Five Minute Rant

"didn't quite work" is one of JJA's higher tier rejections, I think. "Didn't grab" is the lowest, which means he didn't finish the story. I think there's one other, but I can't remember what it was. So "didn't quite work" is either the highest(?) or the second-highest.

Are you sure rejections are tiered at Lightspeed? I know they are for F&SF (didn't grab, didn't hold, didn't quite work), but I've only ever gotten "didn't quite work" from Lightspeed. I've just assumed that was JJA's standard form rejection.

"didn't quite work" is one of JJA's higher tier rejections, I think. "Didn't grab" is the lowest, which means he didn't finish the story. I think there's one other, but I can't remember what it was. So "didn't quite work" is either the highest(?) or the second-highest.

Are you sure rejections are tiered at Lightspeed? I know they are for F&SF (didn't grab, didn't hold, didn't quite work), but I've only ever gotten "didn't quite work" from Lightspeed. I've just assumed that was JJA's standard form rejection.

I know I have received more than one comment line from JJA. Only once or twice but still a different one.

According to the Rejection Wiki ( http://www.rejectionwiki.com/index.php? ... d_Magazine),
"didn't quite work for me" is a lower tier rejection at Lightspeed. That's all I have personally seen from them.

Well I finally got my reply from Analog. And my Dave Judged SF was rejected.
It has now been sent off to another market.
*le sigh*

Two rejections today, both of which I had the same market in mind to send to next. They weren't supposed to reject me on the same day! Analog was meant to hold it in its greedy little fingers for, oh, at least another fifty days 😛

Edit: Do Analog do different tier form rejections? Not that it matters; form is form, but I am curious.

Two rejections today, both of which I had the same market in mind to send to next. They weren't supposed to reject me on the same day! Analog was meant to hold it in its greedy little fingers for, oh, at least another fifty days 😛

I've heard of worse rejection days.
If I remember correctly Connie Willis tells of getting like seven or eight rejections in the mail all on the same day. She says she would have quite writing that day but she already had new stuff to send out in her hands and mailed it anyway, and one of those sold.
If I am remembering all of the story correctly.

Two rejections today, both of which I had the same market in mind to send to next. They weren't supposed to reject me on the same day! Analog was meant to hold it in its greedy little fingers for, oh, at least another fifty days 😛

I've heard of worse rejection days.
If I remember correctly Connie Willis tells of getting like seven or eight rejections in the mail all on the same day. She says she would have quite writing that day but she already had new stuff to send out in her hands and mailed it anyway, and one of those sold.
If I am remembering all of the story correctly.

I am near that record or tied with it. When I was entering another contest we could send in as many stories as we wanted. Tough to get them all back between one and three days. But even not counting that contest I have received as many as five in one day, that I recall. Back when I sent out stories more often they sometimes came in batches. I knew people who had at least ten more stories out than I did at my most which would have made theirs over 30. They probably received large batches of stories back. Of course with mine I didn't have the happy ending like Connie.

Regarding Lightspeed rejections, there's also: "Thanks for submitting this story, but I'm going to pass on it. It's nicely written and I enjoyed reading it, but overall it didn't quite win me over, I'm afraid. Best of luck to you placing this one elsewhere, and thanks again for sending it my way. I look forward to seeing your next submission."

Regarding Lightspeed rejections, there's also: "Thanks for submitting this story, but I'm going to pass on it. It's nicely written and I enjoyed reading it, but overall it didn't quite win me over, I'm afraid. Best of luck to you placing this one elsewhere, and thanks again for sending it my way. I look forward to seeing your next submission."

Did you received that one? Recently?

It would be nice if he sent that one to me after all the stories I sent him....

Regarding Lightspeed rejections, there's also: "Thanks for submitting this story, but I'm going to pass on it. It's nicely written and I enjoyed reading it, but overall it didn't quite win me over, I'm afraid. Best of luck to you placing this one elsewhere, and thanks again for sending it my way. I look forward to seeing your next submission."

Did you received that one? Recently?

It would be nice if he sent that one to me after all the stories I sent him....

Got it last year. Haven't subbed there much, and have gotten the lower tier rejection on the few stories I've submitted since. =)

grumble grumble grumble
60 day personalized rejection from a horror podcast
grumble grumble

Apparently I, like an apple, need polishing

Just ouch. Ouch. I could write all the words, but I'm still too outraged. Sometimes personal rejections suck.

grumble grumble grumble
60 day personalized rejection from a horror podcast
grumble grumble

Apparently I, like an apple, need polishing

Probably not as bad as some of us.

Just ouch. Ouch. I could write all the words, but I'm still too outraged. Sometimes personal rejections suck.

