Almost Success - The "Mixed Feelings" Thread

[LaurieG]

Just got my first personal, from F&SF.

Wow Jason!!! Congrats!

[Jason Parker]

Just got my first personal, from F&SF.

Wow Jason!!! Congrats!

Thanks! I'm pretty happy because I got some feedback i can actually use. Apparently I have some structural problems. That I can use.

The message:

Dear Jason,

Thank you for giving me a chance to read "-----------." Unfortunately, this story didn't quite win me over -- it felt more like the first chapter of something longer to me -- and I'm going to pass on it for F&SF. I wish you best of luck finding the right market for it and hope that you'll keep us in mind in the future.

Best regards,

C.C. Finlay, Editor
Fantasy & Science Fiction
fandsf.com | @fandsf

[disgruntledpeony]

C.C. Finlay seems to be good for personals, I've noticed.

[LaurieG]

OK, my next submission is going to F & SF!

[Jason Parker]

C.C. Finlay seems to be good for personals, I've noticed.

That's what she said.

[george nik.]

It's been a long time since I posted to this thread, but I feel that I must.

Editor's telling me that he enjoyed my story, it held his attention right up to the end, and he goes on to say that it was his favorite for the week.

He doesn't buy it, though.

(sigh)

Give me form acceptances, any time.

[disgruntledpeony]

It's been a long time since I posted to this thread, but I feel that I must.

Editor's telling me that he enjoyed my story, it held his attention right up to the end, and he goes on to say that it was his favorite for the week.

He doesn't buy it, though.

(sigh)

Give me form acceptances, any time.

That's... That's just rough.

[Ishmael]

That sounds like a hair's breadth, George. I know how you feel about so close and yet so far. However it's really better for one's self confidence than a form rejection, isn't it?

[amoskalik]

That sounds like a hair's breadth, George. I know how you feel about so close and yet so far. However it's really better for one's self confidence than a form rejection, isn't it?

It is. On the down side, this type of rejection usually comes months later than a form rejection which gives you more time to get your hopes up.

Still it's better than waiting months to find out they never got my submission in the first place because I failed to successfully fill out all the fields on the Submittable form (which happens more times than I'd like to admit).

[bobsandiego]

It's been a long time since I posted to this thread, but I feel that I must.

Editor's telling me that he enjoyed my story, it held his attention right up to the end, and he goes on to say that it was his favorite for the week.

He doesn't buy it, though.

(sigh)

Give me form acceptances, any time.

That's the sort of thing that drives a person to drink.
(just don't drive back -- that's not safe.)

[george nik.]

It's been a long time since I posted to this thread, but I feel that I must.

Editor's telling me that he enjoyed my story, it held his attention right up to the end, and he goes on to say that it was his favorite for the week.

He doesn't buy it, though.

(sigh)

Give me form acceptances, any time.

That's... That's just rough.

Thanks, peony! I needed that

[george nik.]

That sounds like a hair's breadth, George. I know how you feel about so close and yet so far. However it's really better for one's self confidence than a form rejection, isn't it?

I don't know, Philip, is it?

Form rejections annoy me. This... Well, it's cool in a way. In another way, it's just frustrating.

As I'm sure you know very well too, writers oscillate between extreme self confidence and utter self doubt. However, I'm extremely self confident by nature, and I've got enough sales lately to boost my ego even more. So I don't think I need any more proof that I am good enough... I just need acceptances!

[george nik.]

That sounds like a hair's breadth, George. I know how you feel about so close and yet so far. However it's really better for one's self confidence than a form rejection, isn't it?

It is. On the down side, this type of rejection usually comes months later than a form rejection which gives you more time to get your hopes up.

In fact this was a 5-day rejection. On the other hand, I've got 150-day forms. There are fast markets and there are slow... thankfully we've got the Grinder so we know what to expect.

Still it's better than waiting months to find out they never got my submission in the first place because I failed to successfully fill out all the fields on the Submittable form (which happens more times than I'd like to admit).

That sucks. I've waited for months on AE only to find out I accidentally sent them an attachment instead of pasting the story to the email... but well, I submit to >100 day markets when I'm desperate anyway so I didn't really mind that. I just submitted to them again. There are stories I really feel I must sell and there are stories I just want to send somewhere and forget about for a long time

[george nik.]

It's been a long time since I posted to this thread, but I feel that I must.

Editor's telling me that he enjoyed my story, it held his attention right up to the end, and he goes on to say that it was his favorite for the week.

He doesn't buy it, though.

(sigh)

Give me form acceptances, any time.

That's the sort of thing that drives a person to drink.
(just don't drive back -- that's not safe.)

[Randy Hulshizer]

Even though this is a "publication," I'm putting it here because it's not really a success. This little ditty made the top cut for both DSF and FFO, but was ultimately rejected. So, on it went to a sure thing, TFFP, grossing me a whopping $3.00.

Anyway, in case you're interested:

http://www.theflashfictionpress.org/2016/08/29/two-words/

[amoskalik]

Even though this is a "publication," I'm putting it here because it's not really a success. This little ditty made the top cut for both DSF and FFO, but was ultimately rejected. So, on it went to a sure thing, TFFP, grossing me a whopping $3.00.

Anyway, in case you're interested:

http://www.theflashfictionpress.org/2016/08/29/two-words/

Great story. A sales a sale. Congrats!

