Rejection Collection

A look into the minds of the marketplace gods who refused you entry into the published world.

Unlock the portal at http://mzbworks.home.att.net/why.htm

A Rosetta's Stone for the obscure comments written on rejection slips at http://mzbworks.home.att.net/transed.htm

Ok, so this doesn't directly apply to this group, but so what. I'm a guy who is inclusive, not exclusive.

Dell publishes children's books, among other things, and they've become so high and mighty (not from my own personal experience, yet, anyway) that the editors will no longer even reply to the masses they reject every year. If you hear nothing after four or five months, it's ASSUMED to be a rejection.

Now, come on, I know this is a business, but geez. Talk about a total lack of human decency. How hard is it to stuff a form rejection in a enevelope the SUBMITTER provides. Guess they don't want to waste that slip of paper.

Impersonal pricks.

Ending rant

This is probably not only the fastest, but the most useful rejection I ever got. NFG is a print magazine that pays rather well, but has a really author freindly submission/rejection/comment system.

address is here: http://www.nfg.ca/

I submitted the story Monday night (3/15/04) got the rejection back
on Tuesday (3/16/04)

Here is contents (This was for my story "Sleeper" about Federal agents run amok) :

[i]Sleeper:

2004.03.16 kdionne (Rejected after initial review)
A dark, grim vision of the future, for sure. Overall, I liked the concept of this story, and the writing is certainly strong. Where I think this piece is lacking, though, is in subtlety and conflict. The Federal agents carry out their job coldly and methodically, and even when things go wrong, there are no consequences to them, so despite your story's rather gruesome events, there's very little tension in this piece as a result. Your protagonists are so strong physically, and so sure of themselves morally, that the story's outcome is never really in doubt.

Thanks for the read, but I'm afraid I'll have to pass.[/i]

Interesting comments for sure, and ones I can definately make use of, even though Sleeper was written as allegory.

Mike

So the scifi channel website posts fiction stories and I figuted, what the hey, it's a highly competive market but unless you try, you'll never know. I have to say their rejection was by far one of the shortest: Try this: "Thank you for submitting your story to SCI FICTION. I'm afraid we can't use it for our website. Sorry."

Gosh, your apology for rejection was so heartwarming it made me feel all gushy inside. On the up side, the rejection letter had a cool purple swoop at the bottom of the page that made me go "oh super duper, this is so futuristically cool"! :shock: What a waste of a sheet of paper.

All that aside, responses like these are the standard.

I've been trying all sorts of magazines, as we all do, and so I submitted to Leading Edge for the sheer amusement that they provided feedback, even if it meant a longer turn around time. I was nothing but irked at the stuff I got back. Three editors read my submission, two said my submission was a good, solid story, one said it was one of her favorites. I then, of course, got a rejection, and a sentence or two from each editor about a particular character action seeming out of sorts, or this paragraph lacked focus, vague crap of no use. This was a crock. If I got those types of crits from SFWW I'd be furious. Don't tell me something is good, but not good enough, and then NOT tell me why it's not good enough.

Needless to say I was a little disappointed about their claims and subsequent responses, but nonetheless I wans't surprised.

These guys are probably the most popular market, since they are a newsstand staple. I have sent two stories there and both got prompt rejections (same wording, even) that made me feel they didn't even open it.

Leafing through the submissions, I saw that maybe one story out of every second or third issue comes from an unknown author. Most of their stories come from authors that have been regulars for years. I guess they can afford to be picky.

Some of the stories are excellent. However, most of the stories from their "regular" authors have vague, nebulous endings. That appears to be the fad nowadays -- leave the reader confused.

What is wrong with a story that everyone can follow? I think the fuzziness covers up a lack of premise. The reader has to make up the story's message for himself, in which case, you might as well make up the whole story too. The author can just describe the characters and setting and let the reader do the rest. :roll:

Here's the big one:

http://www.rejectioncollection.com/

Of course, our board is more personal. Post here instead. 8)