Behind the Scenes
Worst Acceptance Ever
A friend just forwarded me an acceptance letter he received from a pretty great journal. He had submitted to them a long while ago. It was clear, though, that the letter was meant for someone else. I think that would make for a gut welt.
I can see how publishers could make a mistake like this, and I’m not posting it here to be a jerk. One time I meant to forward a submission to a reading editor, but actually replied to the author. Luckily, my note just said something like, “This seems great. What do you think?”
Here’s the wayward acceptance, if you’re interested:
From: XXXDate: April 11, 2010 11:57:42 PM EDTTo: XXXCc: XXXSubject: FW: From the desk of…ASAPXXX!Hey, I know we’ve had your story for ages, hope you hadn’t given up on
us….but I’m very, very happy to report good news. See tom’s note below.
(He is cc’d).Let us know what you think, and hope all is very well with you.
OOO
—— Forwarded Message
From: XXX
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:41:05 -0500
To: XXX
Conversation: From the desk of…ASAP
Subject: From the desk of…ASAPOOO,
Please forward to XXX ASAP (I sound like a character in his story).
XXX:
What a fantastic story! Wow. OOO had to prod me to read it. I got stalled
the first couple of tries. Not sure if this is me or the story. With this in
mind may I suggest that the first long quote be just that, one long quote.
Then in the next graph you can explain it is HBG, you are a kid in an
auditorium… Etc.The last lines of the story are fantastic. These voices, the world of black
and white movies from the forties, inflected to slightly trashy eighties
Florida. Amazing. And I would publish the story for this line alone:“They’ll tear it down. They do that here, to people and things. They let
everyone and everything fall apart, then draw the curtain.”The place where the story could improve is the middle scene. (in new
Orleans!).You relate it with this reportorial objectivity. This is a kid, sort of. He
is exposed to this rather lewd pick up line. And I think the story needs a
beat to locate the kid’s reaction. As it is I have no sense if he is
thinking, “oh this again,” or, “oh my god I am scandalized and freaked out.’
or if he is stunned. Or if he is curious. Or if he usually goes to the room
but for whatever reason not this time.You could do it in a line or a page. It’s kind of a rich pivotal moment. It
needs something.Otherwise, wow and congrats. Get to work on this right away please we are
going to press next week. Money and fame await, or at least a cheeseburger.ZZZ
—— End of Forwarded Message
What do you think of the editorial suggestions? Could you apply them to a story you’ve written? And let’s revisit the old, “What’s your weirdest response from an editor?” question.
Tags: acceptance letters, email snafus
i would love love love it if an editor responded to a submission of mine with: this seems great. what do you think?
i would love love love it if an editor responded to a submission of mine with: this seems great. what do you think?
Weirdest non-Lee Klein response:
“Thank you for submitting “OOO” to XXX XXX, but we’ve decided not to accept it for publication. I like the central concept quite a bit, and it’s nice to see people banding together to protect gays at the end. However, it felt to me like it took to long to get the end, losing focus along the way”–
I have zero idea what he was referring to–
Weirdest non-Lee Klein response:
“Thank you for submitting “OOO” to XXX XXX, but we’ve decided not to accept it for publication. I like the central concept quite a bit, and it’s nice to see people banding together to protect gays at the end. However, it felt to me like it took to long to get the end, losing focus along the way”–
I have zero idea what he was referring to–
“Thank you for sending your novella to New Directions. What a great concept! We want you to know that every editor in the house read it with great interest. Unfortunately, our publishing schedule is booked though 2011.
Here’s hoping your manuscript finds a good home.
Best,
XXX”
it never did.
I guess that isn’t weird, so much as soul-crushingly sad.
“Thank you for sending your novella to New Directions. What a great concept! We want you to know that every editor in the house read it with great interest. Unfortunately, our publishing schedule is booked though 2011.
Here’s hoping your manuscript finds a good home.
Best,
XXX”
it never did.
I guess that isn’t weird, so much as soul-crushingly sad.
“Your story made our editor laugh. We are going to pass.”
“Your story made our editor laugh. We are going to pass.”
Editor: Are these still unpublished?
Me: Yes. Are you interested in some of them?
Editor: Yes. A few of them, I’ll let you know which after the new year.
Me: Ok.