Curious to know what was said but that's up to you,

But the only one I have received not from a market that usually sends out Personal rejections was almost that bad. it was only one or two sentences and made one point. I'm still not sure if the guy was trying to tell me something useful or just making a comment from his POV.

And even those from markets like BCS aren't always that useful or nice---for me anyway.

Apparently I, like an apple, need polishing

If this was the worst thing he said, I should maybe look at it differently. Would anyone advocate polishing junk? If the story is worth polishing then it's worth polishing. I can't necessarily tell you how, but I can maybe suggest where, if you would like me to take a look at it.

Apparently I, like an apple, need polishing

If this was the worst thing he said, I should maybe look at it differently. Would anyone advocate polishing junk? If the story is worth polishing then it's worth polishing. I can't necessarily tell you how, but I can maybe suggest where, if you would like me to take a look at it.

I can't sat that they were entirely wrong. I have pruned the clause laden sentences into separate ones and given the entire things another pass. We'll see what shimmer has to say of this edition. Thanks for the offer Ishmael, if Shimmer throws it back I may take you up on it.

Apparently I, like an apple, need polishing

If this was the worst thing he said, I should maybe look at it differently. Would anyone advocate polishing junk? If the story is worth polishing then it's worth polishing. I can't necessarily tell you how, but I can maybe suggest where, if you would like me to take a look at it.

I didn't realize they said that. I thought it was just you speaking of your writing.

I agree that they must have seen something in there.

Been a while since I thought I could rant:

Looks like I can't get past the first stage, where they say send you can send another story. (Sigh)

And it looks like Scot P is taking his time this week. Of course it does take him a day or two longer when it's longer stories. But he's over the time. I always feel like they playing games when they take longer but it's probably because they are busy or have a day or two off. Or the mail is late either way.

Just ouch. Ouch. I could write all the words, but I'm still too outraged. Sometimes personal rejections suck.

This reminded me of two personal rejections I had forgotten about. The first one was from one of the previous editors of Weird Tales. I forget his name but he did for a long while. Basically he said it wasn't good to hide something from the readers. He said it sternly.

The second wasn't so bad but got me angry anyway. I sent a story to Woman Warrior anthology. Had a female MC and all that. But the editor said--maybe sternly--that she wasn't the MC but a guy who was in the story only a few pages--maybe one fourth of the story--was. She was in de facto leader of a group of people, she led the way in the dialogue and helped everyone take some advice. I wrote the story I know who was the MC. And that guy, while he said something important, could have been a computer or book or....

F&SF is now a week late. Sigh!

A couple of more days and I'm going to start hoping it's a good reason to be late. Can't help myself.

But since I post this it could come tomorrow or Thursday--a plain rejection that is.

Of course after all this extra time it's a total rejection. Did even grab his interest,

I've heard people advise that authors should volunteer as slush readers to understand the scope of the slush pile. I don't have time for that nor where I would even volunteer, but I can understand the idea.

As it happens, I have a place where you can not only volunteer for self-serving reasons, but also help out a young paying market: http://sparkanthology.org/jobs/staff-reader-screener/

And just to stay on the topic of rants: I sent out a piece that got a personal response of "this needs to be tightened up; cut it down to its essense." I reworked it and sent it back. "This is the start of something really interesting; consider expanding it." WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

I've heard people advise that authors should volunteer as slush readers to understand the scope of the slush pile. I don't have time for that nor where I would even volunteer, but I can understand the idea.

As it happens, I have a place where you can not only volunteer for self-serving reasons, but also help out a young paying market: http://sparkanthology.org/jobs/staff-reader-screener/

And just to stay on the topic of rants: I sent out a piece that got a personal response of "this needs to be tightened up; cut it down to its essense." I reworked it and sent it back. "This is the start of something really interesting; consider expanding it." WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

That last paragraph is hilarious. Frustrating, but very funny.

Four rejections in one day!

Four rejections in one day!

Ouch! Sorry to hear it.

Four rejections in one day!

That's terrible! Send them back out and prove those editors wrong! <img src="

Four rejections in one day!

*Gator hiss*

Four rejections in one day!

I know the feeling.

It's been a couple of years since I have received that many in one day-mostly because I have cut down how many I send out--as I said I know the feeling.

I got two rejections yesterday...

...on the same story

What happened was I got a rejections from Clarkesworld that I didn't see until yesterday morning, so I submitted to Lightspeed. Got their rejection before bed.

Not happy about it in the least. So, I submitted it to Daily Science Fiction (never submitted anything there before). That'll teach 'em

Oh yeah, got to get to sending stories to Lightspeed. I have something like 30 I could send, not counting a couple that are too long, including one I would love to send but it's just a few hundred too long.