09.24.2007
So I was working at Fish Bar last night and my buddy Howzr dropped by to have a beer and chill out. Anyway, we got to talking and he asked me if I'd received any rejections lately and I said, "Nah, but I've got two stories out that've been taking a really long time in their respective markets. I'm expecting a rejection any day now."
Well, you know, we laughed. Because it's funny, right?
Sure enough, when I get home, I find #29 from IGMS sitting in my inbox saying:
We're sorry to tell you that we will not be using it; you are free to submit it elsewhere.
The story in question was Drug Enforcement and marked the fourth rejection for that little piece of work after 85 days. All said, it's about as neutral a rejection as one can get, not encouraging but neither is it discouraging.
Still, by timestamp - because I was asleep when it arrived - Strange Horizons had much the same to tell me less than eleven hours later for Rugged Individualists.
Thank you for submitting ... but we've decided not to accept it for publication.
And with THAT, people, they've come in at #30! Yeah, baby, yeah!
So, let's break it down like a baseball game, shall we?
- I'm 0 for 6 when it comes to Strange Horizons.
- I'm 0 for 3 with IGMS.
- Not only is this rejection number 30, but I'm on a 30 submittal streak of 0 acceptances. (I'm like the Cubs of writing here.)
- Rugged Individualists is 0 for 2, having been submitted to Abyss & Apex and Strange Horizons with a personal record of 113 days in submission for the number of markets submitted to. Compare that to 137 days for Drug Enforcement for four markets.
- I have 16 complete stories for my world, 10 of which have been submitted at least once, all of which have an average of 3 rejections over an average of 28 days.
And now we're off to Pac Bell Park in the City by the Bay with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan to see the spudWorks Writers get stomped like queers by the Magazine Paying-Editors...
Yep...
You know what's strange? I think I've actually reached the point where rejections are, you know, fun. I have no idea what I'll do if I ever actually get accepted...
It seems like it would just kill my whole flow...