I sent to a major house and they sent a form letter, but it had some handwritten comments on it. I guess that's hopefull??

I think that puts me in the same company as survivor if I remember correctly. I don't know if I have the stomach of a J.K. Rowling to keep at it 17 more times considering the 4 1/2 months this one took to resopnd to, but...I have a question:

They wrote the following in blue-ink: "Nice narrative voice, but try to work on engaging the reader more."

How should I take this second part? Clearly it's what held me up. Do I derrive from that that I basically bored them and need to make it more interesting? Or is there something deeper to look at?

(Probably impossible to tell without reading the sample chapters, I know, but any feedback would be nice). In the least, I was very pleased they actually took the time to make the comment...tells me they at least read the thing.

Strive to make things simple, clear, and understandable. Stay deep in point of view, and give the character's impressions on what's going on. But most of all, make show the reader knows exactly what's going on. Once that burden is out of the way, they will instantly begin to trust you, and that will engage them.

Anyway, congratulations on the rejection. My suggestion at this point is to try to find some new readers for it...tell them what the publisher said and see if they can't help you pinpoint ways to make it better.

That's option number on. Option number 2 is that someone like it enough to send you personal comments, which means someone else might take it as is. (Don't count on it, the market's flooded, but it's possible.)

Simultaneous submissions refer to the entire ms. If you go about it one query at a time it will take forever for you to get anywhere.

The best approach is to write up a compelling query letter (say make up a list of 30 you are interested in and have them ready to go sans postage) and send it out to about 10 at a time. As soon as you get a rejection of any kind you grab the next off the pile and send it out.

If you are worried--well, what happens if all 10 want it? I'm not being mean, but seriously you don't have to worry about that. And if it did happen, then you would have such a powerful book that you would be able to demand your price.

Try to work at engaging the reader--broad very broad comment. Could mean anything. And with only one comment and one rejection to go on--

Well, I've gotten rejections through my agent that say the exact opposite of each other. One sys the story moves too fast the very next says the story is too slow to start.

Rejections are subjective to the opinion of that one person. If you take every rejection and overgeneralize what it says you will drive yourself nuts. Yes, consider what this one said--but does it mirror what your beta readers have said? Of so, then time for rewrites. Otherwise send it out again.

Shawn

Shawn -- all I sent was a partial - synopsis, query letter, and first three chapters. If I understand you that would not constitute a simultaneous submission if I send to ten at one? Correct? It would sure make life better if I could send to 10 at a time.

I think I'll engage more readers as was reccomended with that "engage the reader" comment firmly in mind and see what they have to say. Thanks all!

But enough of that, once again CONGRATS!!!!

I did a blitz approach when looking for my agent--sent out 26 in one swoop. Then sent about 5 at a time after that. Hard part of that is that there were days when I opened my mail box to 10 or more rejections.

Got 67 rejections before I landed my agent.

And I got a lot of personal notes. The worst were the ones that simply said NO written on the query letter--the best gave me their reasons, many were scams, many had full lists etc. I didn't get many that gave me story advice --

I guess your writing career is going to be rather short.

Congrats, rj. The first rejection letter, big milestone and all that, with handwriting to boot. Curiously, I'd call that cause for celebration.

As for not engaging the reader, I guess they're trying to say you're not grabbing the reader enough. I don't know if they mean "this story interested me so little I couldn't focus on it for more than a second before thinking of the ironing" or "this story grabbed me but there were points where I realised I was hungry". It's probably somewhere inbetween. If that had been 'said' to me, I would work on trimming out any 'boring' bits (hell, even any 'this might possibly conceivably maybe be boring' bits) and tweak characters and events so that the reader is grabbed by the proverbial naughty bits as soon as they read word number one.

That's what I'd think the editor was trying to tell me to do.

Congrats again.

Funny, I just got my first rejection too - on Thursday, from Analog. No note, but it was just a short story

Now I need to post to see if anyone knows of similar magazines that I could send to (yes, I've looked at the sites - sloggin' - hoping for a quicker answer since I can't read them all!).

Finally figured out that she meant I had given the end of the story away with too much foreshadowing in the first three chapters--the reader knew the end already so why read on?

Like I said before it could mean almost anything.

You know you're a writer when you're acting a like a writing by writing as much as you can and sending your stories out to be sold. In fact, this is the only definition of what a professional writer is. Too many prolific writes don't make a living by their writing. I just found out that both Raymond Chandler and Gene Wolfe didn't write "full-time" until they retired from their day jobs. So write, and send yourself out, and call yourself a professional writer, because you are one. And don't worry about the non-writers who define a write by publication--or worse, by monetary success.

