Jibber Jabber - Q1 - 29

We need to make a Lolcat postard for inclusion with paper subs (anywhere, not just WOTF). Piktur of kitteh wif capshun "Yur ms. We haz it."

LOVE IT!

And it's sitting on top of a stack of 100 submissions, too, right?

Mebbe dis kitteh will do? He's frum Baen's. I stold him frum Baen's FB page (not my pic, not my copyright).

One more question for the Elders of the contest!

If I have understood correctly (but I'm not sure if I have understood correctly ) at this point only rejections come through the mail. HMs come after the announcement of the finalists. Or am I wrong?

What I mean to say is, do we totally dread an e-mail from WOTF right now, or is there hope that it may be an HM?

An e-mail now could easily be an HM.

It's unlikely to be anything higher in the initial rounds, because KD hasn't finalized those (and probably hasn't finished the first reading of all entries to begin with). Potential semis and finalists are in a pile waiting for her to sort them out (some will probably end up with Silver HMs, because the number of slots for semi and finalist is fixed). But she identifies straight rejections and HMs as she reads them.

Usually (to the extent there is a "usually"), there are multiple rounds of rejection/HM notifications. A spate will come out, then there will be a few days or a week or maybe two of waiting, then another spate will come out.

Some people in the rejection/HM categories still won't have heard anything even after semis and finalists are announced, because snafus happen every quarter -- mails get eaten by the Interether, etc. So *not* receiving an e-mail doesn't mean anything (until you get a phone call ). But tell that to your hopeful heart.

One more question for the Elders of the contest!

If I have understood correctly (but I'm not sure if I have understood correctly ) at this point only rejections come through the mail. HMs come after the announcement of the finalists. Or am I wrong?

What I mean to say is, do we totally dread an e-mail from WOTF right now, or is there hope that it may be an HM?

Anything but a Finalist will come through the mail or email. Occasionally you get your first notification of an HM when you read the list, but they haven't been releasing those in a timely manner in the last year. So yes, you can have hope when you read your email that it's a shiny new HM.

I know of at least one person who posted a rejection to duotrope today under the mistaken impression that the blog post meant his December submission had been rejected. When he found out his mistake, he changed the rejection back to pending response.

I'm wondering if maybe the other three duotrope rejections might be the same, seeing as they were all posted immediately after the blog post with the 4th quarter results went live? It could still be that no responses have been sent out yet.

Agreed, 3 seems like a small # for reject releases. Usually there's a flood, no?

I could see the official listing having that effect on the mystery entries for those who haven't queried.

Or perhaps disqualifications?

It's like everyone is watching the sky and listening for the sound of approaching planes. Everyone wondering if they will come dropping bombs or supplies. Bob must be flashing back about now.

We need to make a Lolcat postard for inclusion with paper subs (anywhere, not just WOTF). Piktur of kitteh wif capshun "Yur ms. We haz it."

http://cheezburger.com/View/5887337728
(I went for the more ambiguous 'gots' because in that picture, they obviously no longer present-tense have it any more ...

Or, if you want something a little more uh... hopeful for the more sensitive writer:

http://cheezburger.com/View/5887361792

Or perhaps even the more classic (lolcats-wise)

http://cheezburger.com/View/5887393024

Wow. That was pretty close to what mine said. Stress brings out my dyslexia and I was scribbling by hand so I kept having to cross things out and rewrite them. I don't even know if I could reproduce the disaster with a keyboard as a few of the symbols I was writing didn't really resemble actual letters of any known language.

Perhaps with one of the pseudo-Voynich-MS fonts? 😉

More relevantly to the purpose of this thread (thinking of you, Steffenwolf! 😉 ) I did wonder what those results were in my daily duotrope check.

Love it!!! Nice work.

@Stewart: Liek!!

Hi all,

This last quarter was my first submission. Excited!

