Almost Success - The "Mixed Feelings" Thread

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

Second round of Clarkesworld is a good sign! Keep sending it out.

Second round at Clarkesworld sounds pretty fantastic to me. I'm planning to try it out with my Q4 (unless of course it ends up being a winner )

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

Nice work, Helge. That's stiff competition! You are up against seasoned pro writers there.

Have you sent that story to WotF? Sorry, I haven't been following this thread.

Best,

Moon

I had assumed that it got an honorable mention in the contest previously???? I think that would give me a lot of hope if HMs in the contest stood at least a chance of getting to second round with a big deal like Clarkesworld it'd change my whole outlook on how to proceed with HMs 😉

I had assumed that it got an honorable mention in the contest previously???? I think that would give me a lot of hope if HMs in the contest stood at least a chance of getting to second round with a big deal like Clarkesworld it'd change my whole outlook on how to proceed with HMs 😉

How well stories do here isn't always a good bar to judge how they'll do elsewhere. Still haven't sold my F or SF, but my second sale was a revised version of an R.

My HM made it to the second round of Clarkesworld Magezine but then was rejected. Bleh. At least it was in the top 3% for making it into the second round.

Nice work, Helge. That's stiff competition! You are up against seasoned pro writers there.

Have you sent that story to WotF? Sorry, I haven't been following this thread.

Best,

Moon

Thank! Yes, it's my Honorable Mention For now, I'll submit to WotF first and then to other markets. Until I win or pro out

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! It's actually nice to get some perspective and "touch base", and not see every rejection as pure negative.

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

A lot of markets these days are seasonal, opening only once or twice a year or only being a one-time thing. I do weekly searches on the Grinder, just to be safe.

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

A lot of markets these days are seasonal, opening only once or twice a year or only being a one-time thing. I do weekly searches on the Grinder, just to be safe.

Oh, thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of that

A 2-day rejection from Asimov's Well, it was a long shot - I wasn't sure it'd be a good fit.
I'm finding myself running out of pro-markets in The Grinder. Any idea where to find more, besides Duotropes maybe?

A lot of markets these days are seasonal, opening only once or twice a year or only being a one-time thing. I do weekly searches on the Grinder, just to be safe.

Oh, thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of that

I discovered, on a random search, that Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores is only open four weeks a year. That's what started me doing weekly searches.

Thinking about sitting and holding my breath. I have a story being held for consideration with an SFWA eligible market. Got one rejection from them and one hold. Eeek eeek eeeek. Exciting and lots of the mixed feelings. Hoping it will be selected, desperately trying to keep my feet realistically planted on the ground so that if it ends up being a rejection it doesn't burn too much. So now there will be time for me to be waffling back and forth between those states and every spot on the spectrum between them.

I get that. Fingers crossed!!

Thinking about sitting and holding my breath. I have a story being held for consideration with an SFWA eligible market. Got one rejection from them and one hold. Eeek eeek eeeek. Exciting and lots of the mixed feelings. Hoping it will be selected, desperately trying to keep my feet realistically planted on the ground so that if it ends up being a rejection it doesn't burn too much. So now there will be time for me to be waffling back and forth between those states and every spot on the spectrum between them.

More holding of one's breath?

Just got an extremely detailed personal rejection from Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. We're talking almost 350 words.

On the one hand, they definitely read my story start to finish. On the other hand, a lot of the issues they had stemmed from wanting more depth on the world-building, and I don't want to tweak this story anymore unless I'm expanding it into a novel. This was my finalist piece, and it's basically been to all the other relevant pro markets anyway, so changing it at this point probably won't help anything.

Just got an extremely detailed personal rejection from Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. We're talking almost 350 words.

On the one hand, they definitely read my story start to finish. On the other hand, a lot of the issues they had stemmed from wanting more depth on the world-building, and I don't want to tweak this story anymore unless I'm expanding it into a novel. This was my finalist piece, and it's basically been to all the other relevant pro markets anyway, so changing it at this point probably won't help anything.

Personal rejections are awesome. A sale would be better of course but I get a lot of gas out of the few I've gotten. I know lots of people believe the love of writing should be enough but I think it's okay to need that validation.

disgruntledpeony That is a LOT of feedback. Sounds like a mixed blessing in this case given the submission history. But good feedback can always help the next story (at least that is what I hope for when I get it).

Will you try sending it out to some of the lower paying markets? Or hold onto it for a future anthology of your own stories? Will you extend it to novel/novella length?

