In my year-end review I mentioned a piece that I marked on Duotrope as an “assumed rejection.” Being the person I am, I don’t like loose ends, such as stories I don’t hear back on. Before this group I am about to talk about, I had only two long-time stories, and they were LONG – one was 562 days, and one was 374. I never heard back on the first one and the second I finally got a rejection. I also had one that went 205 days, but with that magazine it was expected – plus it was a mail submission and a mail rejection which always takes longer. Other than those all of my responses have been under 90 days, with the exception of six that were between 100-139 days, and two that were in the 180′s (and those two I was kept up to date on when to expect an answer by.) So all of those I didn’t stress over.

But this year I had 3 stories go out and go over 200 days. One, the longest, I emailed inquiring if it was still under consideration, and received a quick reply letting me know it was. So, even though it is still going a long time, I’m not worried about it, as I know it isn’t lost.

The other two however, have me a wee bit irked, only because I don’t like marking assumed rejections, even when I feel they must be. Both I emailed over a month ago to inquire about, and neither responded. One I hadn’t received a conformation email for submitting, so at 200 days I reluctantly marked it AR. The other one I did receive a conformation email, but no response to the inquiry email. Tomorrow that one will be at 200 days as well, and I will probably mark it as an AR, but it irks me more than a rejection does. (I’m used to those.)

So this year so far, I have submitted two pieces, and already received a rejection for one. Go new year!

Last month I wrote about the “Slow Magazine,” and my letter to inquire whether or not my submission was still up for consideration. As their current Duotrope’s stats are 9 responses vs. 16 assumed rejections/withdrawals, I wasn’t really expecting a reply, I was simply wanting to give them a chance to reply if they still wanted to look at it, and to withdraw it from consideration if not.

But, to my surprise, this week I received my manuscript back. There was the form letter, and then a note which said:

“Our apologies for the wait. But, do note we have a simultaneous-submission-is-ok policy, and you could have sent the poem out elsewhere at anytime.”

Hummm. To be honest that hadn’t crossed my mind. Personally, and I KNOW this is a personal thing, I dislike doing simultaneous submissions. I feel like it is much easier to keep track of knowing what is where, most of my submissions are not out that long, and I don’t have to worry about anything crossing anywhere. Plus, a lot of markets dislike simultaneous submissions, and in general I like to keep my submission process the same. So, while the note isn’t going to change my submission strategy, it did make me stop and wonder if some magazines accept them because of they have long response times?

In any case, I also received a rejection from American Short Fiction. Time to get some of these stories back out on the road!

Ok, so not really. But this rejection I got, while short and to the point, was a big help.

Dear Val:

Thank you for submitting your story. We regret that we are unable to use “Your Story.”

This isn’t quite ready for The Kenyon Review. Watch out for overuse of the introductory participle. Sorry to disappoint, but thanks for thinking of us.

(Note: While I generally don’t put the name of the magazine in my rejection posts, I was tickled to get a semi-personal rejection with a helpful hint from such a big magazine so I couldn’t resist.)

One of the stories I submitted last year went to an online magazine, and let me tell you that was an up and down ride.

The first email I got was this:

We’re delighted to let you know that your story, “Short Story,” has just been accepted for its second step in our selection process. Each of our editors will evaluate your story and we’ll make a final decision as to whether or not we’ll be able to accept it for publication. This happens for less than 10% of our submissions.
…
You should hear back from us within one month.

Then a few weeks later…

Our editorial review of your truly lovely, delicate story, “Short Story,” has been completed. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to use your piece at this time.

Once again, though, we liked your work. Please be aware that only a small percentage of the stories submitted to us ever make it to the ‘second step’ stage where we’ve been considering your story, and only 52 can be published within the framework of our weekly schedule each year.

We genuinely look forward to seeing more of your work in the near future.

Wow, that was a let down, let me tell you, particularly since this particular editor really did seem to like the piece. Happily, it later was published in a different market

This one I found interesting, partially because it reminds me of “American Idol.” Maybe they could call it, “American Author.”

“Thank you for your submission to Our Magazine. We’ve decided it doesn’t work for us, however. Following are some of the editorial comments for your consideration. I hope you will consider us again in the future.

