I do believe that I didn't receive a rejection letter with my first submission to their site. I know they definitely sent me one in response to my second submission and they were polite. They were were also rather prompt.
With the rejection of my third submission, they were prompt and polite. "It's not quite what we're looking for, but please keep trying."
Well stories #4 and #5 didn't make the grade either. Part of story #4's title even got a mention by the editor and she praised the concept. I'm not mad and it's not just because they've been so unfailingly polite...it's not them, it's me.
Honest.
They still haven't found what they're looking for, Bono, though I do know it's not my writing.
My stories? They leave the toilet seat up.
My stories? They snore like a chainsaw revving up inside an echo chamber.
My stories tell inapporpriate jokes at company picnics, in front of company, and in front of the family.
My stories display PDA at the worst times as well. Maybe, you know, it would be better if, uh, they started seeing other authors...I don't know.
I do know that I'm not going to stand outside their window in the rain, holding a boom box playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." I'm not going to waste a fortune in flowers and candy. I...I'm not crying, I just have something in my eye...it's the wind, honest. I know all the windows are shut, but it's the wind, I tell you!
Let's face it, they are just not that into my writing.
So enough about my writing, how about you? Have you ever given up on submitting stories to a site?
9 comments:
Actually yes. Three different submissions about my life with my son to Exceptional Parent magazine and Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Maybe it's my swearing? ;^)
There are just some markets that you'll never crack, something I've learned after three years of submitting to ThugLit.
I can say one thing about my somewhat short experience with submitting writing for publication: the criteria editors use are incredibly subjective, and they rarely lay them out on the table for everyone to see. The process is infuriating and it wastes a lot of people's time. That's my two cents.
I've been lucky so far. Only one mag has completely ignored my submission.So, I rewrote it & it was accepted elsewhere. BTAP didn't like my first story for them and they were right- it was rubbish! David's feedback was spot on. The second one I sent to them was accepted and I'm pleased because I quite like it too!Really, if the mags that have accepted my stuff are the only ones that like it I'm more than happy.
Sky Dad,
Then you need to send an e-query along with links to your blog. Because when they see the job that you are doing with Skyler? There won't be a person in the world that won't want to read about that.
Sandra,
What I've read from your work surely seems ThugLit-worthy...I don't know, maybe you should give Todd another try?
Honey,
I'll comment on that site in private, they'll get no mention or love, here.
Paulie Decibels,
Dude, only so much of that is luck...
It's hard not to get discouraged though. There are a few markets out there that no matter how good I think the story is, the said market will always turn it down (or in the case of Thuglit and several other publications, don't bother responding because they don't believe in rejecting anyone, which is cool sometimes, but occasionally you just want to know where you went wrong with the story, but whatever.
And, Sandra, I'm actually surprised you've never had one in thuglit? Your stuff just seems to be taylor made for Todd and Lady D's taste. So seriously, keep trying!)
But back to the question at hand. No, I tend to not give up on a market even if I've gotten three or four rejections (or more) I just tend to use the Bukowski method and send the next one out and wait for the next rejection. (Not that the rejection doesn't piss me off, but it does drive me to finish the next story and send it off, call it anger motivation.)
So, Cormac, keep sending them, they'll crack eventually.
Keith,
Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. The whole thing that was and is still getting to me, is my attempts to get non-crime fiction out there...maybe someday.
It is definitely THEIR loss. Your work is riveting and that's saying something for me since I'm not usually a reader of crime fiction or noir.
I'm curious who turned down the missus too.
Other than a few very short paragraphs, I have given up submitting all together. Until you encouraged me to submit to a certain super short site, I hadn't submitted more than a couple of poems in years.
Then again, you have to write to have something to submit. :)
Princess,
None of them were crime pieces, I'll post one of them today or tomorrow.
The place that turned down The Missus is a content-related site and their criteria is maddening.
And, it goes without saying...
"Then again, you have to write to have something to submit. :)"
...Nag, nag, nag! Get goin', you!
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