My last submission clearly fit into science fiction, but a story I'm working for to apply to Clarion West is more horror (about a guy battling an infection) and since I've worked so hard on it, I thought it might be worth trying to submit it for Q2 of this year. Are horror stories frowned upon? It's closer to literary horror than blood and guts horror and has some science fiction elements (post-epidemic world).

Also, new to the forums! Name's Justin Key

My last submission clearly fit into science fiction, but a story I'm working for to apply to Clarion West is more horror (about a guy battling an infection) and since I've worked so hard on it, I thought it might be worth trying to submit it for Q2 of this year. Are horror stories frowned upon? It's closer to literary horror than blood and guts horror and has some science fiction elements (post-epidemic world).

Justin, I can't find the link right now, but horror as horror isn't accepted. On the other hand, the line between horror and fantasy is blurry. The line between horror and SF is sometimes blurry as well. Is a zombie animated by a necromancer a zombie story (horror) or a necromancer story (fantasy)? Is a zombie animated by a strange alien virus a zombie story (horror) or an alien virus story (SF)? Is "Alien" a science fiction film or a horror film? I've always considered it a horror film in a science fiction setting, but most classify it as SF.

In your summary, "a guy battling an infection" sure sounds like science fiction to me, especially if you throw in your medical knowledge. It might be horrible without being horror.

One rule of thumb is to put your "qualifying" details as early in the story as possible so that KD can tell from the first page or so that the story is in one of in the expected genres.

@Stewart: Liek!!

I LICK it too! er Leik, I mean....see there goes that spelling thing again. I'm also 2(## for my@#$$ & *fouT -- Sometimes my writing reminds me of those emails that supposedly come from a brain institute of some type, where you get a series of numbers and letters or words with the middle letters all mixed up--yet people can still read them if they are "savvy enough" except what they don't tell you is that means you have a propensity towards dyslexia or right brain minded.

On topic: I think horror has won, but it was more firmly classified as either Fantasy or SF first, horror being a second category. I think the trick is not getting too involved in the gore aspect...which sounds like you've gone that direction. My theory is to just send it in and see, the only way you'll narrow down what works and what doesn't is to send it. You get a rejection, HM, Semi, Non-winning finalist-- you still get another quarter (and many after unless you pro out) to try, try again.

More relevantly to the purpose of this thread (thinking of you, Steffenwolf! 😉 ) I did wonder what those results were in my daily duotrope check.

Hey thanks for thinking of me and my requests for forum thread modularity.
On the subject of the few responses so far, I think the suggestion that they may all have been people who misunderstood the blog post makes more sense than anything.

Justin, I can't find the link right now, but horror as horror isn't accepted. On the other hand, the line between horror and fantasy is blurry. The line between horror and SF is sometimes blurry as well. Is a zombie animated by a necromancer a zombie story (horror) or a necromancer story (fantasy)? Is a zombie animated by a strange alien virus a zombie story (horror) or an alien virus story (SF)? Is "Alien" a science fiction film or a horror film? I've always considered it a horror film in a science fiction setting, but most classify it as SF.

Genres are not mutually exclusive, though a lot of people seem to think that they are. Fitting into one genre does not mean that it has to be excluded from another. I have sold one story in particular, that I would happily classify as fantasy, science fiction, and horror, and I submitted it accordingly. I have read Science Fiction Mysteries and Horror Romances, and Horror Comedies and so on. So the relevant question is NOT "Is this horror?" (Although you do want to keep the extremeness of the horror in mind in regards to extreme violence and gore because I think those are unlikely sells) The relevant question is "Is this fantasy?" and "Is this SF?" and if either is true, then go for it.

New rejection posted on Duotrope...

Thanks, Kary. I was just starting to get some grading done, but now I have this to distract me! Oh well, I used to reward myself with snacks between groups of essays, but checking the Forum doesn't have any calories at all! Let's see, 131 days would put the submission somewhere near the middle of October. Very early submitter, or flawed data?

I keep wondering the same thing. DQs? People confused by the Q4 blog post? Good data? Arrrrgh!

Given the so-far-low rate of reporting, I have a hard time taking it as good data.

