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| Posted By : crystalwizard - 10/21/2007 10:08 PM | Do you ever think 'this could be good' and then work with the author until you can accept it?
Do you ever think 'man i'm in a bad mood, now. Let's put the little snot that did this to me through XXXXXX!!!' and proceed to send a rejection letter calculated to leave the author in a quivering pile of jelly?
Do you do something in between?
What do you do once you've gotten to the point of 'I don't want this.' |
| Posted By : darkbow - 10/21/2007 10:37 PM | Again, speaking as a writer, I've had a few editors work with me on a story until they've accepted it. I've also had editors ask me to work on a story, then they still don't accept it. That might sound unfair, but their changes usually make the story better and give me a better shot at the next market.
www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com
"Hot Off the Press" now available in Ray Gun Revival #25.
"Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" upcoming in the Flashing Swords anthology, "The Return of the Sword: A New Age of Heroic Adventure." |
| Posted By : Jordan Lapp - 10/21/2007 11:01 PM | I have sent a few revision requests. Once I sent a work back four times before we accepted it. Other times I had to reject the changes because they were worse than the original.
I try to be helpful with all of my rejections, listing a positive before the negatives, but sometimes I feel like I can be pretty terse, especially if I'm doing a whole whack of slushing all at once.
What do I do once I don't want something? I reject it!
Jordan Lapp
Managing Editor
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| Posted By : darkbow - 10/21/2007 11:22 PM | Among hundreds and hundreds of submissions covering almost 20 years, I've only had one response from an editor that I felt was downright rude. I've had a handful that were "terse," but they were always helpful if for no other reason than it was personal feedback offering an opinion.
www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com
"Hot Off the Press" now available in Ray Gun Revival #25.
"Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" upcoming in the Flashing Swords anthology, "The Return of the Sword: A New Age of Heroic Adventure." |
| Posted By : J Erwine - 10/22/2007 7:22 PM | On a very rare occasion, I've asked for a re-write. I have to admit that I tend to use form rejections because I've had so many writers get upset with me for trying to give them constructive criticism.
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| Posted By : Jordan Lapp - 10/22/2007 7:26 PM | We've rejected over 700(?) pieces so far and only had one immature response so far. We're going to keep going with the personalized rejections until things get much rougher.
Jordan Lapp
Managing Editor
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| Posted By : Hermit - 10/22/2007 9:36 PM | Uh. Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Won't happen again.
Jordan Lapp said...We've rejected over 700(?) pieces so far and only had one immature response so far. We're going to keep going with the personalized rejections until things get much rougher.
Literarily speaking: More prolific than sin!
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| Posted By : Hermit - 10/22/2007 9:51 PM |
crystalwizard said...
Do you ever think 'this could be good' and then work with the author until you can accept it?
Numerous times, yes.
Do you ever think 'man i'm in a bad mood, now. Let's put the little snot that did this to me through XXXXXX!!!' and proceed to send a rejection letter calculated to leave the author in a quivering pile of jelly? Only half-way. I think about the vitriolic, humiliating response - even write the email half the time that I'm really irked at the waste of reading time; but I never send a knee-jerk kick to the ego. It has to remane impersonal on the downside and human on the upside. Even if it's only for the purpose of dealing with my own issues. I don't think of myself, very often anyway, of being so original as to have proprietary ego issues. It's just a lousy person who takes a bad mood out on another living being (but keep the hollow walls out of reach - I hate fixing drywall, but I'm pretty damned good at it by now!)
Do you do something in between? Have a coke and a smile and shut the puck up! (Usually lacing the Coke with cheapass bourbon)
What do you do once you've gotten to the point of 'I don't want this.' Usually I ignore it until it goes away or until it itches enough that I have to get antibiotic ointment; seriously, though, it's time to send a polite "bugger off will ya" to the poor sot who decided to ignore my really liberal guidelines.
And then there are times I'm just in such an obnoxious mood that I write defamatory and inflamatory remarks all over the manuscript and mail it to the wrong author just for spits and grins!
