04.18.2008
Normally, I try to let everyone know about the rejections I receive about as soon as they come in. Sometimes, you people get to read about them about an hour after I get them, how's that for response time?
Anyway... Wednesday night, I got my drunk on in a pretty serious way. I didn't mean to but, lo and behold, before I knew it it was four o'clock in the morning and I was seriously fucked.
That's when I got home and found my forty-fifth rejection.
The good editors at Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show were seriously burning the midnight oil as the timestamp on the sucker was ten to four in the morning. Jesus H. Christ, my friends.
Still, I'm glad it came. This is the one that I've been promising for a very long time. At the end of the day, it clocked in at ninety-six days on the editor's desk.
But, they said nothing interesting or personal. Bear witness:
Thank you for offering your story to Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. We're sorry to tell you that we will not be using it; you are free to submit it elsewhere.
So.. yeah. That was for my story, Rugged Individualists marking the third time it was rejected. Sure, it's not the most rejected of all of my pieces but it feels like it's been rejected a lot. I mean, for three rejections, it's managed to be out for two hundred and nine days.
That's an average nearly seventy days per rejection. Jesus! Compare that to Drug Enforcement, my most rejected, which has seven rejections for a total of two hundred and eleven days averaging just about thirty days per.
It's fucked up, yo. Fucked up.
Anyway... as I said, this is rejection number forty-five. It marks the fifth rejection from IGMS but their average response time is eighty-seven days even though this one took ninety-six. My average response time for the year is nearly forty-three days per, which is up from the previous two years by a great deal and only kept that low because of F&SF's outstanding return times. This is my eleventh rejection for the year. I also have four stories still out, so we'll see how it goes.
By the by, for those not great at math, that means that I've got forty-nine submissions. One more and, if I don't fuck up by getting published, I'll have fifty rejections on my hands when it comes back. So keep your eyes out for a notification of a Fiftieth Rejection Party. I've been pondering it and I believe that the festivities will include lots of whiskey and a reading of selected rejection letters.
So... a good time to be had by all.
Cheers, people. And remember, when I get rejected, you'll always read it here first.