In the last go-round, the rejection-rounds looked more like this:

1. 63-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 3.
2. 33-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
3. 38-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
4. 41-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
5. 45-day rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
6. 45-day rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
7. 48-day rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
8. 51-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
9. 52-day rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
10. 54-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
11. 54-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
12. 55-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
13. 58-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.
14. 61-day form rejection from Writers of the Future Contest on November 2.

So... lies, damn lies and Duotrope? 😀

We have no way of knowing if a rejection is a DQ or if it is just an early submitter who's story was not to KD's taste. I'm with Stewart, when rejections start coming in we'll know it. Unless KD is slowly reading a few a day to weed the pile down.

One thing that saves me from daily Duotrope checks is that I currently have nothing out to market. I need to fix that!! As soon as I finish going though my Q2 submission and making it ready to be critiqued I want to get some more stories out.

One thing that saves me from daily Duotrope checks is that I currently have nothing out to market.

Same for me, Tina.

Well, just about: only my WotF entry and something at Penumbra, both with ~64 day wait times.

That, or I'm so busy with this blasted thesis that I can't concentrate enough on my fiction to care right now...

So... lies, damn lies and Duotrope? 😀

Truer words have rarely been spake.

Comparison to the last go-round doesn't necessarily get us anyhere. If quarters were the same, we'd have a flood of rejections on November 2 + 3 months = February 2.

One thing that saves me from daily Duotrope checks is that I currently have nothing out to market.

I have six now and I am checking Duotrope every day. I still can't get used to waiting...

Maybe I'm missing something. I just signed up for Duotrope to replace my Google docs submission tracker. I can understand checking the site for WOTF results, since they have rolling deadlines, and things come out in batches, but what can checking Duotrope tell me about my own pending subs? If I get a rejection (or something more positive, I suppose), I have to log in, enter the information, and submit it, right? Checking tells me how far out each is, and how far I have to go to reach the average response time, but isn't that just data that doesn't necessarily have a bearing on any individual submission? Does the ETA adjust itself if a bunch of early responses get reported? I can see how that could be exciting.

I guess I have also seen posts where individual markets have been "stalled," and then people start reporting results again, so that is something checking could tell me about the markets I've submitted to. Is there another part of the site I still haven't figured out the utility of? It is possible--after all, I just realized there was a tracker this past week!

I guess I have also seen posts where individual markets have been "stalled," and then people start reporting results again, so that is something checking could tell me about the markets I've submitted to. Is there another part of the site I still haven't figured out the utility of? It is possible--after all, I just realized there was a tracker this past week!

It is an illness called Duotropery: the obsessive study of Duotrope results in an attempt to intuit what your own results might be.

It is related to (but different from) Rejectomancy: the obsessive study of form rejections in an attempt to discern a secret to selling stories.

Both illnesses are sad, and I recommend you avoid them. But many of us are afflicted with them.

You're not missing anything, Patrick, that's about it. Duotrope can definitely tell you nothing about your own subs, only you can tell it something about them.

So what are we monitoring Duotrope for? We are checking to see if Q1 results are starting to come out, so that we begin to be jitterish and start biting our nails and so on. Nothing more and nothing less.

For other markets also, it's exactly as you said. You can see if results from a market are stalled, if they start again, if results for people that submitted the same time as you did have started to come out, you can see the average response times for all submissions, as well as the average response times for rejections and acceptances.

Duotrope can't tell you anything about your pending subs - but when you are waiting and nothing comes in the mail, it helps you keep your sanity.

It is an illness called Duotropery: the obsessive study of Duotrope results in an attempt to intuit what your own results might be.

It's not an illness, Martin. It's a cure.

Checking tells me how far out each is, and how far I have to go to reach the average response time, but isn't that just data that doesn't necessarily have a bearing on any individual submission?

What Martin said.

But we do like to pretend...

(See also: false equivalence)

Ah, I see, so I am using it correctly (just as obsessively as you've described). Good to know.