::headdesk::

[j_cheney]

I queried an editor who has had a story for 397 days.

I didn't actually intend to.

I located their confirmation e-mail yesterday just to check its date, and considered querying, but decided that their query e-mila addy wasn't likely to be the same as their automated confirmation addy, so I thought "I'll just close this and worry about it when it hits 400 days"

Except I must have hit "send" instead...

I got an e-mail from the asst editor today asking why I'd sent them a blank e-mail, so I figured I'd better go ahead and query...

Which means a rejection is soon forthcoming.

I feelz dumb.

Comments

[e-underwood.livejournal.com]

Oh, no. Can you just tell him what you said up there? :-) Tell him you weren't really querying? Oh, it sounds odd any way you slice it.

Querying is so worrysome!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I tried to, but it's hard to do without sounding like an utter dope.

Hi, I wanna be a riter in yur magazeen, but I can'ts figur out how to uze my computer machine...

::headdesk::

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't worry too much. Email goofs happen, and I doubt any place would count it against your story.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I can only hope not ;o)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Seriously, can you imagine this scenario

"Oh, this story is really interesting, but you know... she did send us that blank e-mail... guess we'll have to reject." :-P

I feel for you, though. I sent a poem in to a place a little while ago and then foolishly asked for a status update a mere 2 WEEKS after sending it in! And they said explicitly on their page not to check on status until after 3 months had gone by. So I feel like a total idiot, and obnoxious to boot. I have an excuse--the submissions page was down when I went to check up on turnaround (but what was I thinking? no one turns around in two weeks...)--so I just sent off the query.... and to the wrong address, too (because on the submissions page, there was a different address if you were checking status... but of course since the page was down, I didn't see that...)

So yeah, now I think that poem is DOOOMED... but I had better wait until my three months are up and see...

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. Frustrating as it is to make boo-boos, they do happen.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'll try to say optomistic. ;o)

[alaneer.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time. Try not to worry.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

No point in it, really. If they reject it, they reject it. Must locate another market. This was market #9 for this story. I've never gone that high before. Yick.

[alaneer.livejournal.com]

So maybe it will stop at #9, as there's a 50% chance it will get an acceptance. :)

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

What was my record? 25? 9 is no big deal.

[orogeny.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't worry about it. Obviously, the universe intended you to query!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

WOW....cosmic...

[reudaly.livejournal.com]

Wow, you've never gone above #9 in your markets? I'm jealous. I might average out about that between the ones that sell to the first 3 and the ones that go 15 - 20 before finding a home...

And what everyone else said - don't worry about it. Email goofs happen. Attachments don't get attached. Blanks go out. SEND ALLs happen. It's okay. There are more pressing concerns to the editors than that.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

You know, I really haven't been submitting all that long. ;o) I just looked, and my first sub went out 10/12/05....wow, that's really close to 3 years on the dot!

I'll try not to worry about it, I just have a real thing about being wrong. (or stupid, in this case) ;o)

[pabba.livejournal.com]

Keep this up, and I'm going to have to take your email away until the end of the schoolday.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

;oP

I usually have good finger control....I really don't know how it happened. Seriously.

I am, however, the person who forwarded an e-mail in which I called a parent a 'stage mother' to the parent in quesiton....so my history isn't totally clean.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

That's okay, an editor at one of the Majors sent me a rejection for another person's story. (grin) Turns out my story was rejected, too, just that the title hadn't been changed in between rejection letters. (double-grin) However, I now have a rejection for a story I haven't written...?

Querying doesn't produce rejections. More likely than not it uncovers rejections that they (thought they had) previously sent. Or else they like their slush piles more than a year deep.

Dr. Phil

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Aw man, collecting other people's rejections is added misery! (Though I guess there's a schadenfreude element to it too...)

[musingaloud.livejournal.com]

And then there was the time I addressed a submission to the wrong editor ... *still* don't know who the "other editor" was, and thank goodness the market must not have either. I got a hand slap, but the story did go on hold although it was ultimately rejected. But yeah I hates that stooooopid feeling.

But I've also heard rumors that queries do get the story rejected, which really isn't fair. 397 days is a LONG time.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine recently sold to htis market at 405 days....which was why I was willing to wait. :o(

[justin-pilon.livejournal.com]

Doh! That send button should really have a confirmation feature...

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

So true...

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

I can't see an editor passing up a good story over something like that.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but an iffy story?