Rejections

[Tom]

If there is anything worse than being rejected, it is being ignored.
Okay, so I have misquoted Oscar Wilde, but how often does a badly-written, good story get read?
I am new to this writing thing, I started writing screenplays 5 years ago (in German at first). I wrote Alien 5 and sent a synopsis off to Fox, per paper mail. They told me (the legal department) they hadn't even read the synopsis (pigs can fly) and to not send anything else concerning "Alien".
I have heard Fox is producing another Alien film, about visiting the planet of origin, wow! does that sound familiar.
Do not search for a publisher, do not search for agents who only accepts E-mail submissions, (they live with their laptop in a cupboard under the stairs, you know, the Harry Potter type, and they have to bonk the landlady for food and drink,) and don't send an SAE if you live abroad like me, let them e-mail you.

Write on, and on, and on, and love it,

Tom.

[Jayne]

I've had another short story rejected today. Oh well, it means I'm getting closer to an acceptance.

[Susie-J]

Chin up, Jayne. The only way is up....

.....maybe next time! 

[smudge]

A very arrogant and (almost) more punchable creature than Nick Griffin once said to me that short stories were irrelevant and only fodder for magazines read by online idiots and menopausal, frigid women who live in a fantasy world.
  This agent/ slug can suck off his percentage but he`ll never have your talent, Jayne. Keep plugging away. Good people always get their due.x

[scary claire]

Dont let them get you down, Jayne x

[Nubs]

I've had another short story rejected today. Oh well, it means I'm getting closer to an acceptance.

That's the way to look at it Jayne... always look on the brighter side... and remember it's THEIR loss, not yours... 

[Kiwicraig]

I've had another short story rejected today. Oh well, it means I'm getting closer to an acceptance.

Exactly. Just think - when you get a story accepted, and things grow into more success from there, you'll be able to look back and say, I got [x] number of rejections before I first got accepted, and look at me now...

And just think, if writers knew exactly what that [x] number would be in advance, the rejections would be welcomed, as ticking them off one-by-one to get to that first acceptance - it's just that they don't know the [x], that makes it really tough.

So keep your chin up Jayne. Persistence pays off. You will get there.

[Jayne]

Thanks so much for the support, guys. It truly means such a lot. x

[tortoiseshell]

Sorry to hear that, Jane.

I trust it wasn't the story of yours that I read very recently. 'cos if it is - well it just goes to show that they have some very strange ideas of what makes a good story for their magazine.

Stick with it, Hen. It will only be a matter of time.  T xx

[Jayne]

Yeah, Shelley, it was the story that you read last week. Thanks for the support, hun. x

[tortoiseshell]

Sorry to hear that, Hen. I would have put money on them accepting that one. It seemed to me to fit in perfectly with their requirements.

Keep at it, though, Jayne. Your time will come T xx

[Jayne]

Thanks, Shelley. x

[smudge]

All we need to do is to keep going. I know we have a wide range of talents. I love the forum and the support that is meted out. No matter how bad things seem, we must keep going.
  I feel like giving up every single day. Then I realise that I have folk on here who haven`t given up on me.
  It only takes one person in the right place to read what you have done and champion it. Then it`s all systems go. I look at the same bubble of wallpaper above the PC every night and promise myself I will pop it when I get a deal.
  If Alfie has to do it after I am dead and gone, then so be it. The whole slum can be decorated, but that strip will stay until I get there.

[kevindj]

It'll be done before he gets to nursery school, Simon.

[ronniesoak]

Got my first ever rejection letter today... a MILESTONE!!!!  The agency doesn't deal in historical fiction, which was bad research on my part...