After the new year editor: Dear Author, rejections are blah blah blah blah thank you for your interest and etc.
Editor: Are these still unpublished?
Me: Yes. Are you interested in some of them?
Editor: Yes. A few of them, I’ll let you know which after the new year.
Me: Ok.
After the new year editor: Dear Author, rejections are blah blah blah blah thank you for your interest and etc.
I’m going to challenge you on your premise, that this is a “pretty great journal.” Misdirected correspondence aside, who tells someone to re-write a story in a week–especially on the basis of “edits” as vague as these are? (“you could do it in a line or a page” … “it needs something”) I don’t think I’d be any less pissed off if I’d gotten this letter and it WAS intended for me. On the strength of this acceptance, I’d be seriously considering withdrawing the story.
i guess, i was informed “which” which happened to be zero, as claims of publication were never actually made. but still, the personal interaction followed by form seemed a poor choice.
I’m going to challenge you on your premise, that this is a “pretty great journal.” Misdirected correspondence aside, who tells someone to re-write a story in a week–especially on the basis of “edits” as vague as these are? (“you could do it in a line or a page” … “it needs something”) I don’t think I’d be any less pissed off if I’d gotten this letter and it WAS intended for me. On the strength of this acceptance, I’d be seriously considering withdrawing the story.
i guess, i was informed “which” which happened to be zero, as claims of publication were never actually made. but still, the personal interaction followed by form seemed a poor choice.
I’m glad you mentioned that. I thought it was ridiculous too.
I’m glad you mentioned that. I thought it was ridiculous too.
Weirdest, and I assume shared, rejection experience: I was a finalist for a contest at a magazine who had a very famous and personal hero of mine as a judge. “Who cares if it wins!” I said to anyone who would listen, “Very Famous and Personal Hero of mine is going to READ MY STORY.” Needless to say, the story did not win and the judge’s blurb for the story that did win stated, in almost as many words, that when the Very Famous and Personal Hero of mine was given the packet of finalist stories, including my poor little bastard, she read them and immediately asked for other options. Ouch.
Weirdest, and I assume shared, rejection experience: I was a finalist for a contest at a magazine who had a very famous and personal hero of mine as a judge. “Who cares if it wins!” I said to anyone who would listen, “Very Famous and Personal Hero of mine is going to READ MY STORY.” Needless to say, the story did not win and the judge’s blurb for the story that did win stated, in almost as many words, that when the Very Famous and Personal Hero of mine was given the packet of finalist stories, including my poor little bastard, she read them and immediately asked for other options. Ouch.
Oh man, that’s harsh.
These are all harsh.
Oh man, that’s harsh.
These are all harsh.
I once had a rejection where the editor mentioned disliking the implication that telepathy created sociopathy. The characters were not telekinetic.
I once had a rejection where the editor mentioned disliking the implication that telepathy created sociopathy. The characters were not telekinetic.
My first acceptance had a bonus…the sr. editor at the journal intended to forward the document containing the complete reader responses to my story the jr. editor who had been assigned to edit the story with me. Instead, all that internal, their-eyes-only goodness came to me.
As such, I got to be in “the room” for all the good and bad things said about the story. Great experience, everyone should have it. I was lucky.
My first acceptance had a bonus…the sr. editor at the journal intended to forward the document containing the complete reader responses to my story the jr. editor who had been assigned to edit the story with me. Instead, all that internal, their-eyes-only goodness came to me.
As such, I got to be in “the room” for all the good and bad things said about the story. Great experience, everyone should have it. I was lucky.
“to my story TO the jr. editor”… sorry
“to my story TO the jr. editor”… sorry
Verbatim.
Verbatim.
“Please forward to XXX ASAP (I sound like a character in his story).”
What editor (named Tom) and which magazine (with at least two editors) would want a story with a character that sounds like that? That could be any non-distinct character.
“Please forward to XXX ASAP (I sound like a character in his story).”
What editor (named Tom) and which magazine (with at least two editors) would want a story with a character that sounds like that? That could be any non-distinct character.
I think my worst rejection letter was not the letter itself, but the speed of the rejection. It was a pretty big name literary journal–the kind the normally take about six months to respond–but this particular rejection came forty-five minutes after I submitted the story. And it was a form rejection. I normally take rejection in stride, but that one was pretty crushing.
