First rejection!

[lavivi]

On April fourth, I sent in The Kite Flyers to The New Yorker submission email.

Yesterday, at 11:39 a.m., I receieved a response, which was composed of two lines.

We regret that we are unable to use the enclosed material.  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider it.

The Editors

 

Disappointed?  Naturally.  Really disapppointed?  No.  How weird would it be if I got published on my very first try, and yet all of the really great authors - Stephen King, for example - didn't make it on their first try?

I'll send it in somewhere else - to a slightly less prestigious literary magazine.  And I think I'm being forced to write some more this summer.

Comments

[sweetdarkness87.livejournal.com]

*throws a cat at the New Yorker Editors heads*

Aren't you going to befriend me? *sad face*

I thought Kite Flyers was excellent.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lavinia_/]

Thanks, Lora. But _lavinia_ befriends no one. See for yourself.

[buttaflykisses3.livejournal.com]

It's ok that it did not get in:) You'll make it. Just to let you know, I thought that Kite Flyers was very good and I liked it muchly!

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Caitlin!

[soharavsalienta.livejournal.com]

Ohh. But I'm so glad you're trying again, dahling! I know you; you're not the kind that would take something like that so seriously that you'd never take up writing again. I love you, and that's not a major setback, it honestly isn't, even though you know that. And good for you for planning to try again. I love you.

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

*nods* Jud got me this huge "2004 Writer's Market" book that has a list of just about every publishing company or magazine in North America - which includes Canada. And it has lovely indexes and things to look up which magazines you should send specific stories to, and how much they pay, and what they're looking for. So now my next target is The Atlantic Monthly.

[soharavsalienta.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, coolness. Well, go you! ::secretly hunts up price of The Atlantic Monthly::

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

[lol] I can tell you. They pay three thousand dollars for a fiction story. Unfortunately, as I looked this up, I saw they also want it to be between 2,000 to 6,000 words. Mine's about 1,400. *facepalm* Must ask Jud about this.

They also say they don't want any beginner, or even intermediate work - but Jud says my story's good enough to try anyway. How do they know, anyway?