[Ishmael]

And a very neat piece too. Well done.

[Randy Hulshizer]

Thanks

[Imagination Vortex]

Ok either C.C. Finlay is some kind of power reading machine that plows through every story entry, or he must have really taken a liking to my work. I just got my second personal rejection from F&SF this month. I really hope this is a good sign, and he doesn't just read and critique all entries. Perhaps he's keeping an eye on me now, so I really have to step up my game!

[Randy Hulshizer]

I think I've finally graduated from the near 100% form rejection phase to the about 50% personal rejection phase. In the past three months or so, I've received seven personal rejections on various stories including a couple HMs from WotF. Many of the rejections have read something like this (sometimes with more specific suggestions):

"We really enjoyed reading this interesting piece. You should easily be able to get this published, but it's just not a fit for our publication."

I guess if I really want to sell stories I'll need to start "honing" them for particular markets instead of just writing what I want to write. Although something feels a little wrong with that.

[amoskalik]

I think I've finally graduated from the near 100% form rejection phase to the about 50% personal rejection phase. In the past three months or so, I've received seven personal rejections on various stories including a couple HMs from WotF. Many of the rejections have read something like this (sometimes with more specific suggestions):

"We really enjoyed reading this interesting piece. You should easily be able to get this published, but it's just not a fit for our publication."

I guess if I really want to sell stories I'll need to start "honing" them for particular markets instead of just writing what I want to write. Although something feels a little wrong with that.

It doesn't hurt to have a particular market in mind. That might raise the odds from say 2% to 5% or maybe even 10% but if that market doesn't take it you're still going to keep sending it out until it sells so why not write what you like?

[Ishmael]

For what it may be worth, my poetry submission just set the Grinder 12 month record for the longest time to a rejection by Rattle (157 days).

It was fairly crazy to submit Tyke poetry to a US publisher, I thought. Maybe not so silly after all since they do seem to have thought about it.

Essentially there appears to be no market in the UK for poetry that (The Horror!) usually both rhymes and scans.

I understand that some other US poetry outlets still do actually publish poetry, so if anyone knows another one, do please point me towards it.

[J'nae Rae]

It's been a long time since I posted to this thread, but I feel that I must.

Editor's telling me that he enjoyed my story, it held his attention right up to the end, and he goes on to say that it was his favorite for the week.

He doesn't buy it, though.

(sigh)

Give me form acceptances, any time.

Should see the one I got from Heroic Fantasy Quarterly earlier this year. They informed me that they held my story for publication and then decided not to!



Two tries later and my markets exhausted for it, it got a rewrite adding about 3000 words and is now a self-published novelette.

[Davian Aw]

Got a 140 day personal from Interzone. :P He said he liked a lot of things about the story, but ultimately couldn't convince himself it was right for the magazine, and asked that I send more. Prior to this all I ever got from Interzone were form rejections after 1-2 days, so it's at least an improvement! I'd had my hopes up, though.

[disgruntledpeony]

I got what was either a personal or a general 'This shows promise, please submit more' rejection from Lawless Lands. While the encouragement to submit to them again pleased me, I was hoping I'd actually make the cut.

Oh well. Back to submitting and writing!

[disgruntledpeony]

Got my first personal from IGMS today! The editor said he loved the idea but the protagonist seemed a bit bland, which means I'm going to look the story over and see if it needs more internal conflict. (He also said he didn't think one of the other characters seemed vicious enough, but I think that's open to interpretation because of the nature of said character and the wide variety of characterizations in the mythos he was inspired by. Also, I was trying to keep the story PG-13.)

[LDWriter2]

Got my first personal from IGMS today! The editor said he loved the idea but the protagonist seemed a bit bland, which means I'm going to look the story over and see if it needs more internal conflict. (He also said he didn't think one of the other characters seemed vicious enough, but I think that's open to interpretation because of the nature of said character and the wide variety of characterizations in the mythos he was inspired by. Also, I was trying to keep the story PG-13.)

Not too bad at least You seem to be getting close

[disgruntledpeony]

Got my first personal from IGMS today! The editor said he loved the idea but the protagonist seemed a bit bland, which means I'm going to look the story over and see if it needs more internal conflict. (He also said he didn't think one of the other characters seemed vicious enough, but I think that's open to interpretation because of the nature of said character and the wide variety of characterizations in the mythos he was inspired by. Also, I was trying to keep the story PG-13.)

Not too bad at least You seem to be getting close

Close, perhaps, but not there yet. I got another personal rejection on the same story, this one from Shimmer. They said that long stories are a hard sell for them right now and the story seemed slower-paced than the ones they usually buy.

...I really could only think of one scene that might be considered slower-paced, and it's necessary to the story.

[Ishmael]

Funnily enough I recently got a PR for a story being too fast-paced. I don't think this has ever happened to me before, though the reverse frequently has. Maybe I over-corrected.

In this case the entire action of the story takes under three hours so I'm going to need some effort if it's to be slowed down. Probably not worth it for the sake of one PR.

[disgruntledpeony]

Funnily enough I recently got a PR for a story being too fast-paced. I don't think this has ever happened to me before, though the reverse frequently has. Maybe I over-corrected.

In this case the entire action of the story takes under three hours so I'm going to need some effort if it's to be slowed down. Probably not worth it for the sake of one PR.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it unless you get that critique multiple times.