44 day rejection

[j_cheney]

"Whatever Else" by ROF. I'm now at 3 blue and 2 yellow. I'm backsliding.

Here I was all pleased because I'd gotten my 'out' list up to 3 stories, and it immediately slides back to 2. Must get this one back out! It's an odd-ball story, so I'll have to think about it and try to find a good market for it.

ETA: Finished the first draft of the new "Shared Dreams" and it's off to the first reader.
ETA (a bit later): above story is off to Weird Tales. Back up to 3 submissions!

Comments

[orogeny.livejournal.com]

I /hate/ the backsliding. I used to get a much better class of rejection. Never a YFoP, though. You have your finger on the RoF pulse. =D

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think it's had. I had two yellows, but since then have only gotten blues. Blech!

Oh, well. We can't all be ogre_san

Please, please, can I be? Perty please?

[tlmorganfield.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean by the backsliding thing. It feels so crappy when you go from getting good commentary back to forms. Don't let it get you down though. I went through a phase with F&SF where I got a bunch of nice personal rejections from GVG then a whole slew of "didn't grab me"'s and was sure that anyday he was going to boot me back down to the slush. But the last couple I've gotten have been encouraging again--actually, better than the personal ones I was getting before. Just keep at it.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks...I need the pep talk!

It's often weird how a story will be well-received (but not sold) in one place, and bottom out somewhere else. So I'm quibbling between F&SF or Weird Tales (where I think it woudl fit better) But it'll go back out tomorrow, most likely. ;o)

[tlmorganfield.livejournal.com]

It's often weird how a story will be well-received (but not sold) in one place, and bottom out somewhere else.

Yes. My finalist story for WotF got a "didn't grab me" from F&SF, so there's obviously no science whatsoever to any of this. Sometimes we just need to trust our instincts rather than trying to read things into rejections, particularly the form ones (and no, I didn't change anything at all between markets because I liked the story as is.).

Good luck wherever you decide to send it tomorrow!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Already gone to Weird Tales...

Love the icon, BTW. ;o)

Hmmmm...

[namelessarchon.livejournal.com]

LOL, I checked my email but didn't get a copy of Shared Dreams, so I guess I am not the 'first reader' *wink* Hope all goes well with the next submission!

[david-de-beer.livejournal.com]

yeah, the backslide is sometimes the most demoralizing part of it; it's like "what am I doing different than before!?!??!"

anyways, better luck with the next round

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks! One of the reasons that I read the blogs of people like Eugie Foster and Richard Parks is that I take comfort in knowing that they get rejected too....If they do, then it's not that unusual. ;o)