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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Express Lane: 12 Rejections or Less


I wanted to see just how fast they are over at Subtropics. So, I mailed a hardcopy of my story off via the snail, and this came in my e-mailbox exactly 7 days later! I particularly appreciated the closing ad for the new issue for the Subtropics double issue, featuring none other than  stolen baboon, who has gotten in front and center, (not you):

From: Subtropics Magazine
Date: April 18, 2008 2:33:55 PM EDT
To: writerrejected@aol.com
Subject: "[title of story]"
Reply-To: subtropicsmag@yahoo.com

Thanks very much for sending us your work. We have now had a chance to read it, and feel that it isn't right for SUBTROPICS. But we appreciate your thinking of us.

Please note that we have updated our website and submissions guidelines.

http://www.english.ufl.edu/subtropics

The Editors

---
SUBTROPICS 6 will be published in May 2008, a double issue with two covers! Featuring stories by
Jacob M. Appel, John Brandon, Nadia Kalman, and Celeste Ng; an essay by Timothy Cook; a novella by Peter Wells; and 41 poets, including Peter Cooley, Averill Curdy, Richard Kenney, John Kinsella, Kathleen Rooney, Reginald Shepherd, A. E. Stallings, G. C. Waldrep, and Suzanne Zweizig. In translation: poems by Silvio D'Arzo, Tomaz Salamun, and Hai Zi and a story by Ricardo Silva Romero.

http://www.english.ufl.edu/subtropics

Now that is damn fast, oddly fast, in fact. (I think I might send a whole bunch more, just to see if they can keep it up, kind of an experiment in express rejecting.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a great interview with David Leavitt here:

http://courtthejesters.blogspot.com/2008/04/david-leavitt-dire-state-of-fictions.html

I don't think there's any problem with a speedy reply; seven days is long enough to receive a story and read it, and reject it if it's not right for the magazine. I'd prefer that to a 4-6 month wait!

Writer, Rejected said...

Wasn't complaining, other than because I got rejected.

Kate Evans said...

I've been feelin' your blog, wanted you to know.

Have you ever read Martin Eden by Jack London? It's about a writer's excruciating journey through his attempts to get published. Eventually he does get published, and famous, and then he tries to kill himself by jumping off a ship--and as he struggles to drown himself, he keeps popping up and can't fully go under. I won't tell you what finally happens so as to not spoil the ending, so to speak.

And thus, I suppose, we must draw our own conclusions from the novel's symbolism...

Debbie said...

Here's a look at a 32-day poetry rejection, which came in April 17:

Thank you very much for your submission to Subtropics. We enjoyed the opportunity to review your work. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a place for your poems in the magazine, though we do wish you luck in placing them elsewhere.

All best,

The Poetry Editors
Subtropics

jes

---
SUBTROPICS 6 will be published in May 2008, a double issue with two covers! Featuring stories by Jacob M. Appel, John Brandon, Nadia Kalman, and Celeste Ng; an essay by Timothy Cook; a novella by Peter Wells; and 41 poets, including Peter Cooley, Averill Curdy, Richard Kenney, John Kinsella, Kathleen Rooney, Reginald Shepherd, A. E. Stallings, G. C. Waldrep, and Suzanne Zweizig. In translation: poems by Silvio D'Arzo, Tomaz Salamun, and Hai Zi and a story by Ricardo Silva Romero.

http://www.english.ufl.edu/subtropics

Anonymous said...

He's about to break big. I can feel it. Mark my words. You know who I mean.

Anonymous said...

I don't know. I still wonder about Subtropics. The quick rejections that we've all experienced so well. How can they possibly read these things? I think half of each issue is solicited anyway. Can you get in through the slush? Maybe, but I think that everything they print is more or less the same anyway. So you better have that.

Anonymous said...

"I don't think there's any problem with a speedy reply; seven days is long enough to receive a story and read it, and reject it if it's not right for the magazine. I'd prefer that to a 4-6 month wait!"

Not The Point.

Yeah, 7 days much better than 6 months. (Speaking of, Paris Review and New Yorker have subs from me for longer than that, grr.)

But you do have to WONDER about the snappy turnaround here. Does Leavitt really read each sub? Elsewhere on the web it was hinted at that grad students read it. However Leavitt has said that he does read them all. In any event it's better than Howard Junker who "ages" his subs, that sucks.

I am *so* frustrated with the whole process. The only answer is to write non-fiction. Then at least you can make a living at it.