The Elusive Rejection
Now this one's worthy of a blog posting. After all my bitching about McSweeney's non-responding ways, I finally got that long-awaited rejection today.
And... you may ask, how long did the response take? Uh, 20 months! Yes, indeed, this story was first sent to them in the spring of 2003. Yep, 2003, that's not a typo.
I guess if I didn't keep careful enough track of my submissions I might have forgiven them because of the email (which, I might add, definitely seemed a form rejection if I've ever seen one). However, it went on about their back log as well as their commitment to reading every piece fairly.
Here's a snippet: Sorry again for the slow reply; we were extremely backed-up, but we wanted to give every story a fair look. I think we're finally getting it
under control.
They did have a part about welcoming another submission, but since the whole thing read very much like a form letter, I have my doubts whether that holds much credibility.
In case you're alarmed, I did give up on this one quite some time ago and had since resubmitted it elsewhere. Just so I don't sound like too much of a ninny, like I just let that slide for 20 months. (Ugh.)
Anyway, thought I'd let you guys know in case you wanted to take a swing at McSweeney's. Seeing how they have it under control and all. ;) In all seriousness, though, sure, McSweeney's would be a coup, but if the competition's that steep to get in... well, might as well submit to one of the other big names, which, while not fast in responses, are a lot faster than this.
Thanks for reading,
LLB
And... you may ask, how long did the response take? Uh, 20 months! Yes, indeed, this story was first sent to them in the spring of 2003. Yep, 2003, that's not a typo.
I guess if I didn't keep careful enough track of my submissions I might have forgiven them because of the email (which, I might add, definitely seemed a form rejection if I've ever seen one). However, it went on about their back log as well as their commitment to reading every piece fairly.
Here's a snippet: Sorry again for the slow reply; we were extremely backed-up, but we wanted to give every story a fair look. I think we're finally getting it
under control.
They did have a part about welcoming another submission, but since the whole thing read very much like a form letter, I have my doubts whether that holds much credibility.
In case you're alarmed, I did give up on this one quite some time ago and had since resubmitted it elsewhere. Just so I don't sound like too much of a ninny, like I just let that slide for 20 months. (Ugh.)
Anyway, thought I'd let you guys know in case you wanted to take a swing at McSweeney's. Seeing how they have it under control and all. ;) In all seriousness, though, sure, McSweeney's would be a coup, but if the competition's that steep to get in... well, might as well submit to one of the other big names, which, while not fast in responses, are a lot faster than this.
Thanks for reading,
LLB
posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 1:14 AM
3 Comments:
Wow. At least there's closure to the whole thing, although I'm sorry you got rejected. I finally heard from the New Yorker last week, after seven months, so I understand, although 20 months is a little out of the realm of my comprehension. I guess it's good to know that the big magazines actually do read stuff and get back to us little peons. God, can you imagine us as writers in the days before e-mail? We'd be waiting a year to hear from a publisher and would just have to gone on with our lives.
Wow. 20 months is out of hand. Probably part of their problem is their specialty issues...devoting a whole issue to non-fiction, and another to graphic fiction. That shrinks the pool already. Did you apply to the print, or online or both?
Jen, all the chickens are coming home to roost. I'm sorry to hear about the rejection but at least now you can move on with things, send it elsewhere, etc. Even 7 months is a long time, I think.
And Hebdomeros, I think I probably sent it to the print side. Silly me. But one of my goals is to get a few pieces in print. But I'm sure that held things up. But... 20 months! Good Lord, it's unfathomable.
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