Had coffee with my tea today. That’s a lot of liquid stimulation. Too much, apparently. Ended up with a painless but annoying tic under my left eye. *twitch* Perhaps I need to see about getting some magnesium supplements. Or, I could cut back on the caffeine. Decisions, decisions.
Writing Stuff:
Received a 48-day rejection from Strange Horizons and a whiplash-inducing 1-day rejection from NFG. Ouch, the smarting. It burns! It burns!
Also finally had a chance to go over the contracts Nathan sent me. I need a little gadget that will translate legal writerly jargon for me. Once the terminology gets to a certain (obfuscating) point, my head starts to do one of those Exorcist spins. My brain is in some weird ass sailor’s knot now. Fine for tying up floating vehicles, but not so good for cogitating.
Thirty-one critiques from Critters and counting. I need a new statistics generating system. I consistently get thirty to forty crits these days. Not that I’m complaining, but that many overwhelms my current system.
How the heck do they reject you in 1 day? How does your mail even reach them and get back to you in 1 day?
I thought they had stacks of submissions to go through, necessitating a period of weeks before they could even get to reading them… Or do you bypass all that by having an agent or sending solicited submissions rather than unsolicited ones? Or do you mean it only took them a day to reject once it got to the reading stage, and if so, how do you know when it got read?
“How the heck do they reject you in 1 day?“
See‘s comment below if you haven’t already. Basically, they only accept electronic submissions via their website, and they have a slew of editors.
‘Bout half of my submissions so far to them have made it past their first reader and into the “consideration by the horde” phase, which tends to be much longer. But the other half that don’t make it get rejected within the first day or two. *sigh*
There are other markets that reject that quickly (and even some that buy—H.P. Lovecraft’s bought a story from me in under twenty-four hours) thanks to the electronic age.
nfg has this enlighted and wonderful system for going through their subs. you submit online. entirely. I don’t think they accept subs by mail. They take unsolicited stuff, but they have, like, a bajillion editors, and some stories one really does not have to read the entirety of to make an adequate decision on. The author makes an account with them before you submit anything, and then there’s this kind of bulletin-board style page where you login to check on how you did.
Either they take one look at your story and decide it’s not their thing right now, or they take several looks at your story and take a little longer to come to one consensus or the other, or they buy it. And the longer it takes, the better your chances are.
But my story got rejected in 1 day, too. So, though I know it won’t make you feel better, Eugie–it brightens my outlook that you got the 1-day whiplash, too! I was hoping for at least TWO on mine, but alas….they’re dorks. That’s all. Remember that nothing eases the sting better than childish name-calling. And chocolate. Chocolate works, too.
Yeah, I’m scoring about 50/50 on subs that make it past the first reader into the second round with them (with, of course, the other half being shot down in record time). I don’t seem to write stuff they like. I’ve never made it past their horde. Alas!
Chocolate. Need more chocolate.
I consistently get thirty to forty crits these days. Not that I’m complaining, but that many overwhelms my current system.
Well, you’re a “pro” now, and everybody wants to be your friend. 😉 Of course, you also write a good read, so you get lots of repeat customers.
Out of curiosity, how long is the version of “The Storyteller’s Wife” you sold to ROF?
“Out of curiosity, how long is the version of “The Storyteller’s Wife” you sold to ROF?“
The official word count ended up being 8K, just this side of “novelette.”
Comments (of course)
RE: rejection from NFG.
Well, whom do you toss it now? 🙂
RE: legalese.
When you find it, send me the URL to the website, willya? 😉
Joela
waywriter.blogspot.com
P.S. Will you be participating in NaNoWriMo?
Re: Comments (of course)
“Will you be participating in NaNoWriMo? “
Nah. I don’t really write like that. While I applaud the philosophy behind it, I don’t think it works for my writing style and habits.