Rejection notices

[Baldwin]

I've started submitting short stories to various sites. This means I've also started collecting rejections. Most of them are a generic "does not meet our needs", but the latest one was more specific. It said, "This just didn't hold our attention." It's useful information, and maybe I'll rework that story into a more engaging form.

What do y'all think about rejection notices? Anybody get a memorable one?

[sistercoyote]

I don't have any particularly memorable ones. I just thought I'd recommend Duotrope as a way to track your acceptances and rejections. Also, it's a good way to find markets.

[pepperlandgirl]

What do y'all think about rejection notices? Anybody get a memorable one?

Last year, my partner and I submitted a novella in response to a specific call for submissions. It was quite a large epublisher--pretty much the biggest one and the one that reports the most sales. We received a rejection for it, which kind of sucked, but it didn't ruin our lives or anything. We revised it a bit and sent it to one of our regular publishers. Our editor there loved it, it was published last September, it's got regular sales, and it was nominated for a few awards.

Two months after it was released, we received this email from the first place we submitted it to.

One of our editors has reviewed your submission a second time and while they found the writing good and an interesting story line, they felt that this story is not right for us. And while I wish we could share with you some of the reasons for the rejection, I'm afraid we do not make this information readily accessable.

[Publisher] wishes you the best of luck with your future writing and in placing your manuscript elsewhere.

What the fuck? I often wonder if they regularly send out "Your story still sucks" notices, or if we were just lucky. It is, to this day, the weirdest rejection we have ever received. It also came on the heels of a genuine rejection--that week it felt like the world was beating up on us, and that was just the extra kick in the groin.

[maggenpye]

I got a reallly nice rejection from my first submission that specifically named three other publishers who should receive the manuscript (the rejection itself was that though they really liked it, they had too many of that genre).

All three other publishers rejected it out of hand.

Sigh.

It's getting a polish to bring it in line with its sequel, then out it goes again.

[Baldwin]

I don't have any particularly memorable ones. I just thought I'd recommend Duotrope as a way to track your acceptances and rejections. Also, it's a good way to find markets.

Thanks -- I should have included that link myself, because Duotrope is what led me to that particular market.

[tirial]

I've just had that. Wrote my first novel to the criteria an agent requested, completed it, and got a short note when I submitted what they had asked for saying that they weren't taking on new authors at this time. It's getting a polish and doing the rounds.

Anyone know anybody taking adventure stories at the moment?

[phouka]

One of our editors has reviewed your submission a second time and while they found the writing good and an interesting story line, they felt that this story is not right for us. And while I wish we could share with you some of the reasons for the rejection, I'm afraid we do not make this information readily accessable.

[Publisher] wishes you the best of luck with your future writing and in placing your manuscript elsewhere.

What the fuck? I often wonder if they regularly send out "Your story still sucks" notices, or if we were just lucky. It is, to this day, the weirdest rejection we have ever received. It also came on the heels of a genuine rejection--that week it felt like the world was beating up on us, and that was just the extra kick in the groin.

See, I read that one as sort of a "one of our editors was a butthead, so we double-checked your story. It was so much better than the butthead editor thought, but we can't use it, and I feel like an idjit. I hope you find a publisher that doesn't employ buttheads or idjits."

But then, I'm usually something of a "A glass? For ME? AND it has water in it? Woohoo!" person.

[pepperlandgirl]

I just feel like it was totally unnecessary. Even if it ended up on sort of "re-evaluate" queue, why let me know about it at all? A dozen editors could have a second look at it--unless one of them says let's buy it!, I don't really care. They might as well send me an email letting me know that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

[DeadlyAccurate]

I've started submitting short stories to various sites. This means I've also started collecting rejections. Most of them are a generic "does not meet our needs", but the latest one was more specific. It said, "This just didn't hold our attention." It's useful information, and maybe I'll rework that story into a more engaging form.

What do y'all think about rejection notices? Anybody get a memorable one?

Was that for F&SF magazine? If so, it's not specific. It's one of his form rejections.

[phouka]

. . . Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

What?! When did this happen?

[Baldwin]

I've started submitting short stories to various sites. This means I've also started collecting rejections. Most of them are a generic "does not meet our needs", but the latest one was more specific. It said, "This just didn't hold our attention." It's useful information, and maybe I'll rework that story into a more engaging form.

