I’ve received my first rejection letter, and in only three weeks! Of course, it looks nothing like what’s above (though I wouldn’t mind getting that either), but all in all I’m actually quite pleased with myself. What I got in the mail wasn’t a form letter, but rather a personalized letter from the editor. He didn’t have any real criticism of my work either, simply saying that it just didn’t grab his interest, and wishing me luck with it elsewhere.
Overall, this is a good thing. He wouldn’t have wrote me out a personalized letter if he thought it was terrible, and since he didn’t offer any criticism he must’ve thought it was good, but not good enough for him to publish. That means that it IS publishable material, just that he personally didn’t like it enough, and that I have a decent-to-good chance with it elsewhere.
I’ve already got a couple other places in mind to send it to, so I’m going to shop it around a bit more and see how I fare.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Rintaun // Jun 30, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hey! How’s it going? It’s been so long since we’ve talked.
Good luck on getting your story published. I helped my friend shop a story around several months ago, so I know how frustrating the entire process can be. If I may ask, what magazines are you submitting it to?
Three weeks turnaround isn’t bad, to be honest. It’s long enough that you can assume that they actually read it, but not long enough that you’re left waiting for the long period they SAY it can take. The first time we submitted one of the above-mentioned friend’s stories, they actually rejected it THE DAY it arrived in their office.
Anyway, hang in there!
2 Lark // Jul 1, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Hey man! Wow, it has been a while, hasn’t it? We should chat over AIM or something.
Anyway, I was rejected from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. That was a long shot because of how big it is, but it was my first choice. Now I’m looking into Talebones Magazine. I wish my being a fairly well-published game critic counted towards anything.
Anyway, thanks for the words of encouragement!
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