I got rejection letters from Crannog magazine, Stinging Fly and Forge magazine in one weekend. That's a lot of rejection for a lonely boi.
I guess it's easy to weed out the ones you're sure you don't want. Fall is the busy time for submitters and it looks as though editors and staff at these publications are trying to keep up with the slush pile. Still, I've got plenty submissions that are past due for a response. Do you think if a publication takes more than a year to respond, it will be a personal rejection if not an acceptance? Please be an acceptance!!! I really want some of these to work out. I know they won't all work out, not even close. So, I'm submitting like crazy. I've got a few pieces that are done, but I don't feel they're ready just yet. That doesn't seem to matter much because I have a gazillion other stories out on submission right now. Today some hard mail submissions got sent out. Those are the first hard mail ones I've sent this month. I just need to make sure I'm sending them out as soon and as much as they are giving them back to me.
I always say no good news comes on the weekend. That's been my experience. It's no fun when a batch of rejections hit you at once. Hopefully, you've got more out and better responses are in your future.
By hard mail I take it you mean snail mail, or post? Just how many stories do you have out at a time then?
Yeah, hard mail = snail mail or whatever you want to call it. I've got a good dozen or so different stories out right now at about 40 or so different publications total. I like to have 50 submissions out, and the fall is usually the easiest time to do that, but if I keep getting rejected, I'm never going to hit that 50. And I like to have at least 10 different stories out. It's really hard to know what's going to sell. And in my experience, my work never sells quickly and it takes many, many tries. How have you been doing with your submissions? Genre stories can be tough because so many of those publications don't allow simultaneous submissions. I've got three genre stories out right now. I have two others that aren't anywhere yet, but I don't think they're quite ready. In general, I have quite a few stories that aren't anywhere because I'm not confident they're ready or will sell. I feel good about the pieces I do have out, but that doesn't really mean much of anything. This isn't quite a numbers game because a bad story sent to 1,000 publications will likely never sell because it's a bad story. And a good story might sell on its first time out. When things are polished and really worked, they stand a better chance of being picked up. That's when I like to really give them a try out there and send them to a lot of publications. Even when I have sold my work, it's never been a the first try. There always have been many attempts and tries leading up to it. Honestly, I could have each of my stories on submission now at 10 publications each and they could still easily all be rejected. But good stories are worth not giving up on. I have to force myself to submit in a way I've never had to force myself to write.
I guess that's the hard bit, knowing when a story is ready. You can only submit the story then, you can't actually help it from that point. Haven't heard anything from anyone about my only story out there, although I do believe that the beginning of November (or maybe even late October) is the deadline for the competition at Glimmer Train.
I beg to differ, there's something fishy here: At Glimmer Train we read every submission individually with our spectacles on our heads and on behalf of the Zimmer foundation. The folks, like you folks who too understand your writing is like our knitting and stroking cats in the rocking chair, or like standing for the national anthem and the flag, if only we could stand these days for three minutes, your loving tenderness from the people who appreciate each word of your souls, thank you for the money heh heh, heh heh heh
Well I can't say I've read that particular paragraph (unless you made it up) but it all seems ok to me. A little bit of innocence is alright I think, don't see too much of it these days.
Yay! @Funerary is back. How you been? What happened to @Spencer1990? We're so close to having the whole gang back together. So, my mail submissions didn't make it to the post office yesterday. Oh, the things my lover forgets to do... My lover has a printer at work, but we don't have one at home. They should be mailed out today. I can't believe the month is almost over already. I sent a total of 21 submissions out this month. I was aiming for one a day or the equivalent. There is one more thing I am working on to go out this month, but I've got a few more days and I'm going to use them. And just so everyone knows, new places open Oct. 1. Anyone looking for new places to submit can ask here or message me and I'll do a duotrope search or let you know the ones already on my radar. The open-submission status is pretty staggered throughout the fall for the literary journals. And I'm looking forward to October because I will have a little (very little) money to spend on submissions. It's been hard not submitting anywhere that charges a reading fee. Even with my hard mail/ snail mail submissions I had to really choose carefully where I wanted to submit because those costs can add up too. Maybe it's the new season or the crispness that comes with the first cool air. Call it the chills of enlightenment... I actually feel really good about the work I have on submission. I know that doesn't mean much, but I can say that what's going on right now is my best try. My best work and my best efforts. I really want something to work out before the end of the year. Wishing the same for all of you.
Both answers apply, I am afraid. ... BUT, I got one away to the big T..H. It was a long process to submission, phew.. And that stoopid one gets published tomorrow: 'But he didn't even send me a proof or anything...he just said "can I print this one," and now and now it's all over Hoxton and all the beatniks will laugh at me and say cruel things about my declining literarary talents...' 'Don't cry, honey, just shut the fukk up..'
Well I'd hate to get something snotty. I'm wondering if that story was a little too fantasy for them, even though the fantasy element wasn't strong. Who are TH?
Tin Hoose... ... Well 'rejection letters' can be so ambiguous. I've spent an hour 'whooping myself up' until I realise the likes of 'Dear Most Entertaining Writer...' prefaces every bladdy script... ...that's happened about eight times...and you begin to hate the very most proficient of those operators, those 'Linkedin snakes' with their jargon. Surely an issue of our times. They creep me out...'we read it so very carefully.' There's a poetry magazine that's a particular offender. [CONFLATION of ISSUES] Even the personal rejection from the likes of 'Some Website' makes me think they have too much time on their hands and no readers. Even 'we like it if you change the story a little bit we will consider it again...' is annoying if they're annoying. Acceptance can be annoying especially if they don't send you any money, or they call you whacky or a 'crazy guy' in their bumpff. No, I am sane, it is EVERYBODY else, etffc
LOL, you're messages never fail to entertain, have to say. Surely it would be better all round if they just told the truth. We don't like it, sorry. The guys I sent to basically said they liked it but it wasn't right, and could I continue to send them work. Given that I don't really write literary pieces the answer to that would probably be not for a long time (I have one short that might be considered lit but that isn't even half way through yet, and I write sloooow). Saying that I haven't heard back from the others. My next work is going the way of the Sci-Fi.
Okay - so - the psychology of it all? I sent a racist/homophobic elderly misogynist 'talking head' write to a liberal 'group.' They never replied. This means 'don't ever come near us ever again.' That was a painful experience for me although the entire episode may only have taken place inside my own head. Not necessarily the case that the English graduates gathered in their cocoa circle and flushed my manuscript, see? 'Thank you and I look forward to something else soon...' - of course, the sharp sub-editor stayed up late with our novelette. 'I'll be down in a minute, darling, it's this fantastic Yeti adventure...I...am consumed...but he spelled his own name wrong, rejection...Dear Mr Krispee... Yes, this is all very difficult. I imagine it comes down to the 'a couple of lucid pages' receives scented yellow slip, whilst 'breath/breathe offender' or 'was' trickler they get the black post of damnation, just fakk off... thinking on..
Oh, very good. I'll take a bit of that Yeti action... I swear I read your posts sometimes and can't figure out what's going on, although the breath/breathe offender might have been aimed at me
So, you go back to your 'reject' and go again? That's what I do...until I hate it, or forget about it, or lose it.