I think my worst rejection letter was not the letter itself, but the speed of the rejection. It was a pretty big name literary journal–the kind the normally take about six months to respond–but this particular rejection came forty-five minutes after I submitted the story. And it was a form rejection. I normally take rejection in stride, but that one was pretty crushing.
Oh, man. Was it supposed to be funny?
Oh, man. Was it supposed to be funny?
i think it could be construed that way…but i sort of had to sit there and read that message a few times before it made sense to me. like one of those optical illusions that either looks like two faces or a vase.
i think it could be construed that way…but i sort of had to sit there and read that message a few times before it made sense to me. like one of those optical illusions that either looks like two faces or a vase.
Band together; protect the gays.
Band together; protect the gays.
Well as long as we are talking about this stuff, the worst acceptance I’ve had was with a journal that will go nameless although people would recognize. I submitted to this themed print issue the journal was doing and got accepted with a mass email to all accepted people. Sent in my bio, asked for a bio rewrite, sent that, done.
Then I never heard anything for quite literally 2 years and 4 months. Every few months I’d check the website to see if the issue was coming out and then these years later it was up for pre-order, but my name was missing. So I sent a very nice email checking up and was given a pretty apologetic email
“It’s still one of my favorite XXXX pieces, but when the XXXX issue became the YYYY XXXX issue, well, it just didn’t fit anymore. If you want to try and submit it somewhere else, I completely understand. Or if you’d let us publish it on our website, you’d make me tremendously grateful.”
So I was like, that’s cool, you can publish it online, and gave them a new bio.
Never heard anything back.
I guess for all I know they published it on the website 2 years later and never told me though.
Well as long as we are talking about this stuff, the worst acceptance I’ve had was with a journal that will go nameless although people would recognize. I submitted to this themed print issue the journal was doing and got accepted with a mass email to all accepted people. Sent in my bio, asked for a bio rewrite, sent that, done.
Then I never heard anything for quite literally 2 years and 4 months. Every few months I’d check the website to see if the issue was coming out and then these years later it was up for pre-order, but my name was missing. So I sent a very nice email checking up and was given a pretty apologetic email
“It’s still one of my favorite XXXX pieces, but when the XXXX issue became the YYYY XXXX issue, well, it just didn’t fit anymore. If you want to try and submit it somewhere else, I completely understand. Or if you’d let us publish it on our website, you’d make me tremendously grateful.”
So I was like, that’s cool, you can publish it online, and gave them a new bio.
Never heard anything back.
I guess for all I know they published it on the website 2 years later and never told me though.
I had one like that where editor X said, “Love the bears and Nazis thing, but overall just didn’t work for me. Maybe needs more humor?”
Let me just say that there were no bears and no Nazis anywhere in this very short story.
Interzone forwarded me all of the editor discussion of a story I sent. They ended up rejecting it, but I was proud that the thing actually seemed to cause some heated argument. Two people loved and fought for my story. Three hated it.
Interzone forwarded me all of the editor discussion of a story I sent. They ended up rejecting it, but I was proud that the thing actually seemed to cause some heated argument. Two people loved and fought for my story. Three hated it.
Oops, I missed one.
Oops, I missed one.
My story *did* end with a panicked mob trying to smother a guy in Jackson Square. Real feel-good and all that.
My story *did* end with a panicked mob trying to smother a guy in Jackson Square. Real feel-good and all that.
I recently had a young writer inform me that it was not permissible to provide feedback on submissions unless I was accepting the work in question so there’s that, too.
I recently had a young writer inform me that it was not permissible to provide feedback on submissions unless I was accepting the work in question so there’s that, too.
Had a similar situation in which Very Famous and Personal Hero was given a story of mine and even told the editors to give it Second Place, but since no one at XXX XXX reads their email, they didn’t realize it’d been withdrawn after someone at YYY YYY journal (who was neither Very Famous nor a Personal Hero) accepted it. Thus, no dice.
Had a similar situation in which Very Famous and Personal Hero was given a story of mine and even told the editors to give it Second Place, but since no one at XXX XXX reads their email, they didn’t realize it’d been withdrawn after someone at YYY YYY journal (who was neither Very Famous nor a Personal Hero) accepted it. Thus, no dice.
