Mean
Mean Monday on Tuesday: 42 Opus, Are you OK?
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I am not this frustrated
I like your journal. I have read some good poems and short stories at your literary magazine. I submitted something to you, using your great submission manager, in December of 2007. I have checked up repeatedly on your fantabulous submission tracker thing and I have read that two editors have read my thingy. One editor thing says this: January 2008 and then underneath, July 2008. The other editor thing says, January 2008 and then- nothing! And then there is your category- “final decision”. Nothing! Nothing in the final decision category!
Anyway, I am not totally being mean here. Because, you accept simultaneous submissions and so therefore you can hold onto it for a good long while, in my book. But I feel the need to give you a tiny bit of a hard time for taking OVER A YEAR. Also, I very politely queried you in November, at the 11 month mark. (I think, although maybe it was October, at the 10 month mark? You say in your submission guidelines that you welcome queries if we haven’t heard from you after five months). I have had no response to my query. Anyway, you slightly bug me that you have not gotten back to me. I still recognize that you are a quality literary journal. But, I am slightly irritated with you because of your no response thing. Maybe you are not well? If so, I hope you get better.
Yours Truly,
pr
Tags: 42 Opus
pr,
you are awesome.
pr,
you are awesome.
what a bunch of shit sniffers
what a bunch of shit sniffers
hey pr
quality literary journal doesnt mean shit. the more that they postulate that they are quality literary journal the more i feel like i am disinclined to submit to them. it’s like when someone keeps telling you that they are, like, really smart, and they read a lot. i mean jesus, i expect that kind of stuff from those up their own arse poetry print journals who will sit on a decent submission for a year or more, but would publish a photograph of one of joyce carol oates’ turds if she sent it to them, but not an online mag. one of the joys of publishing online is that even if theyre going to reject you ,they dont have the cheek to make you wait a year before they tell you to fuck off. i’ve had letters rejecting me from print magazines and i honestly cant even remember submitting to them. although this could be due to an alcohol / drug induced blackout, usually its because they have waited a lifetime before deciding my stuff sucks.
anyway what i meant to say is, this was great.
hey pr
quality literary journal doesnt mean shit. the more that they postulate that they are quality literary journal the more i feel like i am disinclined to submit to them. it’s like when someone keeps telling you that they are, like, really smart, and they read a lot. i mean jesus, i expect that kind of stuff from those up their own arse poetry print journals who will sit on a decent submission for a year or more, but would publish a photograph of one of joyce carol oates’ turds if she sent it to them, but not an online mag. one of the joys of publishing online is that even if theyre going to reject you ,they dont have the cheek to make you wait a year before they tell you to fuck off. i’ve had letters rejecting me from print magazines and i honestly cant even remember submitting to them. although this could be due to an alcohol / drug induced blackout, usually its because they have waited a lifetime before deciding my stuff sucks.
anyway what i meant to say is, this was great.
Thanks Ryan and Tony. Tony, I am with you about the JCO turd and everything else. RIght on. I also have a problem of checking my email drunk and then forgetting that I got a rejection letter. Indeed, this happened recently with a public space.
Jereme- I really like the phrase “shit sniffers”. I’ll be peppering my conversation frm now on with that phrase.
pr,
i am chock full of stupid words.
people know how to respond when they are called a ‘motherfucker’ or ‘cocksucker’
but ‘shit sniffer’ leaves them confused and mouth agaped.
pr,
i am chock full of stupid words.
people know how to respond when they are called a ‘motherfucker’ or ‘cocksucker’
but ‘shit sniffer’ leaves them confused and mouth agaped.
coming from someone who is smart and who reads a lot, i want to say that i love you and i love your post.
i have had the same experience with OPIUM and SIR. both great journals. but it took OPIUM a year and two months to say that they liked my work and wanted to kick it over to another editor. i told them nevermind, then they sent me an email two months later telling me the same thing. hmmmmmmm. they have an online submission thing too, maybe somethings up.
and with SIR. they just ignored me, and my follow query. hmmmmmmmm. they dont have an online submission thingy. maybe somethings up.
i am smart and i read a lot.
coming from someone who is smart and who reads a lot, i want to say that i love you and i love your post.
i have had the same experience with OPIUM and SIR. both great journals. but it took OPIUM a year and two months to say that they liked my work and wanted to kick it over to another editor. i told them nevermind, then they sent me an email two months later telling me the same thing. hmmmmmmm. they have an online submission thing too, maybe somethings up.
and with SIR. they just ignored me, and my follow query. hmmmmmmmm. they dont have an online submission thingy. maybe somethings up.
i am smart and i read a lot.
