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crystalwizard
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   Posted 5/23/2008 7:55 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
SilviaMG said...

The exception to the above rule would be if you manage to make a very good sale of the story. You might want to tell the editor who gave you helpful comments. Something like "Hi Bob. I just wanted to let you know your comments about my story "Such and So" were incredibly helpful. It will appear in Pro Market X next summer. Thanks."


I'm going to disagree with that. That has serious overtones of gloating. As if the author were saying 'hah! Look what YOU missed out on! Hrumph! So much for you, the Big Boys want my story and you're small peanuts compared to them. Ptbtbtbtbtbtbt'

Even if that's not what's intended, it would be very easy for someone to take that the wrong way.


Never meddle in the affairs of a wizard unless you are soggy and hard to light!



Managing Editor of Flashing Swords


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SilviaMG
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   Posted 5/23/2008 9:45 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
"Even if that's not what's intended, it would be very easy for someone to take that the wrong way."

I think it depends on the editor. Nick Mamatas appreciates it. I think Realms of Fantasy is also happy to hear from slushies (Douglas Cohen calls them his secret slush survivors) who made it somewhere else. If an editor gave me some very good feedback that helped me place that story in another good place I would send them a thank you note and let them know about it in a very polite and friendly way. The reason is good customer service. We complain about editors a lot but sometimes we forget to let them know what a good job they do. I think in an exceptional set of circumstances like a very nice sale and very good comments it would merit a thank you to that special editor who helped you polish your story.

Of course, it comes down to a personal decision. Silence is always the easiest course.
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darkbow
Rabbit lord



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   Posted 5/23/2008 9:55 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
For me it would come down to my working relationship with the editor. If it was an editor I don't know very well, then no, I wouldn't e-mail them to let them know I sold the story elsewhere, even if it was his or her's tips that helped make my story better.

On the other hand, if it were cw or Jason or a handful of other editors I feel I know fairly well, then there's a better chance I might slip them a note to thank them for the advice.

Heck, if it's Jason I might just do some gloating! :-p


"Beneath a Persian Sun" upcoming in Carnivah House's "Infinity Swords" anthology
"The Death of Lester Williams" upcoming in Crimson Highway.
"Steven Spielberg and The Magic Box" upcoming at The Ranfurly Review.
"Peter Piker the Pankin Man" upcoming at Big Pulp
 
"The Note" at Every Day Fiction
"Zombie Tears" at Tales of the Zombie War.
"Walking Between the Rain" at Every Day Fiction
"Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" in "The Return of the Sword" anthology
"Hot Off the Press" Ray Gun Revival #25, 2007



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SilviaMG
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   Posted 5/23/2008 9:59 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
"Heck, if it's Jason I might just do some gloating! :-p"

Now, now no gloating.
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crystalwizard
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   Posted 5/23/2008 10:02 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
darkbow said...

On the other hand, if it were cw or Jason or a handful of other editors I feel I know fairly well, then there's a better chance I might slip them a note to thank them for the advice.

Heck, if it's Jason I might just do some gloating! :-p


*grin* but that's assuming you succeeded in getting a rejection out of either of us instead of an acceptance. Seriously though, one of the things I try to do if I have to turn down a story is to suggest an alternate market or two that the author might try. So if someone emailed me and let me know they were able to place it elsewhere I'd be very happy.
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ScrewMoonshine
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   Posted 5/25/2008 5:11 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
I only reply to rejections if I want something clarified. And by clarified, I mean a question in the form of "Do you mean this or that?", not "What do you mean by this?" The latter question, for me at least, is usually nothing more than subconsciously challenging the editor's reasons for rejection, which is naturally a big no-no. Even if it's not intended that way, it could be interpreted that way. I've never regretted asking an editor for clarification on a point.

If I feel like informing an editor that one of my submissions has been placed elsewhere, I save it for the cover letter of the next submission I send him. That way there's no chance of it being interpreted as gloating. Naturally, I always thank the editor in my cover letters if he has given me helpful suggestions before, regardless of whether or not said suggestions helped in placing the story elsewhere.

Robert Orme


Out now:
"More Than One Way to Protect" in Lords of Justice (www.carnifexpress.net/)
"Time in a Capsule" in Unparalleled Journeys II (www.journeybookspublishing.com/)
"On the Tree Top" in Ultraverse vol.3 #5 (www.ultraverse.us)
"The Scab, the Man, and the I.V." in Mount Zion Speculative Fiction Review #3 (www.mountzionpress.com)

Coming soon:
"Replacing Someone" in Aoife's Kiss #26, September 2008 (http://samsdotpublishing.com/aoife/main.htm)

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Nicholas
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   Posted 5/27/2008 4:21 AM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.

The most bizarre submission my co-editor and I ever got back when we were doing MOOREEFFOC Magazine--well, I'm not even sure you could call it a submission, exactly...More of a query with a demand for upfront money.

It was a list of poem titles, along with a cover letter explaining that if we wanted to see any of them, we had to send the author a deposit (it was pretty hefty, too, if I recall correctly, something like forty dollars--way beyond what we paid for poems). Not only did we scoff at the weirdness of the proposal, but we also derived much amusement from the list. The titles were all strangely generic: "The Haunted House," "The Ghost," etc.

I wonder if anyone, ever--just out of curiosity, maybe, and with money to burn--actually sent a deposit to this odd person for the opportunity to read one of those poems.

 
 

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Camille Alexa
fictionista



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   Posted 5/27/2008 10:57 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Nicholas said...

[. . .]

I wonder if anyone, ever--just out of curiosity, maybe, and with money to burn--actually sent a deposit to this odd person for the opportunity to read one of those poems.


I wonder that about all spam.


 
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MysticWino
anarchist fringe monkey boddhisatva



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   Posted 5/27/2008 11:07 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
The redeeming quality of such strange spam is that it provides us the validation that it's the world 'out there' that's all fogged up. Doesn't necessarily bolster our claim to sanity, but it certainly validates our own percipience of the general world as somewhat more askew . . .
I dream of the day I can afford to piss away $20 to buy a good poem, let alone twice that to glimpse a suspiciously abstract unknown.


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Nicholas
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   Posted 5/29/2008 1:24 AM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
I guess I should further clarify that this was submitted by Post: good old-fashioned snail mail (we didn't even accept email submissions back then. And--get this--when we published a story, we typed it out word-for-word from the original manuscript. Well, my co-editor did. No wonder he burned out in six issues).
 
 

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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)



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   Posted 5/29/2008 1:38 AM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Most excellent, dude! My 'favorite' submission of all time thus far spent in this profession is the only paper sub I received via snail mail when working for Staffs & Starships. Among the many quite obvious shortcomings of both the appropriateness and quality of the content, the many-paged submission's cover letter had this banner running from edge-to-edge beneath the author's signature and contact information, sans email address: "Save the forests~Save the forests~Save the forests" And this came when we were brand new and the only information about us was found on line and, there on our site, above the snail mail address, was the stressed 'email submissions preferred' - I'm only surprised that the banner didn't run across the footer of every page of the story.


~~~~~~~~~~
Jason M. Waltz
Managing Editor, Flashing Swords Press
First Book Released: The Return of the Sword
~~~~~~~~~~
Ever waltz with the Devil? Or devil with a Waltz?
House von Darkmoor - where the real action is
von Darkmoor's thoughts - where it all began

~~~~~~~~~~
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Nicholas
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   Posted 5/30/2008 1:01 AM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
"Save the forests" on a paper sub? Oh, the irony...


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