I've only received one rejection with negative feedback, probably because I don't submit nearly as much as you, but yeah, some of the comments were insulting. The story featured a homeless person. One of the comments was that the story was exploitative of the homeless. I had a months-long period of homelessness myself, so I was not speaking from complete ignorance like they assumed. It was a university-run journal, and I knew someone who worked there, which was why I got the detailed feedback. He was older than the rest of the MFA students, and he thought of them as entitled and sheltered. I had to agree, which makes me wonder who is judging these submissions and what life experiences they can draw upon. On the other hand, every reader and editor who likes my work is of course wise and insightful. /s
I don’t know, my trouble is that I just assume every bit of criticism must be correct so I end up changing things whether I agree with the feedback or not, because surely they know better than me… I take them personally too. I was actually quite pleased with my story and thought maybe I had a chance so when I didn’t even place in the competition I did beat myself up- “How could I have thought I stood a chance, clearly I’m a rubbish writer”. Having said all that, I do appreciate personal feedback generally. When there is no feedback you’re left with no idea as to what they didn’t like about the story and I find that frustrating.
Part of the issue is writing is subjective, the Dunning Kruger effect is real (both sides, low ability overestimating, high ability insecure) and it's difficult to determine which advice will correct legitimate flaws or simply matters of taste. There's a famous story, perhaps a bit of legend now, of a Scifi writer (not sure the name, hopefully someone knows) that was rejected by an agent, who later switched to a different agency or company. The author submitted the story to the different company which fell into the hands of the agent again, who was now willing to accept it, and told the author "this is much better, I'm glad you continued working on it". But the thing was, he hadn't changed anything.
I prefer the generic, "Thank you for submitting this piece; it isn't a good fit for me at this time" over a vague allusion to what the agent found objectionable. Selling work to an agent or publisher is a business deal: if the entity queried isn't interested, that's the end of that avenue and telling me that "it didn't come alive on the page" or something similar isn't particularly helpful. Check it off the spread sheet, send out a new query, and fergeddabowdit. That being said, when I send a requested full manuscript and don't hear back, I am disappointed that the agent/publisher couldn't even rustle up a polite, "This isn't a good fit for me." Tsk, some mothers' children.
Yes. If one were baking cupcakes, I doubt if he or she would demand to know why a customer didn't buy the Red Velvet variety.
7-day form rejection from Words & Sports. Their rejection included ‘There is stuff in here we really enjoyed, though’, which I guess is positive.
There's rejection, and then there's REJECTION, as in "I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.” https://thecritic.co.uk/good-god-i-cant-publish-this/
Got rejected by the Cheshire Novel prize. Was never going to win. However got a full page of feedback. Some of it was a bit generic but some positive comments that showed they had read my material.
One of my reprint submissions came back with a rejection today, but a couple recent acceptances take the sting out of that. My most recent acceptance only happened because I paid really close attention to their announcements and checked in when they said they’d replied to all their submissions with rejections or hold notices. As it turns out, their email system tossed a few submissions in the junk folder despite sending the writers confirmation emails. The editors were gracious enough to let everyone resubmit, and they ended up accepting my novelette. If I hadn’t checked their website when I did, I never would’ve realized and just written it off as a dead letter.
A 25-day rejection from 100 Word Story. Dang, folks, it's a holiday weekend — go watch some fireworks instead of crushing people's dreams!
Rejection from the Missouri Review. They never sent me an email, but I checked their submission manager today and saw my story was labeled as declined.
Sometimes I feel like they just reject out of hand without even reading it just to get rid of the submission clogging up their inboxes and I then wonder how many might have requested or offered (I'm in the business of querying for my novels rather than short story submissions) if they'd actually taken the time to read.
Thought I had a 6 day rejection from NewMyths but when I actually read it they've held it for consideration.
My 4th acceptance to Youth Imagination. That makes 4 out of 4. Their acceptance rate is currently showing as just over 9% on Duotrope, so it’s not like they accept everything. I did send them 3 stories at once though (multiple submissions are allowed) as I read they are ceasing publication at the end of this year and only pushing 2 stories every 2 months (it’s been 2 every month until this year). I can’t imagine they’ll accept all 3, so I’ll probably receive my first rejections from them! Shame they are shutting down, they seem to like my writing and there aren’t many places that publish contemporary YA stories. My publication rate will probably drop now!
I've been remiss for the last while, but sometimes it's hard to muster the whatever to catalogue the list of not meeting the current needs and not a reflection on the writing but good luck with finding a happy place elsewhere. Kenyon Review got back eventually, but that was ages ago. So too Mud x 2, Puritan, various American reviews, several others. It's funny, I know status on Submittable means nothing but there's some "in progress" for months (before the inevitable) while one slips through from "in progress" to "declined" almost contemporaneously. One recent submission had an intro page with questions for those submitting. One question was what would you like to see done differently in publishing. My answer was something to the effect of tiring of reading a story by an author with whom I'm not familiar with a story I don't know and still get to the end with a feeling that I've read that before. Mind you, the next question was what superpower I'd like to have, so I may not be a good fit at this time. Maybe I'm posting here now because I may have another discreet smiley face to attach, with one submission expressing interest and saying they'd be back, possibly with suggested edits. That will be a first for me and I'm curious as to how it works out, with actual proper feedback from a publication on what needs improving and why. Christ, I think I really needed this. Might even do a bit of writing this evening.
Damn, two in one day. 39 day rejection from Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, again straight back out again.
Update 2: I received two personal rejections, one for my fiction submission and one for my non-fiction submission. I think the Editor knew that my heart was going to be broken because it was still very encouraging. But it's bittersweet getting another round of personal rejections a second year in a row. Onto the next one, I suppose. I still have yet to hear back on my poetry submission, so maybe that's a good sign. It will be brutal if I get a third personal rejection during the same submission round. Edit: these submissions are all for the same literary magazine.
47-day form rejection from Youth Imagination. As expected, they didn’t want to accept more than one piece from me. The email made it sound like they may well have accepted it otherwise. Part of me wishes I hadn’t submitted it as that’s my 100% success rate with them gone, but I wanted to increase the chances of being published by them one more time before they ceased publication. They have one more piece of mine, which they claim they are still reviewing. I can’t imagine them accepting that based on their message for this one, though.
