I've recently had a few stories rejected from places that I very much would like to be published from. I'm not angry with them, the stories definitely weren't good enough. But let's say in the future, when I become a more proficient writer, that I want to revisit those stories; fix them up. Is it generally frowned on to resubmit a "better" draft of a formerly rejected story to the same publisher?
I don't think it's generally good etiquette to submit a rejected piece again, even if it has been heavily revised. Some magazines have strict guidelines against unsolicited resubmissions. I guess you could contact the editor and ask if resubmitting the revised version would be OK. One thing to keep in mind is that in some cases the rejection of a story might have nothing to do with the writing but rather with the story itself. In that case, revising and submitting a better draft won't help since the editor has already decided that he/she doesn't like the story. For this reason it's sometimes hard to tell why a story was rejected, so resubmitting the story might end up wasting both your and the editor's time. An exception to this might be if the editor of a magazine is replaced. My advice is to just revise the story and submit to other markets.
A big no no. Once they've rejected a piece once, it's terrible etiquette to resubmit it, no matter how much reworking you've done to it. I'd second thirdwind's advice.
Alright, thanks everyone. Luckily at least one publisher has expressed interest in a story once I cleaned it up, so that's something at least. For the others I shall look elsewhere. Thanks again.
The only possible exception to what others are saying (besides a revision requested anyway) is if a publication changes editors. Then you can consider resubmitting something. A new editor might take a magazine in a new direction for which your story could be a better fit. But yeah, generally what everyone else said, best to move on and submit elsewhere.
Second attempts and follow-ups to an agent Hello everyone, Just had a brief question that I've been kind of wracking my brain over lately. For anyone who has been following some of my recent posts, you may have seen me say I screwed up with my query, particularly as far as my teaser goes. My question is this: When querying an agent and you don't receive a response for well over 3 weeks to a month, is it at all feasible to either resubmit a query or conduct some kind of follow up? I've been submitting email queries and the few rejections I received came within 1-2 weeks of submission, but I have about a half dozen more that I have yet to hear back from at all. I understand that its an agent's prerogative on whether he or she replies to a query or not, or it could also be that something got lost in cyberspace. I've picked Agent Query pretty clean of potential agents for fantasy pieces, so I don't really know where else to try now for representation. Was considering doing some kind of follow up in the event something got lost, but wanted to see what you guys thought of the idea. Thanks!
I think some places, you can be 3 months before you hear anything back from them. Don't harass them, it'll just give them a reason to reject you without even reading what you sent.
My thoughts exactly Thanks, my thoughts were going in the same direction. I was just curious though as to whether it was worth trying or just continue to wait it out. Seems I'll be waiting it out then.
Yeah, I agree with Sasha. You're lucky to have even gotten those rejections back so soon. It could take 3 to 6 months for many agents. Also, you said you sent out to as many Sci-fi agents you could find? Some advice I read in a literary magazine, I believe Poets and Writers: Send out queries to about 10 agents at a time. Not only do you not want to put all your eggs in one basket, but if an agent were to respond with interest, they may want exclusive reading rights. It's a lot harder for the agent to swallow if you say you've already sent it to everyone else. Also, some may even send some advice which you could use for future queries.
always give it a month beyond when their guidelines say they usually respond... then a polite phone call or note asking if the ms was perhaps lost in transit would be a good idea...
