dragonoflife | (no subject)

I am currently in possession of the nicest rejection letter on Earth.

Last August I submitted a short story to Black Gate Publishing, which is (to something of my shame) the first story I've ever submitted for publication. I didn't expect it to be accepted, of course, but they did sit on it a long time, so I was a little hopeful.

Today I got a letter from them, which below the standard rejection boilerplate had the following note from the editor:

Please accept my apologies for holding this so long as we considered it. It really is inexcusable.

Almost. I really enjoyed this one -- it's fast paced and exciting, and was a terrific premise. But it's not as original as a handful of others we're considering at the moment.

You have a real flair for ploy and character, and I hope you'll try us again soon. We've worked hard this quarter to eliminate our backlog andget our response time back to normal.

Like I said, nicest rejection letter on earth.

So I need to ship out my story somewhere else, now, and meanwhile write something new. And I already have an idea...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You're several steps ahead of me, that's for sure. Thanks for posting the link to Black Gate Publishing. I'll have to look into them. As soon as I finish this long short story I've been working on, I'd like to send it out and see where it gets me. Maybe I'll try them.

I'm glad you aren't taking this rejection as an ultimate failure. I have to admit that I half expected you would, as pessimistic as you can be sometimes. ;P Where are you going to send it next? Out of curiosity.

Haven't decided. Gonna take a look at the SFWA's list of magazines and see where looks good and likely.

Honestly, I expected to be rejection. But to be complimented and told I really came close was not something I expected at all! This is a much more heartening rejection than I could've hoped for!

Try this: I picked up a bimonthly publication at Borders once. I forget what these things are called. They're short story collections that look like old dimestore novels? This one's called simply Fantasy & Science Fiction, I think. Picked it up last March. There's a website here on the back cover:

http://www.fsfmag.com

And here's an address:

Fantasy&ScienceFiction
PO Box 3447
Hoboken, NJ 07030

Gordon Van Gelder, Publisher/Editor
Robin O'Connor, Assistant Editor
Harlan Ellison, Film Editor
Barbara J. Norton, Assistant Publisher
Keith Kahla, Assistant Publisher
John J. Adams, Assistant Editor
Carol Pinchefsky, Contests Editor

Says here the subscription office, publication office, and general and editorial office are all at the same PO Box. Hope this helps any.

Oooh, I'll take a look into it. Thanks!

No problem. I can also thumb through my recent copies of The Writer for you and send you some copies of recent advertisements to publications. You should look into getting a subscription to that magazine. There are a LOT of helpful ads in the back every month, categorized for all your writing needs. There's also a lot of really good articles. As I told Ellen, I think The Writer is a better magazine than Writer's Digest. But they're both great.