Have to gripe for a bit. It's okay to gripe here, right?
I have a short story I've submitted many times and to mostly heavy hitter journals. I have gotten so many personal rejections on this story from those journals—one editor even told me that her staff loved the story and wanted to keep it but that it didn't quite fit the aesthetic of the issue. Others just say that they really loved the piece and note a specific thing they love but then say they can't fit it in. Like, big deal journals. Journals I would die happy to be published in. Another editor suggested other heavy hitter places to submit it to with the note that it's a really great piece and bound to find a home somewhere.
But... no one is giving it a home. Everyone loves it; no one wants it. I don't want to give up on the goal of it being in a big journal but it's been rejected enough that I feel I might be setting my sights too high and to aim a little lower. Sigh. I know this is a good problem to have but sometimes the really close calls feel worse than the form rejections.
I have a short story I've submitted many times and to mostly heavy hitter journals. I have gotten so many personal rejections on this story from those journals—one editor even told me that her staff loved the story and wanted to keep it but that it didn't quite fit the aesthetic of the issue. Others just say that they really loved the piece and note a specific thing they love but then say they can't fit it in. Like, big deal journals. Journals I would die happy to be published in. Another editor suggested other heavy hitter places to submit it to with the note that it's a really great piece and bound to find a home somewhere.
But... no one is giving it a home. Everyone loves it; no one wants it. I don't want to give up on the goal of it being in a big journal but it's been rejected enough that I feel I might be setting my sights too high and to aim a little lower. Sigh. I know this is a good problem to have but sometimes the really close calls feel worse than the form rejections.
