February 2009 Archives

Professional analysis, criticism, and comments are available at affordable prices. Email xxxxxxxxx at xxxxx for details.

To me, this sounds like if f I want to know if they accepted me I have to wait till November, and check.  It sounds like they don't intend to even send out rejections or acceptances.  And if submitters have to check and find out if this market wants to run their story, do they also have to email them for a contract? 

And the wording at the end seems pretty shady to me.  "I can't critique you for free, but if you follow this link down here, you can pay me for one."  It doesn't all that long to do a personalized rejection.  It takes even less time to do a form, but it seems like this market doesn't even have time for that. 

Bizarre.  

I just got an automated response to my query thanking me for my story and asking me to wait five months before querying. 

I also sent out another story.

Yesterday I submitted six stories, and today I sent out query letters to Escape Pod, Aberrant Dreams, Coyote Wild, and From the Asylum.  I figure 245, 266, 246, and 281 days is long enough to wait to send a query without seeming pushy.  I know at least two of them actually got my stories because they sent confirmations.  From the Asylum doesn't seem to be letting me send my query.  It keeps bouncing.  First it just bounced, but then I got something telling me to try another address.  And then that bounced.  As did the one I sent to their main editorial address. Lots of bounced emails.  Is a little frustrating.  

Thank you for submitting your manuscript, Journal of an Artist. 
While  the subject matter is of interest to our readers and the 
story is well  written, the story itself does not fit in well 
with our current releases.
 
Thank you again for your interest, we hope you will submit again in  
the future.

Also....

Thanks for your submission.  Unfortunately, we cannot accept your story at this time.  We appreciate the time and effort put into this story, and we hope that you will not hesitate to submit more work.  We are glad that you're enjoying xxxxxxxx, and we hope that we will be able to feature some more of your work in the future. Once again, thank you, and please keep listening!

 

Awkwardly,

This one you could probably figure out who they are if you think about
it, so don't.  

Both of these are perfectly fine rejection slips.  The first one 
frustrates me a little bit more, because it makes me feel like 
the universe hates me.  The second one is actually growing on 
me.  I'd worried that the story I sent them might be a bit too 
dark, and if that is the case I wish they'd told me so.  The 
awkwardly thing as their signature was a bit weird.  They don't 
need to apologize to mefor not taking it.  I'd rather they told 
me why.