved in submitting. It used to be you wrote the best story you could, picked the magazine that best suited it, sent it off, and hoped the editor agreed with you. Now it seems like who's open when, or likely to open soon, or about to close for who knows how long, is much more of a deciding factor in what goes where than what's actually the best fit. One of the stories referenced above I really think would be exactly right for one of the magazines referenced above -- but apparently the only way I'll ever find out if they think so too is to sit on the story indefinitely and never send anything else to that magazine again, in hopes that someday their submission window will correspond with the story being available.

Yeah, I'm cranky. I get that magazines have to control their slush piles somehow, and I'd certainly rather they close occasionally than take years to respond. But playing pin-the-tail-on-the-submission-window on top of all the other challenges of getting the right story into the right editor's hands is a pain in the proverbial.

And yet, subbing short stories is still easier than querying agents. Jeez, this business.
 

Liz_V

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noranne, nice to see you again! Yeah, the draggy forum is a, well, drag. I'm frying bacon whilst loading pages today.

Go you on the writing! Is that an after-NaNo slow down? Sounds very familiar, that does. :)

I am deeply impressed by your perseverance, FWIW. I won't say I'll give up if I get to MS #8 (though at the speed I write, I might have to query it from beyond the grave), but that sure takes some stick-with-it-ness to still be in there swinging.

I might feel better this time through if I felt I'd learned anything from the first time, other than that was not the book to be a debut book. :p Or if I was getting better responses this time. I'm confident the pages are solid, I've run the query past several folks with no major flags, it's the sort of light, fun read that everybody says they want right now.... one partial request. Do I have to superglue this thing to some agent's hands to get them to read it?!?
 

ValerieJane

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Hi everyone! Stepping my noob toe in this thread.

I've posted here before but if I'm honest, that manuscript wasn't ready and neither was I.

I started submitting a new manuscript in August and I've gotten a lot of rejections. A couple of personalized rejections, but mostly forms. Today I got three (3) rejections in a row. That hurt. But then I got a full request from an agent at a really great agency! So I'm feeling pretty excited.
 

Tamlyn

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Congrats on the full, ValerieJane! Welcome back to the thread, and may your stay be brief ;)
 

Liz_V

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Welcome back, ValerieJane! Three rejections in a day is just Not Right, but the full request makes it all worthwhile. Woot!

In local news, I found an unexpected gap in the calendar game, so another short story is off to another slush pile. I'll wear 'em down by sheer persistence, dang it....
 

TeresaRose

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ValerieJane Congratulations! What a roller coaster. Three rejections, then a request for a full! Oh, how I envy you. Fingers and toes crossed for you. :hooray:
 

ValerieJane

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Thank you, Liz and TeresaRose! Yes, it is indeed a wild ride. I'm still on the high of having materials out, but I did warn my husband recently that I'll probably be devastated when the first rejection on requested materials comes in. Just the first one. I know it's a long road and I'll bounce back. But that first one will be tough, just as the first cold query rejection is always tough.
 

AstronautMikeDexter

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A full request is great news, ValerieJane!! Best of luck!

Individual rejections don't phase me - I just got one the other day, in fact - but now they're starting to pile up and I'm getting a bit discouraged. I haven't sent queries to a ton of agents, maybe about 20, but each one has been a form rejection or no response. If I got even just a partial request, I'd be thrilled even if it ended up being rejected. It's got to be my query letter or, worse, my opening pages, though I'm not sure how to fix them. I have had people here look at the materials and the feedback was invaluable, so maybe it's just my writing or the premise or who knows.

I'm planning on self-publishing at this point because I'm proud of my work but I do fear that if an agent isn't wanting to read more then no one else will either.
 

Liz_V

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ValerieJane - Stock up on chocolate and wine, yeah. Or chocovin, if you want to be efficient about it. :e2drunk:

AstronautMikeDexter - Yeah, the first rejection is the worst, but the 20th is also the worst. I will say, though, that 20 agent rejections isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things; in my experience, it's more like a warm-up exercise.
 
