Lightspeed Mag - Rejection question

[sinister42]

Who has experience getting rejected by Lightspeed? I haven't actually received the rejection letter from them yet, but my story lists as rejected on their submission system.

A little reading tells me that Lightspeed tends to reject quickly - in some cases the same day. My submission was pending for 8 days before being rejected. Does this mean that I made it through a few culling piles before being tossed? That would be encouraging.

I also need to wait for the rejection letter and read it carefully - my understanding is that Lightspeed has different levels of rejection - the "go away" level, the "this isn't bad but no thanks, please send more" level, and the "this is really good but not right for us at this time, please send more" level. I'm very curious to find out what level I reached.

 

[ratsy]

I think I've had a rejection from lightspeed a couple years ago, but don't recall the specifics. After a while, you get used to the constant rejections followed by the occasional 'yes'! Keep plugging away.

 

[sinister42]

Never mind. Rejection email is in my spam folder. Form letter, didn't say "please send more." Not gonna lie, that's disheartening. I'll pick myself back up.

 

[ratsy]

Don't be disheartened. 1.9% that submit get accepted and according to the Grinder, they only give personal rejections 13% of the time. I've also said this before, it's not always the quality of the writing. It can be the fact they recently accepted a similar story, or some minor thing just didn't work, and since they have so many stories coming in, they don't spend time on stories, they just reject.

As I've said in numerous blogs and here, just keep working at it. There are a bunch of stories I've written and really liked that I still have sitting in a folder because they didn't find a home. I don't dwell on it, I just move on to another project. So keep your chin up, and go get 'em!

 

[sinister42]

Thanks - that's the plan, once I talk to a bottle of whiskey about the situation later.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Never mind. Rejection email is in my spam folder. Form letter, didn't say "please send more." Not gonna lie, that's disheartening. I'll pick myself back up.

It's sh*t but it's all part of being a writer.maybe put the opening on crits and see if there is anything glaring? The acceptances take time.

 

[sinister42]

I might do that. Does posting a story to the chrons in any capacity count as "publishing" it?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I might do that. Does posting a story to the chrons in any capacity count as "publishing" it?

Not if you keep the excerpt to less than 10% of the total (I also avoid using the exact title in the post so Google doesn't match it.)