ooops.... Funny thing: I submitted to American Short Fiction and not even an hour after I submitted, the journal I'd submitted to back in June emails me a rejection.
Rejections from Five Points and Hayden's Ferry Review. The Hayden's Ferry one was disappointing because I'd written a new story specifically for the theme they wanted. I thought maybe gave me a better chance but alas!
Do you remember this? Their email said ‘this doesn’t meet our needs at this time’. Imagine my surprise when I saw them tweet out my story today! I emailed them to ask, and then saw another email from them in my junk folder, sent today. Which said ‘we like this piece and will publish it today’. What happened is that I submitted it twice as the first time I forgot to add the title and I tweeted them and they told me to submit it again. They rejected the one without the title and accepted the resubmitted one with the title. Hilarious!
Yes, I was going to say thank goodness I forgot the title, but maybe the title made all the difference?! It’s really not that great, I think their first instinct to reject it was right, haha.
I think I know the answer to this, but it's my first go around, so I'm asking. The agent to whom I submitted a query says on her Publishers Market page that she replies within "two minutes to eight weeks." It will be eight weeks Sunday. Assuming she's not in the office on the weekends, today was pretty much the last day. I know eight weeks is a short time compared to some of these three-hundred day rejections and whatnot, but should I consider this one rejected or just keep waiting? Is it possible COVID is at fault here? No interns in the office, that sort of thing? I'm not trying to rush the process, but I'd like to move on to the next agent, if this one's not interested. (You know, after I have a cry.) Is there a way to find out without bothering her? I've seen some of you talk about checking the status of submissions. Is that really a thing? How would one go about that?
It's not cut in stone when an agent of publisher gives a timeframe as to when they will get back to you. There are a lot of things that go into it like how many submissions they get and the deals and such being made with other writers and their works. I wouldn't cross this one off your list just yet. I also would wait a little longer before contacting anyone. Like double the time. In my experience, long waits often produce better response. So, hold tight. Also, most places allow you to make simultaneous submissions so you can submit to other places at the same time. Unless they ask for an exclusive there is no need to try places one at a time. It really is okay to follow up with an email, but you don't want to send it right after the time you expected a response. You really do want to wait as long as you can. Sometimes following up can make them send a quicker response or you might still be waiting then on a response to an email and your submission. But if you do want to send an email just be polite and keep it short. If they are too busy to get back to you right now, there's really nothing you can do. A short email isn't going to bother anyone, but I still suggest waiting as long as you can. When making submissions no news can be good news. Good luck. Also, you can message me if you want. I have another idea that might help, but I don't want to post it on the forum.
ok my 2020 experience is that most agents are way behind. I’ve had requests for full MS after 9 months, and most agents are taking 3 months plus. Personally I’d give it another month before sending a nudge. Waiting is the worst part of this industry !
got another rejection... i dont know if it was automated or not, but it sounded hopeful. It was on "in progress" for a long while and the rejection said "we could not find a place for it in this upcoming issue" maybe the like it and wanted to use it, but just not for this issue?? meh.... im not going to get hung up on it. that same story is still "in progress" at 2 other places
It could be a form or it could mean it was close and just squeezed out of the upcoming issue. I tend to submit to the same publications (but a lot of them) over and over with different stories. Through this, I have learned what the form rejection looks like for many places. You also can look up the publication on Wiki rejections --www.rejectionwiki.com/index.php?title=Literary_Journals_and_Rejections -- to know if it was a typical form or higher tier form or personal. Good luck with the two places still considering the story.
Whenever I post about not getting any recent responses/rejections they seem to come pouring in. So, let's open the floodgates and see what happens. I have submissions out at several places that I should have heard from by now or should hear from any day. I tend to get rejected on a pretty consistent basis. Hopefully, no news is good news, but I can't really believe my story was passed up the chain for further consideration at all these places, can I? I do try and post all my rejections here. There just haven't been any lately. It probably hasn't been that long, but it feels like forever. There is one rejection I didn't list here that I got a little while back. I was so upset about it that I wasn't sure I should even post it. It's a place that several of us have sent work to. I will never submit or subscribe to this publication again. The rejection the sent me was just horrible and they basically implied that I'm not the kind of writer they want to work with. This was not based on my actual writing but more about how I handled the subject matter I chose to write about. Let's just say not all personal rejections are good. It was the meanest rejection I've gotten and there was no reason to reject me like that. I want my $3 submission fee back. This is the second time I've crossed a publication off my list. I can handle rejection. Honestly, a simple form rejection would have been a lot better. Mean editors suck.
I too have heard nothing of substance for ages! I hate waiting. It’s so hard to know how long it may take for an agent to squeeze my 400 page book in. I guess if it was garbage they’d have quickly rejected if they felt the submission ultimately wasn’t right
Heartbroken. So super agent who rejected, then requested the full MS sent the following- “While you are a very good writer and I do think that you have a very good story here, I’m sorry to say that I’m unable to offer you representation at this time. There was obviously enough here to warrant my taking a much closer look, but at the end of the day I wasn’t quite as taken with this manuscript as I would have liked, and so I’m afraid that I’m going to have to pass.” Waited a long time for this one... still, a few more agents have the full MS so keep hoping
63-day form rejection from the ‘Denial Kills’ anthology, with a slightly odd message like ‘if you read the rest of the anthology, you’ll see that yours doesn’t fit with them’.
@Medazza - such a bummer. This is the important part: You are a very good writer and you have a very good story here. But, yeah. I feel your pain. Querying is so subjective - some have compared it to dating which I don't think is far off. Of all the agents I've queried, there were two who seemed like really great fits, who were also pretty actively building their lists. I was in one's maybe stack for a minute, but then got a "not the right fit" rejection. That same day, she tweeted something generally to querying authors to the effect of "sometimes even when I love it, I pass because I don't think I can sell it." (You looking at me? Ouch.) The other agent literally said: "I need to fall head over heels in love with something in order to offer representation and I did not quite feel that way in this instance." So . . . the quest continues. My MS is taking a dating break to shed some weight, figure out how to better accentuate its best assets, and lose some baggage. Best of luck to all of us.
A million years ago when I was agent seeking I remember things moving quite slowly. And if so much time goes by and you query, the best you'll probably get is a reply saying it's still under consideration. Agents that were interested used to call on the phone. I don't know if that's still the practice. But even after crossing all these hurdles I continued to wait while things were still "under consideration." It seemed like with the semi-interested agents the wait could go on forever. I've toyed with the idea of seeking an agent again, but I just don't think I'm quite there. I don't have a book yet. I'm going to go for the grants next year. I think I might be writing a new novel. I think it's too soon to call it much of anything. I've got words on the page, but they need to marinate. It's a timely story of sorts (I do know how slow the publishing process is and I'm okay with it). I just don't want to take too long. It might just be another shit novel. But if it's any good... just thinking about the whole process of getting an agent and working on the manuscript to then submit it to. publishers... It's a long wait and the better you're doing the longer it's probably going to take. Good luck to those of you seeking agents. Still, I think my heart is always going to be with the literary magazines and journals. Right now I subscribe to 7 of them and there are others I read online. But we all get the waiting. It totally sucks to wait, and wait, and wait. I still haven't been rejected in an usual stretch of time. It means nothing right now other than I'm waiting a longer amount of time to get a response. And that's what we want. It won't matter if the agent takes a few more months if he signs you in the end. That's how I try to think about all my submissions.
Just got my fourth Honorable Mention in five entries for the Writers of the Future competition. I think it’s the top 10% or so of thousands of entries so not bad but I’m starting to think I’m really not capable of anything higher.