Joking. I would only dream of doing that. I can't actually afford the postage. But it's worth a laugh. I do the marking, but then I come back to it a week or more later to see if I was being a jerk or just judicious with an edge. It's a pretty even split so far. A couple of poems and one story stand out for me as rejects I later adopted and workshopped, but nothing from the 'merde n demsum' pile ever got published "as is".
Literarily speaking: More prolific than sin!
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| Posted By : Jordan Lapp - 10/22/2007 11:04 PM | LOL! It was some teenage writer from Kentucky that thought we shouldn't have rejected her story because it was "perfectly good", and that therefore we were terrible editors, terrible writers, and we must make special trips to the retirement home so we can kick old people.
Hermit said...Uh. Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Won't happen again.
Jordan Lapp said...We've rejected over 700(?) pieces so far and only had one immature response so far. We're going to keep going with the personalized rejections until things get much rougher.
Jordan Lapp
Managing Editor
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| Posted By : darkbow - 10/22/2007 11:13 PM | Why for the love of the gods did she have to be from my homestate?
--sighs--
Where's Andy Offutt when you need him?
www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com
"Hot Off the Press" now available in Ray Gun Revival #25.
"Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" upcoming in the Flashing Swords anthology, "The Return of the Sword: A New Age of Heroic Adventure." |
| Posted By : Hermit - 10/23/2007 7:51 PM | That all sounds like a great time to me . . . except the part about being a teenage girl, that thought gives me the heebie-jeebies 
You only kick the ones with one good hip - it's only sporting! I am a terrible editor; I edit terribles all the time. I'm a terrible writer, too; I usually even spell it correctly: terrible, terrible, terrible . . . terrible . . . Terrible . . .REALLY SUCKS (I even do it in vernacular, or whatever language these miscreants use these days.
Jordan Lapp said...LOL! It was some teenage writer from Kentucky that thought we shouldn't have rejected her story because it was "perfectly good", and that therefore we were terrible editors, terrible writers, and we must make special trips to the retirement home so we can kick old people.
Hermit said...Uh. Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Won't happen again.
Jordan Lapp said...We've rejected over 700(?) pieces so far and only had one immature response so far. We're going to keep going with the personalized rejections until things get much rougher.
Literarily speaking: More prolific than sin!
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| Posted By : Lyn - 11/6/2007 1:07 PM | Hermit wrote: "Uh. Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Won't happen again."
lol, and I thought it was me...
But to answer the original question, since my zine is my hobby (code for no-pay to authors ;) I do want to work with writers on re-writes. Since I enjoy reading short stories and think I can edit (no comments, please) then I want to publish what I like and if the story is close to something I enjoy and I can (possibly) improve it (admittedly to my taste) then, yes, I'll email the author. That's the fun part of writing/editing/publishing a zine as a hobby - getting to know others who enjoy what I enjoy. Wouldn't want to miss out on that, or I'd miss the point of why I'm online in the first place. Good question.
Lyn, Founder of Residential Aliens
Speculative Fiction from the Seven Stars |
| Posted By : kaolin fire - 6/25/2008 11:31 PM | crystalwizard said...
Do you ever think 'this could be good' and then work with the author until you can accept it?
Very rarely. We get so many amazing submissions that it's rarely worth the time (and heartache) of trying to guide a piece to somewhere that we think we'd want to publish it. I hate the feeling that by offering suggestions and being amenable to see something again, I'm just encouraging someone without necessarily backing that up with anything.
crystalwizard said...
Do you ever think 'man i'm in a bad mood, now. Let's put the little snot that did this to me through XXXXXX!!!' and proceed to send a rejection letter calculated to leave the author in a quivering pile of jelly?
This is why our default is a fully written form letter, where we can add a few comments or not as appropriate--and we err on the side of not adding anything. ;) Life is happier for everyone involved.
crystalwizard said...
Do you do something in between?
Sometimes I ask for a second or third opinion because I'm afraid my mind has gone to mush. :)
crystalwizard said...
What do you do once you've gotten to the point of 'I don't want this.'
Wait a few days... then dive back in. On the bright side, we rotate slushing. On the downside... it's nearly my turn again. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. ;)
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