PR LOOOOOOOOVES BG
I am not smart. I only read CATZPLOT-
where is it motherfucker=shit sniffer-
you undid catzplot-WHYYY?
Hi Barry…
Because, you accept simultaneous submissions and so therefore you can hold onto it for a good long while, in my book.
I don’t like this sentiment. It assumes its always in the best interest for all writers to simultaneously submit and I don’t know that it is. I never, or only rarely, sim sub these days because I tend to treat rejections as opportunities to take hard looks pieces now that they are out of circulation and think about what’s the matter with it and revise and send out again often as a completely different thing. Sim subbing muddles this process.
Because, you accept simultaneous submissions and so therefore you can hold onto it for a good long while, in my book.
I don’t like this sentiment. It assumes its always in the best interest for all writers to simultaneously submit and I don’t know that it is. I never, or only rarely, sim sub these days because I tend to treat rejections as opportunities to take hard looks pieces now that they are out of circulation and think about what’s the matter with it and revise and send out again often as a completely different thing. Sim subbing muddles this process.
darby,
isn’t rejection subjective though? or you are saying your piece is being rejected solely on technical ability?
how is single submission beneficial to the writer in any way?
it is a constraint by the editor to ensure another publication doesn’t get the ‘good’ story of them.
it’s silly.
darby,
isn’t rejection subjective though? or you are saying your piece is being rejected solely on technical ability?
how is single submission beneficial to the writer in any way?
it is a constraint by the editor to ensure another publication doesn’t get the ‘good’ story of them.
it’s silly.
*over them
*over them
sim subbing is beneficial w/r/t expedient publication. that’s basically all. We sim sub because we want to see publication happen faster and we aren’t too picky about where. Seq subbing is beneficial, to me, in that it helps me hone a piece. Just me. I’m not so much taking one rejection and using it as an objective tool, rather using the distance that happened as a result of waiting and then, out of circulation, looking at it with new eyes. Sim subbing kind of assumes a piece will remain for the most part constant once subbing starts. I used to do this all the time, but more and more grew frustrated by how my views of pieces changed as a result of the distance I got from them and more and more kept wanting things to be out of circulation so I could step back and re-attack it. I sub more cautiously these days maybe. Like occasionally letting go of test balloons. I’m not in a hurry to get published, more I want to know that I’m growing as a writer.
sim subbing is beneficial w/r/t expedient publication. that’s basically all. We sim sub because we want to see publication happen faster and we aren’t too picky about where. Seq subbing is beneficial, to me, in that it helps me hone a piece. Just me. I’m not so much taking one rejection and using it as an objective tool, rather using the distance that happened as a result of waiting and then, out of circulation, looking at it with new eyes. Sim subbing kind of assumes a piece will remain for the most part constant once subbing starts. I used to do this all the time, but more and more grew frustrated by how my views of pieces changed as a result of the distance I got from them and more and more kept wanting things to be out of circulation so I could step back and re-attack it. I sub more cautiously these days maybe. Like occasionally letting go of test balloons. I’m not in a hurry to get published, more I want to know that I’m growing as a writer.
darby,
i understand what you are saying and agree partly with it.
if you know ‘distance’ is the beneficial attribute here, then why not keep each piece 6 months after it is ‘finished’ for personal review?
darby,
i understand what you are saying and agree partly with it.
if you know ‘distance’ is the beneficial attribute here, then why not keep each piece 6 months after it is ‘finished’ for personal review?
cause I’m not that patient. In my head, if its subbed somewhere, then I’m more likely to keep my hands off it.
cause I’m not that patient. In my head, if its subbed somewhere, then I’m more likely to keep my hands off it.
pr:
i didnt take down catzplot http://www.catzplot.blogspot.com
it isnt working?
pr:
i didnt take down catzplot http://www.catzplot.blogspot.com
it isnt working?
darby,
well i think you read too much into what pr was conveying. she didn’t say all writers.
do what feels good for you.
darby,
well i think you read too much into what pr was conveying. she didn’t say all writers.
do what feels good for you.