Once got an acceptance from a journal in the form of a printed issue of the journal arriving in the mail about 16 months after initial submission. My name was spelt wrong two different ways. Assumedly, they used one of those misspellings before “@gmail.com” to email me.
acceptance by way of a rejection of my attempt to withdraw.
That’s just so special.
I don’t know, I think people tend to read into response times to much. Most times, someone is going to spend the same 1-10 minutes on your submission (whether it takes 45 minutes or 2 years). Obviously there are the close calls that get agonized over and the submissions that get passed around between people for second opinions. But most long waits have nothing to do with that.
Hearing back in an hour probably just meant you had great timing.
on deeper reflection, it occurs to me that if the *intended* recipient of the misdirected email was someone that the journal works with often, and perhaps that the email-writer knows personally, then it might explain a hell of a lot. Editors and writers who work together often develop a rapport (obviously) and so what might seem like slack feedback might just be a case of two people who know each other well enough to know what they’re talking about. i mean the tone of the whole thing is so casual- these people call one another by their first names, joke about fame and fortune, etc. I mean in the course of editing, say, the Agriculture Reader, Jeremy and I deal with people who are good friends, people we don’t know but are soliciting, and people we’ve never met before who come in through the slush pile. My emails with Joshua Cohen about the de Casseres selections he edited for us don’t read very much like my exchange’s with Douglas Crase’s (wonderful) agents, re permission to reprint “The Revisionist.” Just sayin’.
Here is my weirdest ACCEPTANCE story, and it was as an editor. Our journal had a small contest and almost all the entries were terrible. I picked the best of the batch and cringingly contacted the author re: the publication and $500 prize. As weeks passed quiet I took to late-night Googling of her name and inquisitive emails to people who I thought might be here. She never got back to us for the prize/to okay our publication of her piece.
I had the exact same thing happen to me–twice. A small print journal that I had submitted to sent me an acceptance, only it was for a story called “Scars.” It’s a cool name for a story,but I hadn’t written a story with that title. The name it was addressed to wasn’t mine either. I found the person to whom the email should have gone (you can find anything on the web), and forwarded the acceptance to her. She was very gracious. I also sent a letter to the editor explaining that I was not X. He acknowledged the error, but kept sending me correspondence related to her acceptance. I had to email him again to straighten it out. This happened about a year and a half ago. In Jan. of this year I got another acceptance from that journal, to which I had not subsequently submitted. But, alas, it was X who had had another piece accepted…Ouch!
On a different topic, am I the only one who gets rejections (and occasionally acceptances), for pieces that I have already informed the editors have been accepted elsewhere and are no longer for consideration? I had a poem accepted by three places after I had several months earlier informed those editors by email that it was no longer available for consideration (two of the three were small, MFA-connected journals). Does this happen a lot?
I got this same reply from New Directions. No joke. Now that is weird.
I had one like that where editor X said, “Love the bears and Nazis thing, but overall just didn’t work for me. Maybe needs more humor?”
Let me just say that there were no bears and no Nazis anywhere in this very short story.
Mine was a couple of years ago though, so don’t remember what their “booked through” date was. But otherwise it was pretty much word for word the same thing.
Weird rejects:
Conjunctions editor: I loved it and got in arguments with everyone about it, but couldn’t convince them. I’m really sorry!
Some anthology: It is like Hemmingway on speed. I’ll pass.
Some journal: You are trying to disguise an essay as a story. No thanks.
Another journal: We will not be publishing this.
And another journal: We won’t be publishing this and here’s why: Followed by literally 1,000 words of critique for a 500 or 600 word story.
I have heard that it’s a queue thing. If you email them your submission and then later email them your withdrawal, it is likely they will read your submission and make a decision on it before they ever see your withdrawal email. I don’t know if a submission manager resolves this issue, but I assume it does.
Ignore the rules.
Trey, that’s absolutely what happens. Often times, the e-mailed withdrawals just slip through the cracks. WIth poetry and multiple short short fiction submissions, the submission manager doesn’t even help because you can’t use the system to do a partial withdrawal. I admit we’ve rejected withdrawn work before, but it was never ever malicious in intent.