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Liz_V

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And another effing short story rejection. For some reason I'm crankier about this one than usual (maybe because the "we want stories like this" guideline was a spot-on perfect match for this story, which I realize means exactly nothing, but still, arrrgh). I'm beginning to think I should go back to querying agents; it could hardly be any more frustrating....

How're y'all doing? What've you sent out lately, what's about to go out?
 

Lakey

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And another effing short story rejection. For some reason I'm crankier about this one than usual (maybe because the "we want stories like this" guideline was a spot-on perfect match for this story, which I realize means exactly nothing, but still, arrrgh). I'm beginning to think I should go back to querying agents; it could hardly be any more frustrating....

How're y'all doing? What've you sent out lately, what's about to go out?

Liz, ask my avatar for a rejection martini — I’m sure she’s willing to share. :D

I got a short-story rejection this week too. I immediately turned around and submitted it somewhere else, as is my plan these days — a new submission for each rejection. I have three stories out there, each pending with five journals (or contests).

:e2coffee:
 

Tamlyn

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I've a couple of shorts out, and a few of them are even in the second round consideration pile (or whatever they call it at individual markets). But. One of them is a market where I know how it works; hold for second round, then they do the acceptances, then they focus on the new submissions (from the new open period) for a bit, before sending out the rest of the old sub rejections. So that's less hopeful, more just waiting for them to get around to rejecting >> (They may hold on to them because they haven't quite decided on some yet. I might be surprised. But I doubt it.)
 

zmethos

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I got an R&R on a manuscript, but I got stuck while working on it, so now I'm nearing the end of the first draft of an entirely different (new) project. I really want to get it done, and cleaned up, and ready for querying. I'm much more excited about it than the R&R, at least at the moment.
 

Liz_V

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Cheers, Lakey's avatar! :e2drunk:

I've been trying to do the one-in-one-out thing too, but this one hit at a bad time both temporally and emotionally. And of course, the better I am about doing that, the sooner I run out of markets....

Oh, hey, coffee. I have some of that. I should drink it.

Fingers crossed for a surprise, Tamlyn.

Glad you're finding something exciting to work on, zmethos. Is the stuck on the R&R anything that might benefit from discussion? There's some good ears around here.
 

Woollybear

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Cookies and Margaritas to all of you--your perseverance is inspiring!

XOXO
 

zmethos

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Thanks, Liz_V. I think I just needed more distance between myself and the R&R manuscript. Cleanse the palate, so to speak. I'll be ready to look at it fresh after I finish the draft on this WIP. But yes, there will almost certainly be stuff that would benefit from discussion, and the AW crowd are terrific for that! (I quake in my boots even thinking about it, though... Need to toughen up my skin.)
 

Tamlyn

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I was not surprised. And I got two other rejections today as well, so, thanks, world.
 

Lakey

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I've been trying to do the one-in-one-out thing too, but this one hit at a bad time both temporally and emotionally. And of course, the better I am about doing that, the sooner I run out of markets....

Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I guess an upside to aiming for literary markets is that I’m not in danger of running out of them any time soon—there is a vast supply of literary journals that would provide a meager sense of validation for me at this stage. It’s not like I’m submitting to the New Yorker and Granta over here.

They do come and go sometimes, which is frustrating. I once had an encouraging rejection from a journal that had shuttered by the time my next story was ready. I noticed yesterday that another one I had submitted to in the past was shut down indefinitely. It’s a shitty time for higher education right now (as for many industries) and literature isn’t as important to alumni donors as football, so...

Anyway I did receive another rejection yesterday, on the same story as last week. I did turn right around and submit it somewhere else. I was thinking of punting; the recent success of a couple of friends in literary markets has reminded me that I am probably sniffing around where I don’t belong. But then I opened my spreadsheet, and I saw the handful of near-miss contest results and the one (one!) piece of personalized feedback I once got, and remembered that I can’t be that far off. A 10% “this is pretty good” rate, which is what that all amounts to, is not that bad. Not as good as a 10% acceptance rate, but not reason to give up, either.