This place is becoming so depressingly Zoetrope. Hopefully in 12-18 months ya’ll will have your shit together.
This place is becoming so depressingly Zoetrope. Hopefully in 12-18 months ya’ll will have your shit together.
Darby,
I think there are way too many people here who don’t consider themselves writers, but rather people who live their lives and also write, for that discussion to get the kind of merit it deserves.
My opinion is that you’re right. I only can remember maybe three or four times I ever simultaneously submitted anything, and I was glad that they were all rejected, because by the time those pieces got published, the rejections had snowballed into a much, much better piece.
-Madore
Darby,
I think there are way too many people here who don’t consider themselves writers, but rather people who live their lives and also write, for that discussion to get the kind of merit it deserves.
My opinion is that you’re right. I only can remember maybe three or four times I ever simultaneously submitted anything, and I was glad that they were all rejected, because by the time those pieces got published, the rejections had snowballed into a much, much better piece.
-Madore
What does depressingly Zoetrope mean? Fill me in here. I’ve never been on Zoetrope’s website, but I did love the Mary Gaitskill story “the arms and legs of the lake” in their last issue.
Also what does this mean?
I think there are way too many people here who don’t consider themselves writers, but rather people who live their lives and also write, for that discussion to get the kind of merit it deserves.
Truly, I don’t get it. Anyone who has been on Darby’s blog knows he is an engineer and a writer, but I don’t understand how that affects discussing how one submits their work. I welcome him sharing his method of submitting.
I’ve had stories rejected by over 20 journals and then get accepted in the exact same form (no revisions) and then go on to be anthologized. If I didn’t send out simultaneously, that would mean I would wait 10 to 15 years for a story to get published. Agents simultaneously submit with great regularity to editors. When I worked as a foreign scout, manuscripts that were being published in the US were most often submitted to foreign publishers simultaenously.
Everyone should do what they want. But it is standard practice- not exclusive, but very common- to submit work simultaneously.
prrrrrrr,
ignore little paul madore. he is young and angry (and i think maybe brain salt deficient?)
btw, he wasn’t attacking darby. his disparaging comments were directed more towards the people who post at htmlgiant.
little paul madore,
once again the real issue is you are weak minded and cannot sit on your stories until you feel they are completely finished. i bet you surge with specialness and can’t wait to submit after you finish a story. god wait until the world sees this one!
it is fine. lots of people feel the same way.
today children the word of the day is EGO.
prrrrrrr,
ignore little paul madore. he is young and angry (and i think maybe brain salt deficient?)
btw, he wasn’t attacking darby. his disparaging comments were directed more towards the people who post at htmlgiant.
little paul madore,
once again the real issue is you are weak minded and cannot sit on your stories until you feel they are completely finished. i bet you surge with specialness and can’t wait to submit after you finish a story. god wait until the world sees this one!
it is fine. lots of people feel the same way.
today children the word of the day is EGO.
What are you referring to?
What are you referring to?
Yes, I’m angry.
Yes, I’m angry.
paulie,
forget about it. i don’t feel like explaining the obvious.
paulie,
forget about it. i don’t feel like explaining the obvious.
21 and angsty
21 and angsty
If you ever want to read a reader’s feedback :) , I rate this article for four from five. Detailed info, but I have to go to that damn google to find the missed parts. Thanks, anyway!
If you ever want to read a reader’s feedback :) , I rate this article for four from five. Detailed info, but I have to go to that damn google to find the missed parts. Thanks, anyway!