I received three rejections, all in one morning! It was fun clicking on each; it was like scratching a lottery ticket, though the first few words made me assume form letter rejections, and I was correct. All of 'em were after 17 days. 3LBE, Old Moon Quarterly, and Flash Point. Well, that takes me up to lucky number 7 for my 2024 rejections !
Rejection from Tin House, something like 8 months. So long ago that I can't recall when I sent it or what it was, anyway.
Tin House closed a few years ago. They are only a book publisher now. Was it a novel you sent them? Anyway, they are no longer a literary journal, though, they used to be a big one. I had a submission pending with them at the time they folded and never got any response, but I knew when they closed and didn't really expect to get one. Maybe you know something I don't about what's going on with Tin House now? If so, I would definitely be interested.
Truly, I cannot tell you, rats. I vaguely recall submitting work to TH last spring, but when I check my Submittible account, nothing is listed for Tin House. They had three two-day submission periods in 2023. One was for a residency. Maybe that is what I applied for? I've done stranger things. If I come across my 2023 calendar for May, I might be able to tell. Normally I keep careful track of submissions, but this one somehow slipped past my spread sheet as well as the Submittable list. Weird. Anyway, they weren't interested, so the heck with it.
Contributor copies for my latest published story came in the mail today. The issue looks so good. And It turns out that one of my favorite contemporary writers also has a piece in the same issue. That's just crazy to me and also really cool. I feel pretty good today about myself and about being a writer. These are the moments when all the rejection that's come my way in the past is worth it.
That's extremely cool, and must be so exciting. Happy for you ! I received another seemingly random rejection for an agent submission that I'd given up on long ago. They sounded like a really good fit, but after 381 days, alas, I have received their form letter. Up to 8 now for the year.
So, I have a question for my fellow submitters. I'm not super familiar with the submission manager Moksha, but I know quite a few genre publications use this system. Moksha tells you your position in the queue. What does it mean (if anything) if this hasn't changed in a while? I've got a low number here. It was higher, but now it just seems stuck. Does this mean my story is being held or moved up to the next round of consideration? Does it mean my story has been forgotten about? Does this mean nothing? It probably means nothing. It's so easy to overthink these sort of things with our submissions, isn't it?
Yeah, it probably means nothing, though maybe it could mean that it's in the process of being considered. Could also mean that the slush readers are taking a break. I submit plenty of stuff through Moksha, but I don't really pay attention to the queue since I'm usually like number 357 when I submit. I don't think I've ever had such a submission ignored before, though. They always give me a form letter at the very least.
I had to look up FOMO. LOL. Yes, I totally have FOMO. There are a lot of places that have short submission windows and/or might only be open once a year. So, if I miss that window, I won't be able to try them until next year. I've always submitted a lot, but I also did miss a lot of submission windows even though I've sort of always tried to keep an eye on this sort of thing. It takes some effort to keep track of all this, but I think (hope) it will pay off. Do you guys get FOMO, too?
I do, although sometimes missing a window works out for the best. I missed the Paris Review's last window, but I got in this time. My story is much stronger after a recent round of revision. Not that it will be accepted, but at least I know it is finally as good as I can make it. Also, some of the bigger journals, like the Paris Review, have submission caps within their windows. This makes FOMO even stronger. If you wait until the latter part of the window, you might miss out because the cap has been reached.
I caved and created an AWS account... you were right, it is techy. after i made the account, i couldnt figure out how to find the "Polly" service and then once i found it, couldnt figure out how to attach it to my dashboard so that i wouldnt have to keep looking for it. i requested an increase on the character quota so that i can have it read about 12,000 characters (~2,000 words) at a time. and then, before all of that, i didnt the price calculator thing where it calculated how many times i estimated i would use it and about how many characters i would use it for each session. Pretty cool... I'd spend like $1 a month based on its calculations. all this to say...... i have not used it yet
Oh boy, it sounds like you went at it a different way than I did. I guess that's how techy things go. I hope it's useful for you. I love the different voices. I tend to use female voices (I'm male), so I can forget I wrote the darn thing. It helps me gain that distance from the work that's so useful in revision.
