Rejection Blues

[Craig Wallwork]

Dear Craig,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read Stilled Longing. Alas, I will have to pass on this one as it's not quite right for me. I appreciate your interest in Weird Tales and hope that you will keep me in mind for future submissions.

Yours Weirdly,

Ann VanderMeer, Editor-in-Chief

Booooo. Oh well.

[mlouisdixon]

Nice trailer. Great dramatic music. Just wondering how you get a musical soundtrack for a trailer like this without chancing copyright issues?

Just use Google, you'll be surprised how much public domain music is out there.

MLD

[ozmosis7]

Nice trailer. Great dramatic music. Just wondering how you get a musical soundtrack for a trailer like this without chancing copyright issues?

It's built into imovie that came with ilife. They have a bunch of free pre-modeled ones you can use.

[mstrom]

Here is a fun little trailer I made for it sometime back...

Nice trailer. Great dramatic music. Just wondering how you get a musical soundtrack for a trailer like this without chancing copyright issues?

[jmcraven]

From my most recent rejection: "This story didn't work for us as there really isn't anything unique here."

[Craig Wallwork]

Oh man, that's funny. Not the rejection, just the reply, RJ

MLD - least you're finding some wheat among the chaff, that's the main thing. I often thought of setting up a journal/magazine, but the reading process would be the most problematic side to it if all the stories I was reading were not to my taste or just bad stories. I admire any editor willing to give feeback on stories that didn't work for them. If a story didn't grab me in the opening paragraph (or perhaps the first page), I wouldn't read on, and so the feedback would be rendered pointless because all i would say is, "Dear (add name), I got half way through the first page of (add story title) and felt the need to empty my bowels a more pressing issue than reading any further, and at the time, I didn't even need the toilet!"

[RJHubbard53]

i got a rejection for the short mother-in-law related story i wrote for a thread here on the board. They said "we all hate mother in laws and all want to kill them. This is nothing new"

made me chuckle

[ozmosis7]

I feel for ya, MLD. Must be difficult. And I also feel for the authors. But you are right. It is always best to take it on the chin, and walk away trying to learn something.

[mlouisdixon]

Well, I've started sending out rejections for submissions to Dark Recesses' final issue. It really sucks to have to tell people that there story didn't make it, but I always try to provide some feedback to stories that were close or somewhere near. The thing is, DR got all jacked up when I handed it over to someone else and they let the ball drop for over a year. Now I'm sending rejections to stories that have been there for a long time--even a number that were almost a year old. The thing is, some people have been responding with pissed off emails. Look, I know it sucks to have your story wrapped up so long. I've been there too! But please don't take it personal. Please don't be anything but professional. Take the rejection and move on. I've been taking my time to read the whole story and frequently making comments that should be helpful. If you are not happy with that then keep it to yourself. I don't get paid to do this. I do it because I love the genre and want to contribute to it. Anyhow, if you fire back a nasty response to your rejection it isn't going to help your career. We are not that big of a community and word does get around. I'm just saying.

Still, I've also found a few pretty good stories. I'm getting excited as the days go by. Final DR will be awesome!

MLD

[Randy D. Rubin]

Thanks Pete.

[peteOcha]

Well, Brothers and Sisters I took the plunge and sent in one of my stories and in four days I received my very first REJECTION EMAIL. The Senior Editor at Evil Jester Press was very professional and personal with his rejection and it didn't hurt too much, as I had feared. So now that I've got my foot in the proverbial door, I'm going to keep on looking for homes for all my little "Darlings" and now I have something new to collect. Anyone want to join me for a drink? Or thirteen? It's just a flesh wound, really, nothing to worry about.

Congratulations! And no, i'm not trying to be an ass, i really mean it. It takes a lot of courage to finally take the plunge and start sending stuff off... I've got to finally push myself to start sending some things out. I'm just terrified by all the technical stuff: the cover letters, formats, and stuff like that. Googling gives a bazillion different results on format, what should be in a cover letter and the like, got me confused...

[Randy D. Rubin]

Well, Brothers and Sisters I took the plunge and sent in one of my stories and in four days I received my very first REJECTION EMAIL. The Senior Editor at Evil Jester Press was very professional and personal with his rejection and it didn't hurt too much, as I had feared. So now that I've got my foot in the proverbial door, I'm going to keep on looking for homes for all my little "Darlings" and now I have something new to collect. Anyone want to join me for a drink? Or thirteen? It's just a flesh wound, really, nothing to worry about.

[Ben Staad]

Comments are good...means you are close or they wouldn't bother. I'm afraid most of us will be on this thread often. I've got so many stories out there right now, I'd doubt they all get accepted. I got a rejection last week myself.

I have a riddle for everyone whose work has been rejected---

Q. What do you call someone who gets a rejection letter?

A. A writer

People who do not write do not get rejection letters. So many people in the world say that they want to be writers but never write a thing. You are out there. You are doing it!

Both of these are great comments. I thought I had submitted something that was very strong. It's a bit discouraging that it was rejected although I know there are other markets out there.

[ozmosis7]

Agree, lilbirdy.

[lilbirdy]

I have a riddle for everyone whose work has been rejected---

Q. What do you call someone who gets a rejection letter?




A. A writer

People who do not write do not get rejection letters. So many people in the world say that they want to be writers but never write a thing. You are out there. You are doing it!