If someone's not going to sleep with me, I demand to know why!
Oh wait....
Oh wait....
How much information do you need on rejections?
| Author | Comment | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 Shocklines |
|||
|
Posts: 28105 (05/30/08 11:06:00) Administrator |
Shocklines.com -- your one-stop shop for hell on earth
|
||
 scottstandridge |
|||
|
Posts: 45 (05/30/08 11:30:51) |
Steve Vernon Nova Scotia wrote: Steve speaks the truth, Dogpoet. I personally have had to reject good stories before because we had something with a similar subject/storyline slated for
the next issue already.
Managing Editor
City Slab Magazine [website] [blog] Personal Blog: Defined By Negatives Movie Blog: Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies Poetry Blog: The Sonnet Project |
||
|
Horror fic |
|||
|
Posts: 289 (05/30/08 17:25:34) Veteran Shockliner |
Qusoor wrote: Yeah, I've gotten those. The first time I received a really in-depth one, I stared at the screen in disbelief. Not because I thought "oh, how can they reject moi?" but because they said they liked the story so much, but they still weren't going to accept it because it didn't quite fit. I kept thinking "well, if you really liked it so much, why don't you pay me?" But I got over it. Still, like Qusoor said, those are the ones I keep on my list to submit to again; they show that at least that my writing isn't total crap, and maybe with some tweaking and a big dose of good fortune I might have a chance to get something published by them in the future. I still don't know which is worse--the almost-but-not-quite rejection or the form rejection. Form rejections are easier to forget, but personal rejections show that at least you're somewhere in the ballpark. |
||
|
Stephen Bacon |
|||
|
Posts: 273 (05/30/08 22:38:20) Shockliner |
The only 'real' piece of information in the email is the 'yes' or 'no' part. Anything else is generally not much use.
The two best rejections I've ever had were from Barbara Roden for All Hallows - where the rejection was concise and constructive, with suggestions why she didn't like it - and Gary Fry for the Paging Mr Hitchcock anthology, where the rejection was incredibly detailed and constructive. Although he pointed out why the story didn't work, he was very encouraging and supportive. No word of a lie, that reply was more positive than many of the acceptances I've received. The main wory with form rejections (call me paranoid) is that they are bland to the point that you cannot tell if your writing was shit, or whether it was 'just not appropriate' for that particular publication. I would hate to think that my misjudged work of genius received the same response as a piece written by Johnny Zombiehead, which was peppered with spelling mistakes/awful dialogue/cliched plot/beastiality content/non ms format/etc, etc. I suppose that I'm saying I would rather be told that my writing was shit (if it was), rather than false 'praise'. Honesty is the best policy in the long run. How else would we improve? |
||
|
dogpoet |
|||
|
Posts: 3173 (05/31/08 04:25:18) Top-Tier Shockliner Demon |
Steve speaks the truth, Dogpoet. I personally have had to reject good stories before because we had something with a similar subject/storyline slated for the next issue already. Fair enough, but are you in the habit of specifying what the problem actually was? I've had a fair few of those sort of rejections that don't, and as I say, in the absence of any reasons for the rejection, it might just as well be a form rejection. |
||
|
wm ollie |
|||
|
Posts: 1202 (05/31/08 05:30:34) Shocklineraholic |
I had an agent rejection that said 'while you have a great flair for story telling and a solid grasp of plotting, you fall victim to mistakes and missteps
that a great deal of writers do'.
That pissed me off to no end, because I had, and still have no idea what she was talking about. I feel if you're going to make a statement like that, then you should give some kind of illustration of what you mean. (What mistakes and missteps?) The fact that she didn't pretty much rendered her comments useless, and made me wonder if SHE even knew what she was talking about. It's a cold, cruel world out there, best to laugh it off and keep on stroking. |
||
|
dogpoet |
|||
|
Posts: 3174 (05/31/08 07:02:09) Top-Tier Shockliner Demon |
It is completely pointless saying something like that without providing any detail, you're right.
|
||
|
scottstandridge |
|||
|
Posts: 47 (06/02/08 05:21:54) |
dogpoet wrote: If the problem was that we had just published something similar or had a similar story slated for the next issue (as stated above), then yes, I will specify that. I'm interested to hear that people would be receptive to an editor telling them their writing was shit. I tend to think that kind of rejection sounds
better to writers in the abstract than in the concrete. I could be wrong, though.
