Here's an MQR rejection from an anonymous LROD reader, who says, "Apparently I succeeded in sending the right kind of material!" At least there's that.
8 comments:
the next
said...
I got the same kind of rejection a while ago with the same area scratched out, and wasted a long time trying to work out who the person was who initialed my rejection letter. I read the most current issue and looked under the masthead--no one there answered to that initial. So I got paranoid and assumed an intern was using a false name.
To follow on from an earlier conversation about time frames for rejections, the Atlantic Monthly sent one out a few days ago that took 207 days, and usually they respond in 15 days. Let's face it. Some of these submissions are getting lost in the office.
Anybody read the article in this week's NYR about whether or not you can teach creative writing?
literary publishing is really so much of a joke. what if you get accepted by one of these places? you get a "credit" to add to your cv, but you're still a nobody and you're not making money.
There seems to be a theme on writing blogs that if you just work hard enough you'll make it in literary. I think it's more than hard work. Like say, talent. Doesn't mean don't work hard, but hello, I know you couldn't turn me into a great painter, no matter how hard I worked. Why do people assume that "everyone" can learn to write well?
Anon: I guess that is something of a weird way of looking at it. Fame and cash can't really be your only concern when entering a field like short story writing, can it? If so, you picked the wrong career.
That said, publishing in literary journals is the only way to really sell a collection of fiction (not novels necessarily, but story collections) so its a rung on the ladder towards some small form of fame and mild income.
Well if you want to be read why not just throw your writing up on a blog. I've seen many people who do that, who seem to need that instant, hyperbolic, cheerleading. (Unless it is a site where someone asks for a critique, the comments to posted writing are 99.9% effusively positive.) It's a way to get "read"--in fact perhaps more people would read you there than ever will in an obscure lit journal.
So clearly I think getting read is not the reason--it's about creds and future publication--where hopefully you will get read and hopefully in book form.
Here's an MQR rejection from an anonymous LROD reader, who says, "Apparently I succeeded in sending the right kind of material!" At least there's that.
8 comments:
I got the same kind of rejection a while ago with the same area scratched out, and wasted a long time trying to work out who the person was who initialed my rejection letter. I read the most current issue and looked under the masthead--no one there answered to that initial. So I got paranoid and assumed an intern was using a false name.
To follow on from an earlier conversation about time frames for rejections, the Atlantic Monthly sent one out a few days ago that took 207 days, and usually they respond in 15 days. Let's face it. Some of these submissions are getting lost in the office.
Anybody read the article in this week's NYR about whether or not you can teach creative writing?
i have 5 of those.
literary publishing is really so much of a joke. what if you get accepted by one of these places? you get a "credit" to add to your cv, but you're still a nobody and you're not making money.
Yes to first anon.
There seems to be a theme on writing blogs that if you just work hard enough you'll make it in literary. I think it's more than hard work. Like say, talent. Doesn't mean don't work hard, but hello, I know you couldn't turn me into a great painter, no matter how hard I worked. Why do people assume that "everyone" can learn to write well?
Anon: I guess that is something of a weird way of looking at it. Fame and cash can't really be your only concern when entering a field like short story writing, can it? If so, you picked the wrong career.
That said, publishing in literary journals is the only way to really sell a collection of fiction (not novels necessarily, but story collections) so its a rung on the ladder towards some small form of fame and mild income.
it's also because you write to be read, folks. to the extent, of course, that anyone still does that.
Well if you want to be read why not just throw your writing up on a blog. I've seen many people who do that, who seem to need that instant, hyperbolic, cheerleading. (Unless it is a site where someone asks for a critique, the comments to posted writing are 99.9% effusively positive.) It's a way to get "read"--in fact perhaps more people would read you there than ever will in an obscure lit journal.
So clearly I think getting read is not the reason--it's about creds and future publication--where hopefully you will get read and hopefully in book form.
what does "thals" mean?
Thals for the memories.
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