If you decide to make changes to the story, I would suggest when you are done, that you send it right back to the same Editor. Attach a note along the lines of:

Dear Editor,
Thank you for your kind suggestions, I have taken your advice and at my own risk modified my story. It is attached in the hope that it might now meet your requirements.

I would, however, be careful to explain in my cover letter that I had taken it upon myself to do this "at my own risk." This gives the Editor the opportunity to reject it without even reading it, and does not leave the false impression that he had requested you to do it.

The only reason I'm suggesting this is because the response is not a simple form letter with a rubber stamped box. The fact the Editor thought enough about it to send a handwritten note is encouraging.

Imagine that a hypothetical editor has just read your story. He liked parts of it, didn't like others. Because he does notice that you have some talent, he decides its worth his time to give you a bit of advice, so he writes one handwritten sentence on your rejection slip, pointing out the major flaw he noticed.

You get the rejection slip, and rewrite the manuscript to avoid that one flaw. However, you don't know what other flaws the editor spotted and didn't mention. Which means, if he bothers to read the rewritten manuscript at all, he will almost certainly still reject it because of those other flaws.

If the editor was of the opinion that he would buy that manuscript if you just fixed that one thing, he would probably have sent you a rewrite request. He didn't. Take the hint. You are more likely to annoy him with an unsolicited rewrite than to get published.

Whether you edit your story or not based on the comments you received is your decision. Don't do it unless you think it will make your stronger. The comments are those of only one person--and that's all an editor is, nothing more. He may be right, he may not be. (It'd be different if he said, "Change this and I'll buy it." Then change it, of course.) I've found that it's often better just to move on to another project, even if it doesn't get sold. Almost every writer has boxes full of rejected manuscripts. It's all part of learning the game.

But at the same time when they say something nice you can take as a pat on the back--so far I have only gotten one bad rejection through my agent--and it was pretty much obvious they didn't read more than the sample material. One other was mildly bad, talked about being too convoluted and sub plot heavy, got a nice amusing note written on it by my agent. If anything the book is sub plot light. Or maybe Coke C2. LOL

Rejection is part of writing.

I didn't find much for my current story (I have been to ralan.com before), but reviewing the listings by genre AHEAD of time is a great idea. So I'm going to do it and make a list, so I don't waste time, next time.

Second, DO NOT send your stories to markets you don't respect. Yes, that means it might take a while longer to see your name in print, but at least you won't feel bad about seeing your name in print.

I know this from experience, because I've done both. Several years ago I decided I wanted to be published so bad that I found a low-end Catholic magazine (this was a non-fiction article, by the way), read it, and wrote an article I thought they'd accept. And they did.

But I was so embarrassed by it--both by the quality of the article and the quality of the magazine--that I called them and told them I decided I wanted it published under a pen name (I told them I never liked my last name, which is true, but that's not the real reason because all of my non-fiction since then has been published under my real name). Other than my wife and parents, I haven't shown that article to anyone. The publication--and the $100 dollars--wasn't worth it.

So write for yourself and send your material only to the markets you respect.

PS -- I didn't sent the $100 dollars back. I may have acted like a creep, but I'm not stupid.

So frustrated!!! But still writing - there must be a pretty masochistic streak in me.

And yes, I'll send it out again, just to prove the point! I just need to get a list of agents together. Back to the Writers and Artist's Year Book.

- writing stories that come to me that I like
- reading some magazines and e-zines to relearn how short stories work and what is being written and where it is being published
- trying to identify markets where my work would fit, on a story-by-story basis

I didn't mean I was looking for markets and then trying to write to fit them! I was writing a story, and after the first few drafts I thought I might send it to Asimov's. I didn't start writing it with the thought in mind - I wasn't aiming for Asimov's! I wrote the story because I liked the idea, and the mc. Then I read a couple of stories in a recent Analog that changed my mind, and I sent it there. But it does seem that a story that is more a fit for Analog has fewer places to be sent once Analog rejects it. But I won't do the editors' job and decide not to send it somewhere that does not seem a perfect fit - I'll send it anyway and let them decide, if I think it has some chance.

I'm just not familiar with enough of the short story publishers other than the 'biggies' and need to do more reading. I won't know how I feel about a market unless I read it I would be lying if I said I wasn't writing with the hope of being published. But am I trying to write stories targeted for some market for publication? No - I'm not that good! But now that I've read through the semi and pro paying markets and gone to the sites listed at ralan.com, I've been able to make a list of places that seem to want the stuff I like writing. I've had a chance to find out what they want and don't want, which is helping me learn about the cliches to avoid, mistakes not to make, etc.