A few weeks ago, John Scalzi raised some fuss over on his blog about how the Big Three (F&SF, Asimov’s, and Analog) still only accept paper submissions to their magazines. At the time, I noted how much I like ClarkesWorld submission system. They have the most fabulous automated queue that you can check on to see the progress of your story. Magazines like F&SF warn that it can be up to eight weeks turn around between when they receive your story and when you might get a response, so when I sent Dark Lord Rising there last Tuesday, I hardly expected a response waiting when I got home today.
Yeah, the form letter’s nice (although it stirs a memory – I think I got the same letter from them a decade ago when I tried sending short stories out, before my long dry spell), and yeah, its a rejection. This one actually hit me a little, and I’m not sure why. Every successful author can tell you about the trunkful of rejection letters they received before their first break, and while my ego is high about the quality of the story itself, it isn’t high enough to think I’m better than the other old hands. On the plus side, despite not accepting electronic submissions, and granted it may have been just a perfect timing thing, but it only took a week and a half to get a response – not too shabby.
If only it had been a yes.
So, I’m back to looking for markets for it. I’ve seen a few I could try, so its mostly a matter of settling on one and playing the wait game again. I guess it can’t all be furiously fabulous wordsmithing all the time 🙂
(What? Why yes, I do have other stories I’m working on, plus I’ve begun hand drafting Rust finally. :P)