rejection!

[kailhofer]

I think whichever was your last rejection was your worst. It usually feels that way.<br><br>I was rather disappointed that my Writers of the Future 10th place story that got a review from the contest judge still wasn't good enough to get in at Fantasy & Science Fiction, even after I fixed the two things in it that kept it out of the finals at WOTF. JJA, the first reader there, has 3 levels of rejection: (1) Didn't grab his interest (he didn't read more than three pages), (2) Didn't hold his interest (he didn't finish it), and (3) Didn't quite work for me (read it all, but didn't think it was good enough to pass on). My story, the best I've got, only earned a #2. He didn't even finish it. That hurt.<br><br>Another really painful one from an agent who had been interested enough want to see sample chapters was "I'm sorry to say that I didn't feel strongly confident that this was something I could place in today's extremely competitive market." He thought it was interesting, but didn't think he could sell it. That was worse than hearing it stunk. What the hell are you supposed to do with a story that can't be sold?<br><br>If you're looking for funny, I got one from Aboriginal in the early 90's. It had a checklist of things, and they'd pick the ones that applied to your story. My favorite one on the list was "We can't read Alpha Centaurian, please resubmit it in English."<br><br>Nate