posted
Has any one ever revised a rejected story and then resubmitted it to the same publication? I'm not talking about instances where you receive specific revising guidelines from the editor, as in, "we'll publish it if you change the ending..." Rather, I'm curious to know about stories that just get the form letter rejection. Do you resubmit those, or just send them along to the next publication?
Posts: 2185 | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
I, personally, never resubmit unless it's invited which I have never had happen with a short story. I did once with a novel.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Unless you get at least a hint from the editor -- unless he says, "You might think about changing this, that, or the other thing," -- then I don't think you should revise and resubmit. If you do, then certainly tell the editor that he rejected this story before but that you've made these specific changes.
On the other hand, when a magazine changes editors, I'll sometimes send what I think is the strongest of my old stories to the new editor. I've got a few stories that I know are just waiting for the right editor to come along.
But -- if you make a reputation for yourself, so that you can sell stories on the strength of your name, don't submit old stories that are really amateur efforts. The damage to your reputation isn't worth the few hundred dollars they would bring in.
In the obituaries for Madeleine L'Engle they mentioned that A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by, what, half a dozen editors before one editor bought the book. So, great stories get rejected all the time. In the sf short story field, there are really fewer than half a dozen major editors you can submit to.
posted
Once. The comments on a rejection slip from Amazing Stories---a magazine that is no longer with us at the moment---made me think of a way to revise (and shorten) a story. I revised it and sent it in with a note saying, more or less, "I know you didn't ask to see this again, but I felt your note helped me enough to revise it."
I got it back with a scribble on a form letter: "No revisions."
Soured me on the market---while that current group was there, it was the last place I submitted anything, and mostly didn't submit there at all. Soured me on the practice---I've revised and resubmitted on rare occasion, after long gaps, but never bothered telling anyone they'd seen it before.
posted
I don't see why it soured you. That is one reason that many editors give for not commenting, that they don't want to get a revision back of a story they just rejected. They were trying to be helpful, not increase their workload.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Well, first off, this policy was not spelled out anywhere else I saw, then or ever. Second off, I wasted my time and my postage stamps because they didn't spell out this policy. Third off, I knew other writers (elsewhere) had done this and pulled it off. And fourth off, I wasn't asking for any special treatment, I just wanted it considered as a new entry.
Were they interested in publishing good stories by good writers? Or just worried about their workload?
posted
A Wrinkle in Time was rejected 26 times before it found a publisher. Even if she was submitting it to both YA publishers and Fantasy publishers, I'm sure she hit a few of them more than once. Of course, it's always possible that those resubmits were requested.
Posts: 19 | Registered: Sep 2007
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posted
Oh, I was also going to say that if you have doubts as to whether or not the publisher would be interested in reading a revised submission, drop them a short and polite email asking them. If they say no, then the answer's no. If they don't answer in a reasonable amount of time, I'd assume the answer's no. If they say yes, then great!
Posts: 19 | Registered: Sep 2007
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