Dear XXX, How about less jizz-lobbing and more dialogue?
a guy who used to sell me smokes at a smoke shot once told me he received this rejection. he was stubborn but this time admitted that it might actually be good advice.
so lame
really? i think it’s very helpful and it’s generous. keep doing it, roxane!
that’s interesting. i recently had a print journal accept a story that i had withdrawn almost exactly one year before. i was bummed because i really like this journal, but when i emailed the editor to tell him about the snafu, he never even wrote back. i’ve read at two magazines. i know it’s hard to keep track of all the subs and withdrawals, so i sympathize, but not emailing back even a simple “ok” is just lame.
If that were the case, then why did one editor (the one in charge, seemingly, who is making the suggestions) forward it to another editor (the lesser editor) to send it to the writer.
Once got an acceptance from a journal in the form of a printed issue of the journal arriving in the mail about 16 months after initial submission. My name was spelt wrong two different ways. Assumedly, they used one of those misspellings before “@gmail.com” to email me.
that conjunctions one is awesome
I just got one like that recently. so annoying (to be close but not quite make it I mean)
i dont find that aspect annoying at all. i think thats awesome to have an editor love it and argue for it regardless of whether it gets published.
Can’t something be awesome and annoying at the same time? Or perhaps frustrating is the better word.
sometimes i think of myself as awesome and annoying. ;)
acceptance by way of a rejection of my attempt to withdraw.
That’s just so special.
I was not unhappy about the rejection at all.
It was nice that the lady answered me like a real person.
And I can see why they were arguing.
The story was a stream-of-consciousness piece about a woman fascinted with urnination.
She felt passionate about it, others didn’t.
It was nice imagining the arguments!
I don’t know, I think people tend to read into response times to much. Most times, someone is going to spend the same 1-10 minutes on your submission (whether it takes 45 minutes or 2 years). Obviously there are the close calls that get agonized over and the submissions that get passed around between people for second opinions. But most long waits have nothing to do with that.
Hearing back in an hour probably just meant you had great timing.
Just knowing that you generated some heat rocks
on deeper reflection, it occurs to me that if the *intended* recipient of the misdirected email was someone that the journal works with often, and perhaps that the email-writer knows personally, then it might explain a hell of a lot. Editors and writers who work together often develop a rapport (obviously) and so what might seem like slack feedback might just be a case of two people who know each other well enough to know what they’re talking about. i mean the tone of the whole thing is so casual- these people call one another by their first names, joke about fame and fortune, etc. I mean in the course of editing, say, the Agriculture Reader, Jeremy and I deal with people who are good friends, people we don’t know but are soliciting, and people we’ve never met before who come in through the slush pile. My emails with Joshua Cohen about the de Casseres selections he edited for us don’t read very much like my exchange’s with Douglas Crase’s (wonderful) agents, re permission to reprint “The Revisionist.” Just sayin’.
must be a form letter
Here is my weirdest ACCEPTANCE story, and it was as an editor. Our journal had a small contest and almost all the entries were terrible. I picked the best of the batch and cringingly contacted the author re: the publication and $500 prize. As weeks passed quiet I took to late-night Googling of her name and inquisitive emails to people who I thought might be here. She never got back to us for the prize/to okay our publication of her piece.
I had the exact same thing happen to me–twice. A small print journal that I had submitted to sent me an acceptance, only it was for a story called “Scars.” It’s a cool name for a story,but I hadn’t written a story with that title. The name it was addressed to wasn’t mine either. I found the person to whom the email should have gone (you can find anything on the web), and forwarded the acceptance to her. She was very gracious. I also sent a letter to the editor explaining that I was not X. He acknowledged the error, but kept sending me correspondence related to her acceptance. I had to email him again to straighten it out. This happened about a year and a half ago. In Jan. of this year I got another acceptance from that journal, to which I had not subsequently submitted. But, alas, it was X who had had another piece accepted…Ouch!
On a different topic, am I the only one who gets rejections (and occasionally acceptances), for pieces that I have already informed the editors have been accepted elsewhere and are no longer for consideration? I had a poem accepted by three places after I had several months earlier informed those editors by email that it was no longer available for consideration (two of the three were small, MFA-connected journals). Does this happen a lot?
I got this same reply from New Directions. No joke. Now that is weird.
