Almost Success - The "Mixed Feelings" Thread

[DaneCurley]

I didn't. Looking at my old emails, looks like they don't use one of those submission systems. You just email your story.

Appreciate knowing that. Feel less like my work is floating in limbo, now.

[chuckt]

Man! Got a "Didn't quite grab me" from F&FS along with a couple of tips on the story. Close but no cigar?

[RSchibler]

Man! Got a "Didn't quite grab me" from F&FS along with a couple of tips on the story. Close but no cigar?

I count those as wins.

[DaneCurley]

Man! Got a "Didn't quite grab me" from F&FS along with a couple of tips on the story. Close but no cigar?

Free Feedback from a Professional Editor = Good stuff!

[DaneCurley]

After 80 days, I heard back from GE:

"...We’re overflowing with submissions right now, and so I must be extra-picky. Your* writing is strong, but not quite up to the other pieces I’m passing... Wish I had better news. Good fortune on submitting to another market..."

Never made it to Mike's desk. On the bright side, nice to hear the rejection was due to a seasonal need to be "extra-picky." And I guess that keeps the submission alive as a "blind" submission to WotF!

[chuckt]

After 80 days, I heard back from GE:

"...We’re overflowing with submissions right now, and so I must be extra-picky. Your* writing is strong, but not quite up to the other pieces I’m passing... Wish I had better news. Good fortune on submitting to another market..."

Never made it to Mike's desk. On the bright side, nice to hear the rejection was due to a seasonal need to be "extra-picky." And I guess that keeps the submission alive as a "blind" submission to WotF!

Hey! Personal notes are great. On the right track. Good job.

[disgruntledpeony]

I got a Charlie from F&SF today.

[Thomas Woodward]

I just got the following rejection letter from F&SF on a previous HM of mine:

From: CC Finlay <notify@moksha.io>
Date: Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 1:37 PM
Subject: "[my Story Title]" / F&SF
To: Thomas C Woodward <[my email address]>


Dear Tom,

Thank you for giving me a chance to read "[my Story Title]." Unfortunately, this story didn't win me over for Fantasy & Science Fiction and I'm going to pass. But 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,

Charlie
--
C.C. Finlay, Editor
Fantasy & Science Fiction

fandsf.com | @fandsf


Can anyone confirm if this is a form or personal? (I checked the rejection wiki and it didn't quite fit any of the templates listed)

[Helge Mahrt]

I got a similar rejection for my HM today. I'd say these are personal :)
"
Dear Helge,

Thank you for giving me a chance to read "<story title>." I liked the quality of the prose and I liked the beginning of the story, but the narrative lost momentum for me and overall the story didn't quite grab me. I'm going to pass on this one for Fantasy & Science Fiction, but 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,

Charlie
"

[Helge Mahrt]

I read some more on this. Looks like Finlay uses 3 tiers of templates, according to this blog post: http://www.ccfinlay.com/blog/nectar-for-rejectomancers.html
Mine would be the lowest tier rejection and yours the highest.

[DaneCurley]

I just got the following rejection letter from F&SF on a previous HM of mine:

From: CC Finlay <notify@moksha.io>
Date: Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 1:37 PM
Subject: "[my Story Title]" / F&SF
To: Thomas C Woodward <[my email address]>


Dear Tom,

Thank you for giving me a chance to read "[my Story Title]." Unfortunately, this story didn't win me over for Fantasy & Science Fiction and I'm going to pass. But 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,

Charlie
--
C.C. Finlay, Editor
Fantasy & Science Fiction

fandsf.com | @fandsf


Can anyone confirm if this is a form or personal? (I checked the rejection wiki and it didn't quite fit any of the templates listed)

High tier Form, according to his blog.
I got one myself from him recently.

It seems the absence of criticism or comment in this form reply is meant as a compliment. As in, we didn't win HIM over, but he read it through, recognized it was high level writing, that there were no glaring problems, and that we should move onto the next editor who might really enjoy our work, unchanged.

Good luck with yours! Unfortunately, mine is super niche. I don't think anyone wants it. DM me for conversation about our stories and markets we can try for.

Dane

[Thomas Woodward]

I did some digging and found an interesting post on the subject on the absolutewrite forums:

https://absolutewrite.com/forums/archiv ... -p-33.html

*********************************
JJ Litke
07-23-2015, 07:23 PM
Here they are: https://twitter.com/ccfinlay/status/622077408154222593
https://twitter.com/ccfinlay/status/622077808525729792

He says: "Didn't grab me" - opening hook didn't grab me "Lost momentum" - middle didn't hold me
and
"Didn't win me over" - ending didn't work for me "Pieces didn't come together" - story didn't feel cohesive to me

I've gotten the "didn't win me over" one, and I started working on a new ending for that story.

