Rejection and Doubt

CalRazor

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So, my rejections are starting to pile up a bit. I've had a couple of "encouraging" rejections but nothing really inspiring. At what point did you take a step back and think "I'm doing something wrong"? (30+ rejections, 50+, 100+?) What did you do to "course correct"?
 

mccardey

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So, my rejections are starting to pile up a bit. I've had a couple of "encouraging" rejections but nothing really inspiring. At what point did you take a step back and think "I'm doing something wrong"? (30+ rejections, 50+, 100+?) What did you do to "course correct"?
Is it your MS or your query letter that's getting the rejections? (And if it's the query letter, have you run it by the squirrels in Query Letter Hell?
 

CalRazor

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Is it your MS or your query letter that's getting the rejections? (And if it's the query letter, have you run it by the squirrels in Query Letter Hell?

I'm mostly referring to short story submissions. I haven't received much commentary on the submissions themselves, so it's hard to tell if it's the query/or the actual content that's putting them off. But you're right, it could be the query that's hindering my chances, and I haven't run it through the squirrels yet. I should get on that :)
 
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Treehouseman

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Short stories don't have queries apart from "Hi, here's my (genre) story (title) of (x) words long, Yours sincerely."

You're guaranteed of getting the first couple of pages read on a short, so if you're piling up rejections and not selling ANYTHING it'll definitely be either a writing craft issue or a genre issue. Some of the smaller magazines will give you slush reader feedback.

Sales here and there are just a matter of slush reader taste and maybe odd things like word length. For a short, 10 mid-level rejections per story would suggest it needs re-working.
 

CalRazor

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Short stories don't have queries apart from "Hi, here's my (genre) story (title) of (x) words long, Yours sincerely."

You're guaranteed of getting the first couple of pages read on a short, so if you're piling up rejections and not selling ANYTHING it'll definitely be either a writing craft issue or a genre issue. Some of the smaller magazines will give you slush reader feedback.

Sales here and there are just a matter of slush reader taste and maybe odd things like word length. For a short, 10 mid-level rejections per story would suggest it needs re-working.

Yep, could be writing/genre issue. I've had some mildly positive rejections (literary fiction/horror) so it could be that I just need to narrow my focus.
 

CalRazor

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Aaand, another rejection from Flash Fiction Online. I'm really racking them up lol.
 

zmethos

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I've found short stories very difficult to place, but it might be because I write a niche genre... Anyway, my sympathies, CalRazor. It might be that you're just not finding the right market, but if you're fairly certain you're targeting the correct magazines/sites and you're still getting noes, you might want to revisit the work and see if you can figure out where it's lacking. Get critique partners to help if you can.
 

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What genre short story do you write? Do you have critique partners you could show those stories to get some feedback? Or have you considered posting one here for feedback?
 

cool pop

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What genre short story do you write? Do you have critique partners you could show those stories to get some feedback? Or have you considered posting one here for feedback?

I second the idea of getting feedback. It will make the process easier and you can pinpoint if there is something missing with the story.
 

Zoey141

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Reading all these, I'm so worried about my book. I'm just about to finish one and run around trying to get it published. Hope it goes well.