What do y'all think about rejection notices? Anybody get a memorable one?

Was that for F&SF magazine? If so, it's not specific. It's one of his form rejections.

No, it was a website, http://www.towndrunkmag.com. I guess it might be a form rejection; still, at least it provides some indication of what's lacking.

I don't know if I'll change the story, though; I like it the way it is.

[jarbabyj]

My favorite bad rejection letter was "I'm sorry, but you've caught me at a terrible time as i've just had a nervous breakdown and will be leaving the business." OK!

But I also have one in my scrapbook that was a form letter rejection but with a note written on the back that said "You truly have a gift for writing and your story is beautiful and engaging, but I am not the correct market to sell it. I wish you luck in the future."

So I had that going for me

[Zuul]

The book Rotten Rejections, edited by André Bernard, is a good one for comforting anyone who's received a rejection letter. Or so I've been told.

To this day, I have never had anything printed by a publication that didn't already employ me. Working as an editor has actually made me more terrified of submitting stuff. If I'm hired on to write a series of articles, awesome, I can handle that, but just submitting something I wrote? It's like birthing a child and then offering it to strangers to possibly beat. Gah.

I am a pathetically anxious person who can't be allowed to drink coffee, though.

[Baldwin]

Interesting; I opened an e-mail today expecting another rejection, but it was an acceptance. However, it's to a non-paying seasonal webzine, and looking at their site, I think maybe they've never rejected anything. So I don't know if it's appropriate to feel happy.

[pepperlandgirl]

Last week, my editor emailed me and said, "It's been fun, but I'm passing you off to another editor. She's excited about working with you. I'm including an email from her." That email said, "I'm excited about working with you! Your book isn't appropriate for publication. Sorry." Then about 4 days later, I got another email from new!Editor. "I'm really excited that we'll be working together! Your solo title is flat, and I don't like it. At all. But don't let that discourage you!"

Yeah, whatever.

[Walpurgis]

I've been sending out my poetry collection to various publishers* since September, and had up until recently been getting the standard copy-pasted "Thank you for sending this in, but it's not for us". The worst one was "Thank you, but we don't believe in your poetry collection". :dub: No further explanation.

Then I suddenly got a two page-long rejection letter. The editor loved the style, he loved the setting, but he felt it needed fleshing out and re-writing. That's fine. What's interesting is that he had a completely different view on what the text was actually about, which lead to hilarious conclusions about my intentions. Never mind the fact that I'd sent the text in together with an introduction. Or that the title is an obvious reference to the theme. I also got wonderful similes such as "It is exhilarating, frightening and stylish - like a really good drink".

*I'm in Sweden, where normal procedure is to send unsolicited scripts. We don't have agents. I wish we did.

[maggenpye]

Isn't it obvious? He wants a really good drink.

Or maybe he's had a really good drink.

Or he's had a crap drink and wishes it was a really good drink.

Or he's full of crap and you should have a drink.

[Walpurgis]

Isn't it obvious? He wants a really good drink.

Or maybe he's had a really good drink.

Or he's had a crap drink and wishes it was a really good drink.

Or he's full of crap and you should have a drink.

It makes more sense now, thanks.

[tirial]

Just got a rejection on the novel. The editor liked it, the test reader liked it, and then their buyer came back and said they didn't have a market for it.

Figures. I'l try another market, I suppose.

[TV time]

When I was first starting out as a writer, my rejection note pile seemed to be far taller than my manuscript pile. I was at what felt like my lowest ebb as a writer when I received another, but this one had a nice note apparently from a secretary who had read it, and she made some suggestions about a character and about cutting my exposition and increasing my dialogue and even suggested an upcoming competition for another magazine (IF).

I made the changes she suggested and sent it in and it got published. It didn't win, but it got publishsed later and I got paid. I picked up an agent because of that and for a number of years was doing tolerably well. I am now in journalism, not fiction (well according to some of the readers it is still fiction), but a great deal of what success I have had in writing came from a scribbled note from that secretary. I was at that frustration level where I might well have chucked it all. We never met but talked a number of times on the phone when her magazine started publishing my stuff. I would thank her everytime we talked. She would ask me not to tell anyone about the note, but since she has since retired and passed away, I felt I could mention it.