As to critiques, generally I personally will only specify problems/offer critique if I think (based on what I've seen of the author's work, which is usually just the one story) that the person might conceivably have a chance of writing something we'd like one day. I get lots of stories that--as harsh as it is to say--are just SO bad and with SUCH a lack of style or storytelling talent displayed, that I really don't think I could critique them into shape. And let's face it--editors are not running writing-improvement courses or workshops; they're trying to produce a magazine. There's just not enough time to workshop every piece, particularly when you really can't see there being a payoff (i.e., a good story sent your way in the foreseeable future) for the time put in. But again, a lot of this depends on when you catch an editor. In the past, when I was feeling generous or didn't have a lot of stories in the inbox at that particular moment, I have offered suggestions to authors who obviously had a long way to go before publishing with anybody. But the more submissions City Slab receives and the closer we get to our pub date, the less likely something like that is to happen.In another thread on this board I read page after page of authors talking about their "worst rejections ever," and many of them were of the "your writing is shit" variety--which makes me think that there's just no pleasing some people. *wink*
Managing Editor
City Slab Magazine [website] [blog] Personal Blog: Defined By Negatives Movie Blog: Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies Poetry Blog: The Sonnet Project |
||
|
nebuly |
|||
|
Posts: 832 (06/02/08 06:40:10) Master Shockliner |
As to critiques, generally I personally will only specify problems/offer critique if I think (based on what I've seen of the author's work, which is usually just the one story) that the person might conceivably have a chance of writing something we'd like one day. I get lots of stories that--as harsh as it is to say--are just SO bad and with SUCH a lack of style or storytelling talent displayed, that I really don't think I could critique them into shape. And let's face it--editors are not running writing-improvement courses or workshops; they're trying to produce a magazine. Well said. The best I can say about many of the stories I see is that they're competent: the writer clearly has some idea of plotting, and knows the basics of grammar and spelling, but that's about it. The words just lie there on the page, with no spark, no passion, nothing to make me want to turn the page; the characters are flat and instantly forgettable; the plot shows no originality, no depth; in short, it's a 'connect the dots' exercise which I've forgotten within minutes of reading the last page (if I've made it that far). In those circumstances, I give a stock 'Thanks but no thanks' reply, because no amount of comment or suggestion is going to make the story publishable (by me, anyway), and I frankly don't have the time or inclination to give an in-depth critique which will not, at the end of the day, produce a story I can use, and which will probably not go down very well with the author, either. If you want a frank and in-depth critique of your story, join a writer's group. |
||
|
Douglas Clegg |
|||
|
Posts: 3471 (06/02/08 06:51:26) Top-Tier Shockliner Demon |
All I ever need is a "yes" or a "no." But some editors like to go further, and if they wish to do so, that's their prerogative. Some
editors -- like Ellen Datlow -- are in place because of their commitment, experience, and expertise, and any word from those kinds of editors is invaluable.
But again, in terms of what I "need," per the original question here, "yes" or "no" is fine. But not both. |
||
|
dogpoet |
|||
|
Posts: 3183 (06/02/08 10:52:51) Top-Tier Shockliner Demon |
scottstandridge wrote: Thanks, Scott. I appreciate your taking the effort to clarify this. I'm sure you're entirely correct that there are people who object to the "this was shit: fuck off", approach, as you say, but if they can't take a little positive (or even completely negative) criticism, they're never going to raise their game any. I have wondered whether a few of the "we like this but we ain't buying it" letters that gave no reasons why they weren't buying it they liked it (most of the ones I've received lately, I'd better hasten to add, did give reasons which I'm all for) might not have been doing the mealy mouth rather than speaking freely on occasion, but as you say, editors don't necessarily have the time to put their finger on what's lacking in a story that almost works for them. (On the other hand, if the editor of -I think- Galaxy hadn't thoroughly critiqued Alfred Bester's early subs, we'd never have seen The Demolished Man or Tiger! Tiger!, so it isn't always a wasted effort.) |
||
|
Blunt Ed D |
|||
|
Posts: 66 (06/02/08 13:25:21) Apprentice Shockliner |
A straight yes or no is fine, but I think it's better for both writer and publisher if it's possible to provide the writer some comment on why the
story wasn't suitable for the market.
Though I have seen stories where there is so much wrong with them that you could spend days trying to explain the various points and it would still be futile, because from the standard of the writing you can tell the writer wouldn't have the necessary frame of reference to understand the feedback anyway. So I understand why sometimes a straight yes or no is all that's forthcoming.
-----
Ed Dempster
|
||
Quick Reply
Logo design and background image by Caniglia