Mine was a couple of years ago though, so don’t remember what their “booked through” date was. But otherwise it was pretty much word for word the same thing.
Weird rejects:
Conjunctions editor: I loved it and got in arguments with everyone about it, but couldn’t convince them. I’m really sorry!
Some anthology: It is like Hemmingway on speed. I’ll pass.
Some journal: You are trying to disguise an essay as a story. No thanks.
Another journal: We will not be publishing this.
And another journal: We won’t be publishing this and here’s why: Followed by literally 1,000 words of critique for a 500 or 600 word story.
I have heard that it’s a queue thing. If you email them your submission and then later email them your withdrawal, it is likely they will read your submission and make a decision on it before they ever see your withdrawal email. I don’t know if a submission manager resolves this issue, but I assume it does.
Ignore the rules.
Trey, that’s absolutely what happens. Often times, the e-mailed withdrawals just slip through the cracks. WIth poetry and multiple short short fiction submissions, the submission manager doesn’t even help because you can’t use the system to do a partial withdrawal. I admit we’ve rejected withdrawn work before, but it was never ever malicious in intent.
Dear XXX, How about less jizz-lobbing and more dialogue?
a guy who used to sell me smokes at a smoke shot once told me he received this rejection. he was stubborn but this time admitted that it might actually be good advice.
so lame
really? i think it’s very helpful and it’s generous. keep doing it, roxane!
that’s interesting. i recently had a print journal accept a story that i had withdrawn almost exactly one year before. i was bummed because i really like this journal, but when i emailed the editor to tell him about the snafu, he never even wrote back. i’ve read at two magazines. i know it’s hard to keep track of all the subs and withdrawals, so i sympathize, but not emailing back even a simple “ok” is just lame.
A weird reject: Dave Eggers phoning me up to say “his people” like my story for McSweeneys, but I spell my name funny and he’ll only accept the story if he’s allowed to make fun of my name. And then, one month later, changing his mind and telling me that I’m a snotty punk with no respect.
If that were the case, then why did one editor (the one in charge, seemingly, who is making the suggestions) forward it to another editor (the lesser editor) to send it to the writer.
woah
that conjunctions one is awesome
I just got one like that recently. so annoying (to be close but not quite make it I mean)
i dont find that aspect annoying at all. i think thats awesome to have an editor love it and argue for it regardless of whether it gets published.
Can’t something be awesome and annoying at the same time? Or perhaps frustrating is the better word.
sometimes i think of myself as awesome and annoying. ;)
I was not unhappy about the rejection at all.
It was nice that the lady answered me like a real person.
And I can see why they were arguing.
The story was a stream-of-consciousness piece about a woman fascinted with urnination.
She felt passionate about it, others didn’t.
It was nice imagining the arguments!
Just knowing that you generated some heat rocks
must be a form letter
I got this a few days ago.
I’m gonna pass on these. I checked out your blog and saw much, much better work there, work i would be happy to accept. These three just seem kind of like, I dunno, throwaways. I’d love to read more of your quality work. By the way, the one about the gay checkout guy was close, but I just couldn’t see the point. Sorry. But, like I said, you obviously have talent, so please submit in the future with something a little stronger.
My weirdest rejection yet is the time Opium had one of my stories marked as “recommended for acceptance” and then held onto it without communication for over a year, and when I tried contacting them to see what was up, they ignored me. I mean, they still technically have it, but that’s essentially a rejection, right? If they hold onto it for more than a year without any communication? I’m calling it one.
(If you are reading this, guys, maybe send me the official rejection letter, this is a sucky way to treat someone’s work.)
A weird reject: Dave Eggers phoning me up to say “his people” like my story for McSweeneys, but I spell my name funny and he’ll only accept the story if he’s allowed to make fun of my name. And then, one month later, changing his mind and telling me that I’m a snotty punk with no respect.
woah
Yeah, sometimes I just happen to read a story right after it comes in and make a decision about it then. Doesn’t get any less/more attention.
Sometimes I do wait a day for the rejection because I know it freaks some people out. One time I got a rejection within like five minutes of sending the e-mail. I guess that was kind of harsh.
