Almost Success - The "Mixed Feelings" Thread

For the first time ever, I reached the second round in Clarkesworld...aaaaand then got a form rejection.

It's a tough market, so 2nd round is awesome, even more so because I think myself a baby writer [both by age and experience]. I'm not sure Neil ever sends out personals, though.

Very good. I got a your "story was close" once, or something like that.

I got "The story is cute, but I’m afraid it's not quite right for me. I look forward to your next one, though. " from Sheila Williams at Asimov's. I haven't seen this before. Can anyone advise?

I got "The story is cute, but I’m afraid it's not quite right for me. I look forward to your next one, though. " from Sheila Williams at Asimov's. I haven't seen this before. Can anyone advise?

Personal rejection with a desire for more?

Well done

Thanks Bob, I did wonder about that, though to be frank the only personal word is 'cute.' That does not seem to me like a form rejection word, but I thought I'd check if anyone else had experienced it.

I recall that during my brief membership of Codex I got an awful lot of 'cute' comments from other members. I'm not quite sure what that word means in American, though I suspect it might reflect the influence of H H Munro (Saki) on my writing style.

I'm pretty sure it's a higher tier form. I've had the same, but with sweet instead of cute (and sweet is indeed applicable to the story in question). So it's definitely better than a basic form, which obviously doesn't have a send more request!

Thanks, Tamlyn. That's very helpful. I'm going to count it as a personal, I think. Mind you, I don't know how easy it will be to produce something similar.

Thanks, Tamlyn. That's very helpful. I'm going to count it as a personal, I think. Mind you, I don't know how easy it will be to produce something similar.

I didn't respond to the first post since I have never seen anything like the cute comment-the best I can do is "send another story"-but it sounded more personal. She at least read the whole thing.

From the other responses it almost sounds like she leaves one word open to leave a mini personal comment.

But would another story have to the same type? She might take anything from you.

But would another story have to the same type? She might take anything from you.

I guess so, but when you seem to attract a bit of interest it's tempting to try and go with the same sub-genre. This one however is hard to emulate. It's an SF rom-com. It now has three personals and a James White longlist as well as its record-breaking 27 day first round rejection from WotF!

I'm struggling to know where to place it or why it doesn't quite get across the line anywhere.

But would another story have to the same type? She might take anything from you.

I guess so, but when you seem to attract a bit of interest it's tempting to try and go with the same sub-genre. This one however is hard to emulate. It's an SF rom-com. It now has three personals and a James White longlist as well as its record-breaking 27 day first round rejection from WotF!

I'm struggling to know where to place it or why it doesn't quite get across the line anywhere.

You have three-four-rejections on it? From what I have heard from various sources, a story like that will sell. Once or twice I have heard stories of someone with a story with 10 to 20 rejections and each one has a personal comment or an almost but not quite rejection but usually they sell sooner than later.

I got "The story is cute, but I’m afraid it's not quite right for me. I look forward to your next one, though. " from Sheila Williams at Asimov's. I haven't seen this before. Can anyone advise?

Oh that's, dare I say it, cute!
I think I've had a couple of "personal" Rs from Sheila in the past, I forget the precise wording but I think they were something like, "nicely done..." and "send more". Certainly never seen, or heard, of "cute" before though. Sooo cute...

Grinder shot!

Is the top one Tor?
Anyone else I'd be like, yo, you're holding my story too tight.

Call that waiting?

The top half of my days out column reads: 438. 207, 187, 147, 116, 97, 97 ,96, 95*, 88, 79, 72, 72, 64#, 63**, 56.

* = Analog # = WotF ** = Tor

All of the top three have been back to me about the submission, so they weren't lost in transit. I study the graphs repeatedly to try to figure out how far each of these stories has got. And I follow the tried and tested principle:

NNINN

Gods, the waiting is the hardest part of this gig.
Do not get into writing unless you can sit and sit and sit.

Heh, yeah that's definitely way longer than mine.
I seem to have reached that stage where I get lots of hold requests; then a year or so later they send a rejection and break my heart.

You can have a really enjoyable time doing that at Andromeda Spaceways. It's hard enough to get into their third round. I have yet to get out of it positively.

On the other hand, one of these days when we are rich and famous authors we shall look back at all those times when editors erroneously threw our work in the trash can after holding on to it for six months, place our thumbs on our noses and wiggle our fingers at them. (Well we do that on my side of the pond anyway.)

On the other side I believe they go

I see some here are discussing-venting-obessing on wait times.

I used to wait a lot-months for each market. Ten to twenty at a time. Except for F&SF-they took six to eight days most of the time. One time they took two months and another even longer. Once I sent in a story and the next week sent another, I received the rejection for number two before the rejection for number one. So did they lose it for a week or so, took a second look without telling me?

Anyway, now almost everyone has speeded up. Even IGMS ,who used to take the longest, are down to about two to three weeks the last three times I sent them a story. Of course that could just mean they are used to my writing now so know what to expect, which means faster turnovers. And of course my output has slowed way down which means now I may have five stories out at a time--maybe. I really need to get back into the habit of sending out stories each week.