Oh oh, and to get a direct link to a tweet, click on the time stamp for that tweet. I had to look it up some time ago when I was trying to do that, it's really not intuitive at all.

*****************************************

I sent my HM out to Clarkesworld (form R), Asimov's (form R), F&SF (form tier 3 template - see above post), and now sending to BCS.

this post, if true, is very helpful - this means I can work on my ending :)

[disgruntledpeony]

TFW you scroll back through old F&SF rejections and realize that half your stories have received Charlies, actually.

[chuckt]

TFW you scroll back through old F&SF rejections and realize that half your stories have received Charlies, actually.

He seems like a nice guy. I'm sure that takes a lot of time.

What does an acceptance note look like? I'm beginning to think I will never learn the answer from first-hand experience.

[disgruntledpeony]

TFW you scroll back through old F&SF rejections and realize that half your stories have received Charlies, actually.

He seems like a nice guy. I'm sure that takes a lot of time.

What does an acceptance note look like? I'm beginning to think I will never learn the answer from first-hand experience.

Couldn't tell you yet. Keep trying, though! Write what you care about, and sooner or later someone else will care too.

[Helge Mahrt]

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

[disgruntledpeony]

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

Second round of Clarkesworld is a good sign! Keep sending it out.

[czing]

Second round at Clarkesworld sounds pretty fantastic to me. I'm planning to try it out with my Q4 (unless of course it ends up being a winner :) )

[Wulf Moon]

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

Nice work, Helge. That's stiff competition! You are up against seasoned pro writers there.

Have you sent that story to WotF? Sorry, I haven't been following this thread.

Best,

Moon

[czing]

I had assumed that it got an honorable mention in the contest previously???? I think that would give me a lot of hope if HMs in the contest stood at least a chance of getting to second round with a big deal like Clarkesworld it'd change my whole outlook on how to proceed with HMs ;)

[disgruntledpeony]

I had assumed that it got an honorable mention in the contest previously???? I think that would give me a lot of hope if HMs in the contest stood at least a chance of getting to second round with a big deal like Clarkesworld it'd change my whole outlook on how to proceed with HMs ;)

How well stories do here isn't always a good bar to judge how they'll do elsewhere. Still haven't sold my F or SF, but my second sale was a revised version of an R.

[Helge Mahrt]

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

Nice work, Helge. That's stiff competition! You are up against seasoned pro writers there.

Have you sent that story to WotF? Sorry, I haven't been following this thread.

Best,

Moon

Thank! Yes, it's my Honorable Mention For now, I'll submit to WotF first and then to other markets. Until I win or pro out


Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! It's actually nice to get some perspective and "touch base", and not see every rejection as pure negative.

[Helge Mahrt]

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

[disgruntledpeony]

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

A lot of markets these days are seasonal, opening only once or twice a year or only being a one-time thing. I do weekly searches on the Grinder, just to be safe.

[Helge Mahrt]

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

A lot of markets these days are seasonal, opening only once or twice a year or only being a one-time thing. I do weekly searches on the Grinder, just to be safe.

Oh, thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of that

[disgruntledpeony]

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

A lot of markets these days are seasonal, opening only once or twice a year or only being a one-time thing. I do weekly searches on the Grinder, just to be safe.

Oh, thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of that

I discovered, on a random search, that Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores is only open four weeks a year. That's what started me doing weekly searches.

[czing]

Thinking about sitting and holding my breath. I have a story being held for consideration with an SFWA eligible market. Got one rejection from them and one hold. Eeek eeek eeeek. Exciting and lots of the mixed feelings. Hoping it will be selected, desperately trying to keep my feet realistically planted on the ground so that if it ends up being a rejection it doesn't burn too much. So now there will be time for me to be waffling back and forth between those states and every spot on the spectrum between them.

[Helge Mahrt]

I get that. Fingers crossed!!

[LDWriter2]

Thinking about sitting and holding my breath. I have a story being held for consideration with an SFWA eligible market. Got one rejection from them and one hold. Eeek eeek eeeek. Exciting and lots of the mixed feelings. Hoping it will be selected, desperately trying to keep my feet realistically planted on the ground so that if it ends up being a rejection it doesn't burn too much. So now there will be time for me to be waffling back and forth between those states and every spot on the spectrum between them.

More holding of one's breath?

[disgruntledpeony]

Just got an extremely detailed personal rejection from Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. We're talking almost 350 words.

On the one hand, they definitely read my story start to finish. On the other hand, a lot of the issues they had stemmed from wanting more depth on the world-building, and I don't want to tweak this story anymore unless I'm expanding it into a novel. This was my finalist piece, and it's basically been to all the other relevant pro markets anyway, so changing it at this point probably won't help anything.