Saturday, April 17, 2010

Reject and Resubmit, and a Great Resource

One of the stories I have out on submission bounced last night, although with a nice paragraph of personal comments, including the fact that they found the story "intellectually interesting." Hey, I'll take that. :) Also some comments on POV which might be valid, but reworking it as suggested would take like 90% of the suspense out of the story, so I think I'll keep it as-is and see what a few other editors think.

(I've decided to stop specifying which stories I'm discussing in the back-and-forthing, unless/until they sell. We know it's all supposed to be about the story and nothing else, but human nature says that making it easy for an editor to exercise the Google-fu and see that sixteen editors before them have bounced the story is probably not a great idea. [wry smile])

I also signed up with Duotrope and threw them a few bucks. I've been using them on and off for a while now and they're a great resource; it's only fair to contribute. For anyone who hasn't been there, Duotrope provides submission info on like a bazillion fiction and poetry markets. Their searches are easy to do and provide all the basic info you need to sort through markets, with quick links to the market's own web site for more detailed info.

Signing up lets you create an account (which is free, by the way) and gives you access to a personal database to track your submissions. You can enter info about your stories, which lets you run quicker targetted searches when it's time to send something out. It also tracks how long a story's been out, how long it took the market to respond, and what kind of response you got; collecting that info lets them display, on the market's page, what their minimum, mean average, median and maximum response times have been over the past year, what their accept/reject percentage is, how often they reject with a form versus a personal note, etc.

Good stuff, highly recommended.

Angie

6 comments:

Bernita said...

"I think I'll keep it as-is and see what a few other editors think."

Absolutely! It's a subjective industry, and "results may vary!"In fact, always vary!

Angie said...

Bernita -- exactly. [nod] You never know whether the next editor on your list might love what the previous one disliked. :)

Angie

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great link

Angie said...

Jocelyn -- you're very welcome, and good luck. :)

Angie

Whit said...

You always know of some of the best resources! You know I'm gonna go check it out! :D

Angie said...

Whitni -- definitely check them out. [nodnod]

Angie