And F&SF with the new editor is actually taking longer--two full weeks or so. Lightspeed on the other hand can be one day or less. I just get to the point of relaxing and waiting when ding-you got Email. He could give me a day at least to hope. Or they were for a while. My last couple of stories took awhile longer.

Really? Reaaally?
Story got a 2nd round, then a personal with notes, then one form, I redrafted it, then submitted again.
This time Story's ''lost momentum in the middle''

Now I can't tell whether the ''loss of momentum'' is because of the market itself, or if the story, did, in fact, lose momentum. I mean, the responses I got are positive - even more so considering Story is in 2nd person present tense. Still, I'm at a loss. Should I resubmit or touch it up?

...dammit.

I don't have much patience with the slower markets these days, I'd rather just self publish the wretched story. If a market takes longer than 6 months for the average acceptance that's too long in my view. And I've never sent to many non pro-paying markets (with a few exceptions--Interzone; Giganotosaurus).

Anyhow, that said, I've managed to push my submission numbers back up to nine--though of those five are orange and one is red on the Grinder. Aaaargh!

Actually I'm about to send another query to one of them. I had to query them last time too.... But it has to be done. My purple dot is to the right of all the little red lines and that single green line...

Green!

Oh hello, G. Yes, we like green, don't we.

Green rocks.

Something we can agree on, at last.

189 days. How 'bout them apples? And I see the others on The Grinder think they got personals. Well I'm sorry but if they got what I got it looks like a form to me. There is nothing specific to the story being rejected, which is the test I use unless I'm being very charitable to myself.

So maybe them swabs didn't get what you got. Ever think of that?

You trying to make me feel better or worse here?

How's this for a personal rejection from a long-standing semi-pro mag:

I'm sorry to say that after a couple of reviews from others, we decided not to use [redacted]. Just don't have room for that story at the moment. However, it was impressive enough to go through 3 stages. We did like your writing and if you've got anything else to submit in the future, please consider us again.
Personally, I like your writing having read some of your work in other magazines.
All the best in the meantime...
That second to last line really got to me.

How's this for a personal rejection from a long-standing semi-pro mag:

I'm sorry to say that after a couple of reviews from others, we decided not to use [redacted]. Just don't have room for that story at the moment. However, it was impressive enough to go through 3 stages. We did like your writing and if you've got anything else to submit in the future, please consider us again.
Personally, I like your writing having read some of your work in other magazines.
All the best in the meantime...
That second to last line really got to me.

Wow, that's a good sign. I'd definitely count it as a success of one kind or another!

That's very interesting as well as nice to hear.

Personally, I like your writing having read some of your work in other magazines.

Very very nice.

How's this for a personal rejection from a long-standing semi-pro mag:

I'm sorry to say that after a couple of reviews from others, we decided not to use [redacted]. Just don't have room for that story at the moment. However, it was impressive enough to go through 3 stages. We did like your writing and if you've got anything else to submit in the future, please consider us again.
Personally, I like your writing having read some of your work in other magazines.
All the best in the meantime...
That second to last line really got to me.

pretty damn nice R

Looks like it's a matter of time before they accept a story from you Preston.

Well, got the higher tier rejection letter from Sheila Williams at Asimov's.

"Thank you for letting me see [story]. The story is nicely done, but I'm afraid it's not quite right for me. I look forward to your next one, though."

Not quite a win, but my fragile psyche will chalk it up as a positive.

Well, got the higher tier rejection letter from Sheila Williams at Asimov's.

"Thank you for letting me see [story]. The story is nicely done, but I'm afraid it's not quite right for me. I look forward to your next one, though."

Not quite a win, but my fragile psyche will chalk it up as a positive.

Nice! Send them the next one! I mean, since they're looking forward to it and all.

I received a notice that I'm on hold for Futuristica I anthology - for a moment I actually thought it was my first "hold" at a pro market, but then I remembered my WOTF semi-finalist and then my Penumbra shortlists... oh well, it seems that being on hold is no guarantee for success.

Anyway, how about you? Are there any other forumites on hold or waiting for results on Futuristica I?

Alas no, George. I received two personals but no cigar...

However I am on hold for Myriad Lands anthology and received a very nice comment on my story already.

Unfortunately I had nothing available to send Furturistica before the deadline. But it is I so that implies there will be a II?

Anyway, I do have a story that has survived for over 30 days at Strange Horizons. I've checked and it's status is "Under consideration" so I take that as promising.

I also have a story in at Nature Futures that survived the latest round of rejections, but I worry because they do not send receipt confirmations, nor do they have a place to check status. Their guidelines do not indicate how long one should wait before querying. Any thoughts? How long should I wait before querying in this situation?

Had one go to round 2 at Futuristica. That was eventually rejected, so I sent a 2nd one. Rejected at the first tier. Oh well.