Hope you find a home for it!

disgruntledpeony That is a LOT of feedback. Sounds like a mixed blessing in this case given the submission history. But good feedback can always help the next story (at least that is what I hope for when I get it).

Will you try sending it out to some of the lower paying markets? Or hold onto it for a future anthology of your own stories? Will you extend it to novel/novella length?

Hope you find a home for it!

Yeah, it was the best feedback I've gotten with a rejection from pretty well anywhere. If I'd gotten that back when the story was new and fresh in my mind, I absolutely would be scrounging my mind for possible edits. As it is, I'm much more inclined to simply take those thoughts into account when I work toward expanding that story into part of a novel (which I will definitely be doing as soon as my Q4 is finished).

That sounds great. I hope your novelization goes well (I have a longish short story that I have similar plans for so hopefully you'll post something about your progress to inspire me to get to work on mine )

Despite my protests to the contrary, I now find myself editing that story before submitting it to a newly available venue.

Well that sounds good to me. Hope the edits go very well and there is an acceptance headed your way! It sounds win-win to me since you can always take the novel track you were considering before if you need to

Despite my protests to the contrary, I now find myself editing that story before submitting it to a newly available venue.

Know the feeling even though the comments don't happen often unless I send a story to BCS. You go get 'em. You can.

Made the "Long List" of a beautiful Indie Print magazine. Fingers very crossed for the Short List and Approval. I think the story is an especially good fit, but know so many others are out there writing their hearts out.

Made the "Long List" of a beautiful Indie Print magazine. Fingers very crossed for the Short List and Approval. I think the story is an especially good fit, but know so many others are out there writing their hearts out.

Congrats, and good luck!

DaneCurley good luck.

My own story which had been held for consideration by Diabolical Plots unfortunately just got a rejection. "Loved the imagery and concept here!" was the comment. I'm not as sad as I thought I would be - it was such a roller coaster watching the progress (you can see the numbers change as they accepted and rejected ones in the second round). I didn't get my rejection until the very end (there were just 4 in the pile the last time I refreshed the page before I got my rejection). So I'm telling myself they thought about it until the very last minute Maybe I'll use that one for my Q4 submission.

My own story which had been held for consideration by Diabolical Plots unfortunately just got a rejection.

Same. It's all good, though. They liked my setting and some of the twists I threw into my story. On to F&SF! (It's usually my first market I sub to after WotF, but they were closed for submissions at the time.)

DaneCurley good luck.

My own story which had been held for consideration by Diabolical Plots unfortunately just got a rejection. "Loved the imagery and concept here!" was the comment. I'm not as sad as I thought I would be - it was such a roller coaster watching the progress (you can see the numbers change as they accepted and rejected ones in the second round). I didn't get my rejection until the very end (there were just 4 in the pile the last time I refreshed the page before I got my rejection). So I'm telling myself they thought about it until the very last minute Maybe I'll use that one for my Q4 submission.

Sounds like a good one for Q4. You have proof it already ranked well with another pro market!

Best of success!

Moon

Got a rejection from DreamForge, but it was a long shot anyway due to the length. Not sure if this is a form rejection or whether it has a personal touch to it:

Helge, Thank you for your patience while we reviewed your story “[redacted],” unfortunately, we're going to pass this time. There is good work here, but it is way too long for our needs at the moment, and we didn’t quite feel it was compelling or engaging enough as it is. We look forward to seeing work from you again in the future, and we wish you luck with submitting this story to other venues (it may be fine as is for another editor.) As we publish more stories and unlock more of them for registered users and visitors, please do read us and you'll get a better sense of what seems to catch our fancy. If you’re interested, I wrote an essay on “How to write for DreamForge.” You’ll find it here: https://dreamforge.mywebportal.app/drea ... eamforge-1 All our best. Scot Noel DreamForge Magazine

Off to the next market

Just got a rejection from Third Flatiron for their Longevity anthology.

I'm sorry your story, “[Redacted]" didn't make the final cut for Third
Flatiron's "Longevity"-themed Fall/Winter 2019 anthology. We hope
you'll be able to find another home for it. We did enjoy reading
this tale about [redacted].

Thanks for submitting it to us, and please keep us in mind for
our next submission period, which we'll advertise on our website.

It's a bit different from what I've gotten from them in the past, which is usually more of a form "Thanks for letting us read [blank], but we've decided we won't be able to use it" type of rejection. Not sure if they've just changed up the text for their rejections or if I made a higher tier this time around, but either way, but it's always nice to get a positive and personalized rejection note.

https://www.rejectionwiki.com/index.php?title=Literary_Journals_and_Rejections