Not quite the 12 days of Christmas. Two rejections on 23 December, one on 27 December, one on 29 December. Opened the first rejection email of the year on 2 January, only to find it was an acceptance. An excellent way to start the year. Details to follow, but the outline is an “anthology about […]
Jane Sullivan writing in this Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald, suggests that writers aim for 100 rejections as a new year’s resolution. She cites an American literary writer being pleased with her 43 rejections in a year, and shellacking (there is a word I have not read in a long time) her rejection slips onto her […]
It is quite possible you can learn something from feedback accompanying a rejection. I’m sure someone has. A recent rejection of a story of mine was accompanied by feedback from two of the slush readers for the magazine: “… really strong narrative voice and prose control. … it’s all developed and described quite well” and […]
Julian Barnes’ review in The Guardian of William Trevor’s final collection really inspires me to get it now and read it, despite the toppling pile of books my puritan-self (who the hell is that? I’ll fight him!) says I have to read before I can buy any more. Here I steal, not from the stories […]
Sorry, but this one is a little too odd for us Two days in a row? Are you guys talking to each other about me behind my back? 🙂 Life is short. I am never going to have a career or find celebrity as a writer. Don’t want to. In the little bits of time […]
This is a strange story that is oddly written start to finish. Why, thank you!
Quite. Otherwise, what would be the point?
Have I mentioned that I cannot stand a cute rejection? It doesn’t make me feel better, and it makes me think I wasn’t taken seriously. I dislike them even more than normal rejection. At least I am used to normal rejection. Cute rejection is worse than chirpy morning people. I think I like rejections that aren’t […]
Just worked my way through 113 e mails, quite liked this one 🙂 Hi David, Thank you for submitting your work to XXX, and our apologies for taking so long to provide you with a response. We were saving the acceptance emails until last. Yes, congratulations! We’d love to publish your story, pending the editorial […]
Story J*: From Daily Science Fiction – “PS This was an almost for us”. Story E*: From someone else – “Probably your best attempt. Very well written, and I loved how descriptive it was, but, frankly, the competition is tight here, and I’m forced to turn down otherwise good stuff”. Thanks heaps! Great to get […]
Nobody is looking 