Ah, the old less haste, more speed submission. Hard to let something lie and settle and get back to it when your view of it is unobstructed I find, hardest part of all.
Heh, heh heh heh, heh. Mat is guest starring on the BBC Radio York HARRY WHITTAKER SHOW at 8.20pm this Friday 31st January. [My slot is 8.20/show starts at 7pm]. I am so famous.
Hey, he's back, good to see you here again dude. Congrats on the radio slot, that's a feather or two in the old cap. Living down in the south of things I'm not familiar with the show and not sure we can get that, but hope that goes well for you. Actually, can you get that online?
Yes, tap it in, show starts at 7pm. As always these things never match to prior projections... 'SO, Matty what books do you read?' 'Ehmm, ehh, Rupert annuals? We had a lot of Biggles in the house. Can I say Biggles?'
I had to come back due to the great fame aspect, y'know. Probably get a lot of respect because I'm famous, not like the others. Probably enhanced membership.
Oh yes, you'll have to mind your p's and q's, or the listeners will be phoning in. '...'he said the biggles word, can't say that, it's outragush...' Yes, afterwards you'll be in demand, more radio slots perhaps, a tv spot maybe? You'll probably get enhanced membership to everything!
£1000 a year, two slim volumes and a guest spot on the 'Outsider Artists' documentary - available only through an advanced super-google search toVimeo, maybe.. .. Appearance at 'old people festivals.' I have this montage in my head where @jannert climbs through the crowd to embrace me on stage, and we duologue [one of my poems] together - she's weeping - which kind of ruins the oration aspect. I forgive her.
And then someone films you on their iPhone and send it to the 'tube and you are overnight sensations. '...have you seen these two, so awesome...'
Just sent a story out to the third market. Trying to clean up a recent story so I can get it in rotation. I want to finish that so I can focus on a new story that has taken up space in my brain.
Are there any Fantasy markets who send feedback on submissions as a matter of course? I don’t mean form rejection letters saying “this did not grab me” but actually feedback, where they reject you AND tell you exactly how they hate your story. I know of one, and they ask if you really really want it—because they are blunt. I would like to find some others.
That's a first, I didn't know of any that gave any kind of feedback except for the odd, 'please feel free to send your other work...', or words to that effect. None that gave actual critique. I'm a bit surprised by that actually.
Can you share which market that is? I have a fantasy story that has been rejected 13 times. I know it’s not terrible as it’s been shortlisted several times, but no one has given any feedback.
If you need another set of eyes I'll happily take a look for you; just to read first time, see how it feels. No critique or anything if you don't want. I have done this before for DR and Mat, just in case you thought I was some nutter you wouldn't want to send your story too. Well, I may be a little bit of a nutter but not that kind...
Is "We enjoyed reading this story, but unfortunately it's not quite what we're looking for right now." a form rejection?
That would be really helpful, thanks so much! I’ll try and send it at the weekend. I did post the first part in the workshop at some point, but I’ve deleted that post now. It’s the story that got an Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future so it can’t be awful- but clearly it’s not quite right yet.
Ok so I probably should have mentioned the market! Sorry. One that is well-known for giving you the option of standard rejection or rejection with feedback is Metaphorosis (my computer always wants to turn this into metamorphosis so annoying). They also occasionally have some statistical analysis of their submissions and they keep an archive of those. I looked at some out of curiosity. Apparently for people who have submitted five or more submissions they will even give you Overview Feedback looking at the whole pile. I think that is great. I was wondering if there are other places that will do that. Edited to add: That is why this market has so many personal rejections on Duotrope — those submissions were requesting personal feedback and the request was honored.
