Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Do I Suck?


A rejection from Andromeda Spaceways already. I just submitted it three days ago! This rapid return disturbs me a little, especially since it's the same story I'm hoping will get me into Clarion West.

I'm holding out hope that it was rejected for a formatting issue rather than on the basis of quality. Apparently, Google Docs doesn't translate very cleanly into RTF; a very nice person from ASIM named Lucy notified me right away that the formatting was off a little. The double-spacing had reverted to single, bits that should have been centered (like the title and section break indicators they ask for) were not, and chunks of messy code replaced other formatting I used. Color me mortified.

While waiting for this new rejection (and maybe Clarion's), I have been trying very hard to ramp up my writing-and-research mode. I'm working (still) on the "birthday story," which was supposed to be a gift for my hubbie in January but is shaping up nicely, and I've subscribed to Locus and done more market research.

Argh. Maybe I'll go back to bed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like a formatting issue. My story has been in Round 1 since January so hasn't even been read yet.

Chin up. There are worse crimes than bad formatting.

Trace Yulie said...

Well, I worked up the gumption to inquire about the format problem, and the slush mistress was nice enough to tell me that the format wasn't the concern.

Not that it makes me feel any better! I moped for a while and then forged on. Rejections are better than not writing, and I have to learn to deal. I learned how to fix the format problem, at least.

Anonymous said...

Now I want to know how you jumped queue on me. My story still doesn't seem to have been read yet.

Get that story out there to another market.

Trace Yulie said...

The story probably moved through the queue at speeds proportional to it suckiness-quotient.

Seriously, two days? I don't think I even made it into the queue.