My weirdest experience was something, which I even cannot explain till now, whether it’s a subliminal rejection or meta-polite acceptance:
I sent my manuscripts to one magazine, there appreciated and said, it fit very good to their journal. So I opened bright-hearted the published magazine, and… there weren’t my texts in. I called them again (I know, I was lame calling them), but they apologized, saying, “Sorry, we had accidentally deleted your textes, so we couldn’t publish it. Resend them please, and we will place them in our next issue”.
So I resent them, and… in the new issue I wasn’t in. I asked them again (lame again), and they explained it like “Sorry, we’ve got your textes, and they were cool, but unfortunately we’ve just forgot to include them in our new issue. But you will in the next, for sure”.
So I’m waiting now, and I even cannot understand, whether they are afraid of unpublishing me, so they don’t reject it, or… What else?.. I’m not sort of writers hiring killers for rejections. Don’t be afraid to say “no”.
It was a German magazin, for reference.
Sounds like an experience I had with an anthology.
They bought a story. Asked me to change it.
I changed it.
They paid me.
Sent hype about publication.
Day before release said their copy editor had read it
and decided it was unpublishable as it stood.
I did still have my money.
Their anthology never did get good publicity.
Good communication is the mark of a good publisher/editor.
Yes. Which really sucks, because my reaction was just like yours:
“So close!”
I mean, it makes us feel good. And maybe it is a form letter for people who really are close!
I got this a few days ago.
I’m gonna pass on these. I checked out your blog and saw much, much better work there, work i would be happy to accept. These three just seem kind of like, I dunno, throwaways. I’d love to read more of your quality work. By the way, the one about the gay checkout guy was close, but I just couldn’t see the point. Sorry. But, like I said, you obviously have talent, so please submit in the future with something a little stronger.
My weirdest rejection yet is the time Opium had one of my stories marked as “recommended for acceptance” and then held onto it without communication for over a year, and when I tried contacting them to see what was up, they ignored me. I mean, they still technically have it, but that’s essentially a rejection, right? If they hold onto it for more than a year without any communication? I’m calling it one.
(If you are reading this, guys, maybe send me the official rejection letter, this is a sucky way to treat someone’s work.)
Yeah, sometimes I just happen to read a story right after it comes in and make a decision about it then. Doesn’t get any less/more attention.
Sometimes I do wait a day for the rejection because I know it freaks some people out. One time I got a rejection within like five minutes of sending the e-mail. I guess that was kind of harsh.
My weirdest experience was something, which I even cannot explain till now, whether it’s a subliminal rejection or meta-polite acceptance:
I sent my manuscripts to one magazine, there appreciated and said, it fit very good to their journal. So I opened bright-hearted the published magazine, and… there weren’t my texts in. I called them again (I know, I was lame calling them), but they apologized, saying, “Sorry, we had accidentally deleted your textes, so we couldn’t publish it. Resend them please, and we will place them in our next issue”.
So I resent them, and… in the new issue I wasn’t in. I asked them again (lame again), and they explained it like “Sorry, we’ve got your textes, and they were cool, but unfortunately we’ve just forgot to include them in our new issue. But you will in the next, for sure”.
So I’m waiting now, and I even cannot understand, whether they are afraid of unpublishing me, so they don’t reject it, or… What else?.. I’m not sort of writers hiring killers for rejections. Don’t be afraid to say “no”.
It was a German magazin, for reference.
Sounds like an experience I had with an anthology.
They bought a story. Asked me to change it.
I changed it.
They paid me.
Sent hype about publication.
Day before release said their copy editor had read it
and decided it was unpublishable as it stood.
I did still have my money.
Their anthology never did get good publicity.
Good communication is the mark of a good publisher/editor.
Yes. Which really sucks, because my reaction was just like yours:
“So close!”
I mean, it makes us feel good. And maybe it is a form letter for people who really are close!
i got the same reply from new directions
being published by new directions would be pretty cool….
i was recently told that a story of mine’s conclusion was “anticlimactic”… hehehehe……. sigh….
i got the same reply from new directions
being published by new directions would be pretty cool….
i was recently told that a story of mine’s conclusion was “anticlimactic”… hehehehe……. sigh….
i thought editors were too time-pressed to make off-kilter replies?
i thought editors were too time-pressed to make off-kilter replies?
was that Bradley Sands?
was that Bradley Sands?