I've just been going through my list of what stories have been sent where and I realised that 2 stories were rejected by the same magazine. One took 6 days to be rejected and one 3 months. What was the difference and what can I learn?
I ask this question in the hope that I can try and work out what makes an editor tick.
9 comments:
Hi Gonna Be
It seems to me that different editors tick in different ways - Womag has a great post on her blog about time-scales of rejections, which I found really useful when 'trying' to work out what to expect from an editor.
I think if the magazine rejected one story quickly and another after that many months - the 3 months story must have been being considered!!!
Possibly the one that took six days was a 'pass' from the first reader. The one that took three months probably made it all the way up to the editor's desk?
Personally I think that the longer an editor has a story (if it's the same magazine) the closer you were to getting a yes. I had no idea if it's true or not but have this image of a reader reading all the stories as they come in - sending back the 'nos' and the rest go for the editor to pick through - and that's the stage that can take months. I could be totally wrong but I always console myself that a story came close if it takes months to hear back!
What you all say makes complete sense. I'm going to take comfort from the thought that the one that took three months was a nearly acceptance, which is odd because when I sent it out I regretted sending it as soon as it was posted because I decided that it wasn't ready.
Food for thought.
It wasn't The people's Friend was it? Because the exact same thing happened to me!
It wasn't The People's Friend but that's interesting that the same thing happened to you. It seems that magazines have things in common which isn't surprising I suppose.
Oh how I wish we had process transparency in the publishing business. You know, something like parcel delivery services that have a tracking feature: Your package has been picked, loaded onto truck, now in central delivery office, loaded for delivery, delivered, and so on.
The sad fact seems to be that we have to deal with these things by treating the process as a "black box", without knowing the internals.
I emailed a story to My Weekly recently, and it was rejected the following afternoon!! Quite bluntly too. I will not give up though :o)
Don't give up Karen. That's happened to me too. It sucks.
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