rowyn: (smile)
[personal profile] rowyn
How exciting!

"An Old-Fashioned Chat" got turned down by F&SF, in record time. I put it in the mail less than two weeks ago. Wow!

Now I have to decide who I'm going to send it to for rejection next. Hmm. Analog, I think; I haven't sent them anything yet. I'm glad "Chat" got rejected first; "She's Having a Baby" is quite short, and accordingly a little harder to find a market for. At 3,000 words, "Chat" ends up right in the middle of most magazines' "usual range" for story length.

The rejection letter was a bit less formal, and less form-letter-ish, than I expected. It was signed, for example (not stamped) by the editorial assistant, and it had the name of my story in it. Not that this is any more personal than a standard mass-mailing, but I expected, you know, a preprinted "Thank you for your submission. It does not suit our needs at this time" snatched from the stack and stuffed into an envelope. I guess they don't have the kind of volume of submissions that they need to be *that* impersonal.

I'm half-tempted to scan in the rejection to show. :) I'm really tempted to send a different story to F&SF, just to see if I get the same rejection letter.

I'll probably send F&SF another story anyway. "She's Having a Baby", when it gets rejected by Asimov's, maybe. Or if I ever do write something new, I'll send it. If Chang Juan gets her own short story, it'd be fantasy, so I'd likely send it to F&SF 'cause they're the only magazine I know offhand that publishes fantasy. :)

I wonder how long the process of being rejected will continue to amuse me? I have these two big boxes of 9x12 and 10x13 envelopes (for mailing submissions out flat -- the larger envelope so that I don't have to fold the smaller SASE). And a whole bunch of stamps. And I know what the postage cost for mailing "Chat" is ($1.06 for the mailer, $0.83 for the SASE). All I have to do is a new cover letter, mailing labels, and I'm set. I really should buy a new printer so I can do the mailing labels and cover letters at home.

I've been wanting to mail out another story anyway. And now I have one to send! :)

Date: 2003-08-18 07:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tuftears.livejournal.com
I got a personalized rejection (handwritten "Alas, didn't quite work for me") from the editor of F&SF back before he got an assistant to read for him. Ah, good times.

One of these days I really must write another short story and kick it out the door!

Date: 2003-08-18 08:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jordangreywolf.livejournal.com
Well, so long as you're amused and not discouraged, there's hope. ;) Please keep at it! Your stuff is good - really good - and it deserves to get more circulation than it gets just here on LJ. =)

Date: 2003-08-18 08:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] minor-architect.livejournal.com
I have to admit that I appreciate your attitude about this. Rejected my story, huh? Well...I'm just gonna send you more! Whatcha think about that?!

Hey, you've got to start somewhere. :-)

Date: 2003-08-19 10:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sythyry.livejournal.com
Congratulations! For the will and creativity to send the story off, at least.

I'm fussing with a World Tree story -- very much not Sythyry's -- and hoping to send it out. I seem incapable of writing short, though. Do you know what size of stories magazines are generally willing to tolerate?

Date: 2003-08-19 11:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sythyry.livejournal.com
Well, World Tree is a quarter of a million words... But the short story I'm working on is probably going to be, oh, eight thousand. A tighter writer could probably do it in three.

Date: 2003-08-19 10:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] boingdragon.livejournal.com
You might be surprised by Asimov's - they seem to feature first-time writers often (or at least they did back when I had my subscription). So if they do reject you, they might at least give some constructive feedback as well! }:)

Then again, I've never submitted anything for publication. It was always by accident for me.

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