Words of the Barely-Published

Rejection letters suck.

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:24:01 GMT

There really is no other way to describe getting two of them for the same story three days apart, along with a third for another story altogether.

NOW where do I send these? Most of the places I'd've tried once upon a time don't seem to exist anymore.

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Err...

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:07:30 GMT

OK, I have no problems getting rejection letters, I really don't. (Ok, maybe little niggling ones, but authors do develop thick skins for a reason.)

That said, I got a form rejection letter back sent back to me in my S.A.S.E....along with a bonus sheet of paper requesting that I buy the magazine to help keep them afloat.

Yog's Law and common politeness do seem to be in agreement here, along with that whole "whiff of desperation." Alas, poor publishing industry.

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Ah, well, all is right with the universe...

Tue, 11 May 2010 00:24:53 GMT

...for I now have my rejection letter from F&SF for Easter Lillies and Imaginary Angels. It has been properly baptized as a piece of short fiction, and will now be sent to other, more likely markets.

But I had wondered...ah well. Someday.

In the mean time, I continue to struggle with the outline for Iron Debt, which is resiting with every last infected iota of Wandering Plotitis that it can muster. Stupid novel, don't you *want* to get finished? (Apparently not. But it will be anyway, one way or another.)

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Rejection: Trickster's Wish

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:34:10 GMT

I seem to be getting closer in terms of finding the correct sort of market for Trickster's Wish - it was apparently not entirely to editorial taste, but I was congratulated on writing a far-more original wish-granting story than the usual, and also on having it be well-written.

I know where I want to send it next, but they're shut for submissions until 2010, so in the mean time, I guess I'll just put it on the shelf and work on something else instead.

I'd rather Popinjay's Daughter or Easter Lilies and Imaginary Angels get published first, but the latter needs an attack with a red pen first, and in any event, I'm not sure how much choice I really have in the matter, short of not sending things out for attempted publication. :}

I got a suggestion on where to send Sufficiently Advanced Printing, so perhaps I'll try to get that out of the drawer this weekend.

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How I know I'm getting somewhere! (But not fast enough.)

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:26:28 GMT

My rejections are now coming from second tier editors.

Pardon me, on a day where I was not struggling with the Bronchial Crud Of The Abyss, I would be absolutely *delighted* to hear that I'd had a short story make it out of the slush pile and into the second-level editor's stack, but today...

...not today.

(For those who are curious, Popinjay's Daughter.)

Wordcount will resume when I stop sleeping 18 hours out of the day, and the $payingJob calms down. It might resume before then, but I do not count upon it.

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Aaaaaagh!! Yaybooargh.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:45:46 GMT

I got a rejection letter today from an agent for River's Wrath.

It was a *very* nice rejection letter, that boiled down to, "There are chunks of your manuscript that I really enjoyed, and chunks I didn't like so much, and I was torn...I'm very sorry I took so long dithering, good luck with your work, but I'm going to have to turn you down...this time. Please send me more of your stuff."

Ahem.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!!!!! Dammit! Thank you, Ms. Agent. You are now on my list of marvelous people, and you will see future work but, but...agh!

*sigh*

I'm really, really starting to think I should pull the manuscript back from Baen and ask BRAWL to crit it.

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Rejection: Trickster's Wish

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:15:00 GMT

Two rejections in three days. That's a bit closer together than I really want right now. Bother. I'm aware that the editors know their clients better than I do, but I'm now feeling moderately depressed about it.

Part of it is that the stuff that I like I can't seem to declare a "finish" on and send out, while the stuff that I don't care as much about goes out and collects rejections...which makes me think that maybe I shouldn't bother sending the good stuff around.

This is uselessly defeatist of me, and I'm aware of that, but it still sucks.

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Rejection...

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:15:54 GMT

Asimov's rejected "Sufficiently Advanced Printing" today.

I'm really not sure where to send this story now. It's a bit of a weird bug - very SF in feel, but with a bit too much magic to be a standard hard story. I think I'm just going to put it on the shelf for a bit and let it sit. Maybe I can find someplace worthwhile to send it later, but for now, I think it's just going to have to collect dust.

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Turnaround time: 14 hours

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:32:28 GMT

F&SF rejected "Trickster's Wish" yesterday - I don't think I'm ever going to get anywhere with them, but I keep trying...

...anyway, it went back out to a hopefully-more-receptive publisher this morning.

I've been trying to get somewhere with the first draft of "Easter Lilies" but it's just not wanting to play at all. I'm very grumpy about it. Almost grumpy enough to refuse to show it to BRAWL. :/

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Rejected!

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:53:03 GMT

There it is. Poot to you, F&SF! Time to send this someplace it might actually get accepted. Fly, my little story! Get publishers to like you! Ply them with strong drink if you have to! :)

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