Almost Success - The "Mixed Feelings" Thread

Posted by: @storysinger

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Dear writers,

Thank you so much for submitting

it was an absolute pleasure to read your work

Absolutely a form. 

Just had one of my stories rejected but with a note in the rejection that it made the second round - with Apparition Lit. Funny enough it is a story I didn't really expect to get traction on

@czing It's encouraging when they inform you that it made it through a round or two - it means you're getting a lot better. Keep writing!

This market pays 1¢ per word but has been around since at least 2013, so I'm game. They write:

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Hi. We like your story. It reminds us a little bit of "Aye, and Gomorrah" (Delaney) in its pulse and rhythm. 
It does sprawl and lose its internal connectivity a bit, at times. We'd also need to spend some time assessing a few usages in the text. 
Our editorial process is very deliberative. We almost never request rewrites. We do identify passages that could be tightened up, and also suggest, at times, "re-plumbing" some passages to reduce friction. Again, we approach this process with great care and caution. 
Please let us know if this sort of process works for you. If so, we'll move ahead with acceptance and scheduling for publication in 2023. 

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I reply:
Sure, you may even make editorial changes yourselves, so long as I have the right to refuse. I worked in journalism for years so I'm used to being edited and having to make things right. Let's go forward!

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I must say, this strikes me as eccentric and not a little pompous. Why not just request a rewrite like normal people?
But whatever. Even people paying pennies (maybe especially them) gotta feel like they're doing something important.
Let's get ON with it!

UPDATE:

Yeah they got right back to me with:

Thank you for sending us "No Such Place as Nebraska." We love it and are glad to accept it.

We will be following up with scheduling and publication details, as well as any editorial questions and suggestions for your consideration.

So I dunno what that initial contact was all about. I'm guessing they've had writers who cant handle editing, but I think it's more professional to assume professionalism...  

New Myths have been holding one of my stories since July. They sent me a form rejection last night. 

@pdblake Sorry to hear it  

@angelslayah - thanks for the blow-by-blow, and interesting approach, for sure. But huge congratulations on the sale!

Posted by: @pdblake

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New Myths have been holding one of my stories since July. They sent me a form rejection last night. 

Just awful

Posted by: @ease

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angelslayah - thanks for the blow-by-blow, and interesting approach, for sure. But huge congratulations on the sale!

We got to share this stuff!

I'm thinkin, in the new year, to start a thread somewhere on the forum of venues that offer comment or critique with rejection. So fuckin rare, it's almost as if markets have given up on the notion of cultivating the writers they want to have.

Like @pdblake here. New Myths liked the work well enough to sit on it since summer, but not enough to givea hint how better to please them next time. It's a shit system and it tends toward a shit industry.

The way I see it, it's up to US to raise the tone! 

@angelslayah Hey there, congrats on the sale! It's a long process, but patience and persistence pays off.

@pdblake I had a similar experience. They held a story of mine for 8 months, with it making it to the final round of consideration before getting a rejection. It can be a slog sometimes, haha. But they were nice about it.

@spencer_s final round of consideration, exactly what they said to me lol.

@pdblake sorry to hear that! That's a longtime to be considering it, but notwithstanding the form rejection, hopefully it means you were close and the story is a strong one. It'll find a home!

Hold notice went to rejection at Metaphorosis today, and the feedback comments made me realize I'd accidentally edited out a little detail that is really key to establishing why the characters are put in the position of having to do what they're doing. It's been edited and fixed for the sake of ten words, but drat anyway--and now, every market that's open to it is either closed, or already has something from me submitted, so I get to sit on this story for a while until either somewhere opens, or somewhere else sends me back a rejection.

A couple of their other comments I don't agree with, and may be down to taste or the specific reader, but one I'll give a little more time to, just to be sure (as they were very specific, so I can really take a good look at it).

All in all, I'm more than a little disappointed, as Metaphorosis is a market I never really expected to crack--I always felt my style was a bit of a mismatch, so I was surprised to get even this close to the bullseye really. At least I get to improve the manuscript for the next submission, but...well, poop.

I'm sorry, @doctorjest. The 'almosts' are more painful than the instant form rejections. Especially when a small mistake might have made the difference. Congratulations on getting a personal response though! You must be super close to cracking the code with this story/market.

And don't poop in wells, it's unsanitary.

So this is where they decided to take a (so far) two week vaycay! What a world! What a world!

@angelslayah You have some green there :)?