:e2coffee:
 

Belle_91

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Lakey--sorry about your rejection. For what it's worth, I love your writing. Your effortless flow of details and period context and the subjects you write about. You'll find a home somewhere. I've send a lot of agents requesting LGBTQ pieces. Have you thought about comparing some of your pieces with TV shows like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? If you haven't seen it, it's big right now and your characters remind me of some of the ones on the show. Very witty and also, while in the 1950s, their storylines reflect issues going on today. Sorry I'm going on a little rant about your work. I just like it so much.

Anyways, I've got three full requests out and researching a new MS and waiting to hear back from a beta reader on another MS. Lots of waiting these days, which I am terrible at. I'm also afraid saying I have a full request will somehow jinx me. I'm realizing I'm a lot more superstitious than I thought.
 
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Woollybear

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(Ditto, Lakey, to what Belle said although I've only seen short snippets of your work.)

Belle: I'm holding in so many things I want to say right now for fear of jinxing. Mostly in non-writing areas, but it's such a funny feeling. :)
 

noranne

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Well I finally finished that pesky draft of MS8 that had been dragging on since NaNo last year. I'm quite relieved to be done with it, and I already hate it less. My boyfriend read it through, and while he's neither unbiased nor an avid reader, he does enjoy reading and had some insightful comments to offer. He also really enjoyed it. So that was nice. I decided to submit it to Pitch Wars (my first drafts tend to be polished enough not to read too horribly), although I know I won't be accepted (each mentor gets on average something like 200 submissions, of which they pick only 1, so it's really just math). But it was fun to throw my hat in the ring, and I'm hoping I might get some helpful feedback.

Now that's done with, I'd like to revisit MS7 before starting up querying again. I've got several shorts that have been stuck out at markets for overly long responses, which is frustrating. I should write some new ones but I'm not a prolific short story writer. And, truth be told, I don't much enjoy reading them either, so I'll probably never be an expert. Still, I did have that one paying sale that one time, so I'll probably keep sticking it out.
 

Tamlyn

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Yay, for getting that draft down, noranne. Good luck with Pitch Wars. You never know, it might be your year.
 

Liz_V

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zmetho - Palate cleanser makes sense. When you're ready to kick the R&R around, we'll be here!

Tamlyn - Stupid unsurprising world. Have a rejection pitcher.

Lakey - Yeah, the litfic world and sf-dom are very different experiences, aren't they? I estimated the other day that, once you eliminate places that are only open to certain demographics or otherwise somebody else's clubhouse, there's only about a dozen major general-purpose SF/f markets that are consistently open to unsolicited submissions. After that, it's obscure token markets (usually short-lived; I think all of the ones on my list from a couple years ago are now defunct) or trying to hit one of those magazines that are only open a few weeks a year, if that. Or sub-sub-sub-genre specialty markets, which can be great if you happen to have a story that fits, but probably aren't much help for the rest of your spreadsheet.

On the other hand, we do have the generally-accepted notion that writers should get paid (to the extent the market can do so), so at least if we do get in, the money flows toward the writer. Which, I gather, is not the standard for literary fiction?

Have a nice deep margarita for the rejection, and yeah, keep at it. One thing our genres have in common is that editors do not hand out "this is pretty good"s unless they mean it. :Thumbs:

Belle - Writing is a business nearly guaranteed to make you superstitious. So much is out of our control and frequently apparently entirely random. And shaking a magic charm over the keyboard at least gives us something to do while we wait, eh?

noranne - Woohoo, congrats on finishing the draft! And yay for slinging it out there; fingers crossed!

In local news, I did bounce that last rejected story back out there... and I've already collected another R on it. Fast turn-around time: not actually always a good thing, y'know? Am trying to decide where to send it next, preferably somewhere that won't make me play this game again too soon.
 

noranne

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Well, we're far enough along in PitchWars to accept that I'm not in the running for any of my mentors. That's okay, I'm not surprised. But time to start getting some editing done!
 

Liz_V

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Have a pitch margarita, noranne. The publishing world needs to start surprising some of us (in a good way, that is).

I got another -- oh wait, that's not a rejection. Short story made it to the second round. So that's a nice surprise, though I'll be more surprised if it gets anywhere after that.
 
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