EDITOR 1: No. This is an intriguing scene, but without some knowledge of the characters involved, it’s hard to build suspense.

EDITOR 2: No. Too short and lacking enough details for the reader to care either way.

EDITOR 6: No. Who is she? What’s going on and how did she get into this predicament?

EDITOR 11: No. Not enough here.”

Good thing Simon wasn’t one of the editors.

“Dear Val:

Many thanks for sending “Your Story” my way. I found your story to be well-written with good description and believable dialog. You did a nice job slowly revealing what was going on, and building sympathy for our killer.

The only qualm I had with the writing was the use of “began” in the story. Began is a very passive word that can usually be eliminated from a story. If you think about it, you can only “begin” to do something for a nano second before you’re actually doing it. Why use “he began to shake” when you can write “he shook”. Unless something is going to stop him from shaking, the word has not point. Again, this is not a big issue, just something small to improve on.

I though that the conclusion of the tale was well done in that it was both horrific, yet poignant.

Unfortunately, I tend to shy away from accepting revenge pieces. Although your story is very well written, the main point of it is to show someone getting violent revenge on someone who wronged him. As a result, there was never any doubt in my mind how the story would end. I tend to receive a lot of these stories and, as much as I may enjoy them, they rarely offer anything original. You’re tale is by far one of the best of these types of stories I’ve read, but it really didn’t have any twists or turns. As a result, I’m going to pass.

The above comments represent only one person’s opinion; another editor may completely disagree. “Your Story” is a good story that I’m sure another market will appreciate.

Best of luck in all of your writing endeavors,

The Editor”

Now THIS was a nice rejection letter. Not only did he like it (even though he didn’t want to publish it) but he also offered some constructive criticism. (The only thing that really could have made it better would to have actually published it )

But I love them. Well, maybe not love, but close. I feel like every rejection letter I get is a letter closer to an acceptance. I have a stack of them, I don’t throw them away, perhaps because I feel like having them is a physical symbol that I “am a Writer” as it were. In this age of online submission, now most of my rejections are electronic, which means I don’t have that physical proof, but I still save every one of them. I have to say that my best rejection letter, or perhaps just my most memorable one, came from Glimmer Train, at least 7 years ago. At that time they were still doing submissions by mail, and they had a standard rejection letter, tri-folded, with three check boxes on the card. I believe they were , I don’t remember them all, I know there was one that was basically “no thanks,” ( I was like wooo, that one would suck) a second one I’m not sure what it was, it may have been we will be publishing this, and then a third one that went along the lines of “Thank you for sending this, we’re not going to publish this, but we liked it and would like to see more.” They checked that box, and underlined “like to see more” in dark pen. Coming from one of the top-tier literary magazines that was a huge boost to my ego. Glimmer Train** is one of the best paying, most well known, hardest to get into markets. And they wanted to see more of my work.

*sigh*

I felt like my daughter did when she got Corbin Blue’s (one of the hottest “tween” crushes) autograph by catching him at the back fence after a show. She was on air for days and laminated the fair ticket he signed. I felt like that. (Although, from my older, more cynical self this doesn’t count as a personal rejection exactly, but it was the most personal I had received up to that point!)

So far in the last twelve months I have submitted twenty-nine short stories. (Perhaps obviously, several have been out more than once.) Of those, I haven’t heard back on six, one was published (“Spring and Fall” in Khimairal Ink), and the other twenty-two obviously were rejected. However, of those, five were personal rejections, which means over twenty percent were personal. (Yes I am that much of a geek.) I’m not sure what the average is, but I do know that that’s not a bad average, considering some of the publications I submit to. (I tend to aim high, perhaps I shouldn’t but I do.)

I will post some of the personal rejection letters I’ve received over time, but there was one form letter I received that was so funny I have to post it here. It was from Postcards from Hell, and it went:

“Val,

We have subjected our victims to your story but they were not sufficiently traumatized. Your story has been consigned to the Lake of Fire. Thanks for trying Postcards from Hell. Have a nice day.

Minion

editor from hell”

How great is that??????