|
I think its a bit unfortunate that apparently someone caught up with their backlogged emails today (I recieved no less then 6 rejected queries via form letter, that spanned several months and were sent within seconds of each other).
If thats any indication as well as what I saw posted here and on the wizards site among others that there are literally hundreds of potentially viable articles just rejected so that someone can catch up.
If the letter were a bit more upfront and explained the situation as was presented on the boards that you were far behind and playing catch up and asking people to resubmit I think that would have been a more equitable solution.
Anyhow being used to rejection and rejecting others myself (I'm the community manager and editor for a UGO Entertainment property)I don't find it as discouraging but when I was in my teens and early/mid 20's such a blow would have been devastating to realize that my proposals hadn't been read.
Anyhow to other writers out there don't be discouraged and keep trying with as many varied outlets as you can, the practice can only improve your art.
...would have been devastating to realize that my proposals hadn't been read.
What makes you think they weren't read? Here's the e-mail (because I received one, too):
Greetings from Dragon Magazine,
First let me apologize for the lateness of this reply. Second, let me
also apologize for this form letter. We receive hundreds of proposals
each month making these a necessity.Thank you for showing interest in writing for Dragon magazine. I have reviewed your proposal(s) included below and unfortunately; they do not meet our needs at this time. In any case, please continue to submit queries, as we are always interested in new ideas.
Please take a look at our writers' guidelines at http://paizo.com/dragon. The guidelines present a number of article options and describes the current editorial direction of the magazine. The guidelines should give you a better understanding of what we're looking for and how to get your articles accepted.
Thanks again,
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor
Dragon Magazine
The fact that you received all your rejections at nearly the same time is simply a matter of how they handle things. basically, they go through a large pile of queries as a group. They find the ones they like, and send out e-mails to those people asking for manuscripts. Then Jason has the task of sending out rejections to everybody else. Because they use the form letter, it's just a matter of clicking the reply button in the e-mail, pasting in the letter, and hitting send. I don't know about you, but I'm certain that I could send out dozens of e-mails that way.
Please take a look at our writers' guidelines at http://paizo.com/dragon. The guidelines present a number of article options and describes the current editorial direction of the magazine. The guidelines should give you a better understanding of what we're looking for and how to get your articles accepted.
Of course, it would help if the guidelines were up to date...
Director of Games
|
Hey there all,
We went through all of the queries that we had in the pile. Every one of them got read and reviewed. That said, we have a backlog of good articles right now, one that we have had for a few months. Due to this backlog, we were particularly picky when it came to narrowing down the selections. Once all the queries were sorted, I did indeed send out form letters. A lot of them. All within about 90 minutes of one another. I am sorry you felt like you were singled out and ignored, that was not our intent. Getting into the magazine gets harder and harder every year as more and more authors send us queries. While this helps us put out the best magazine possible, it also means that a lot of authors with some good ideas get left out for one reason or another.
Again.. my apologies for the form letters. They are a necessary evil if I am to get any other work done on the magazine.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
(As an aside, we plan to update our writers guidelines soon. They have gotten a bit out of date.)
|
|
Hey there all,
We went through all of the queries that we had in the pile. Every one of them got read and reviewed.
It's not that I felt I was singled out, I definitely have bad days and worse when it comes to writing (as well as proposals) it just seemed poorly done to get them in mass on proposals over a 4-5 month span all at once with a form letter.
There was grumblings on a few boards about the form letter and I just wanted to express to others that it wasn't all bad and the tone of my post wasn't meant to be negative but an encouragement to keep trying.
Thanks for your time in replying Jason and others...
I think its a bit unfortunate that...
I agree with Zherog that there is no indication that queries aren't read. Would I love to get something other than a form rejection? Hells yeah. Can you imagine how much time that would take for the editors to tailor a rejection to each query? Time better spent working on the magazine?
Rejection sucks, but Dragon is apparently doing something right, as the magazine is kick-ass. I may bemoan the rejections I get (especially several in a row ;_;), but that just means I have to try all that much harder next time.
So, much love to all the editors!
edit: I need to type faster! ^_^ Thanks for the info Jason!
Can you imagine how much time that would take for the editors to tailor a rejection to each query?
actually a review of my records indicates that that Jason is the only editor I ever recieve a form-letter rejection from... at least to this point :P
I don't see anything wrong with the form letter rejection, if you spend any sort of time writing you have to get used to them, dragon is far from the only magazine to do rejections that way (in fact the vast majority of them do).
|
Contributor
|
actually a review of my records indicates that that Jason is the only editor I ever recieve a form-letter rejection from... at least to this point :P
That's because Jason receives probably 4x as many queries as Wes and I. Combined.
I've used form letters in the past, and when I look at my bulging Inbox and months-old stack of queries to go through, I have seriously considered going back to them.
|
Contributor
|
Does this mean that if we haven't heard something about one of our queries that it's time to resubmit it?
No. It means said query made it through the culling so far. As far as I know, Jason only sent out rejection letters, and not requests for revisions or letters announcing accepted articles. Nor does this mean your article has been accepted or we want to see a revision of it. It just means your query survived into round 2. :)
I've used form letters in the past, and when I look at my bulging Inbox and months-old stack of queries to go through, I have seriously considered going back to them.
Ack! Well, as much as I would understand your decision, I hope to continue seeing your "non-form letter" rejections in my Inbox for a long while to come. ^_^
Mike writes the best "Dear John" letters I've ever received. :D
--John L.
Were any of those accepted articles, per chance, yugoloth articles......? :D
Yeah, I know...I need to give up the ghost already. :(
I received two rejection letters as well :(
But I read you can send rejected article ideas back in a few months later for a retry? Must try that then, and work on more ideas :)
Thanks for the encouragment, Nanyea the Wayward.
That's because Jason receives probably 4x as many queries as Wes and I. Combined.
I figured as much :)
I received two rejection letters as well :(
But I read you can send rejected article ideas back in a few months later for a retry? Must try that then, and work on more ideas :)
unless they have recently changed thier policy drastically the editors realy don't like that... if you get a rejection, it is better to just move on to new ideas, unless they tell you to try back with it at a later time (which they sometimes do)... if they lose it/don't ever recieve it because of an email glitch etc. your article or query it is different, and you can resubmit then.
|
Contributor
|
unless they have recently changed thier policy drastically the editors realy don't like that... if you get a rejection, it is better to just move on to new ideas, unless they tell you to try back with it at a later time (which they sometimes do)... if they lose it/don't ever recieve it because of an email glitch etc. your article or query it is different, and you can resubmit then.
See-dub is right. Do not resend us a query we have already rejected. That annoys editors of every stripe, and is a good way to get put on the "bad" list.
They really do have to reject an awful lot. First there's the old rule that 90% of everything is crap. Of that remaining 10%, there will be a lot of ideas that have already been done. Even if something slightly similar has been done, they can't do it again.
After that, even if your article is good, they can only publish the very best of those articles they receive - and they get an awful lot. Even if your article is worth printing, it can always be pushed out by something equally good but more relevant to the theme, or something equally good but from a writer who's got a good track record, or something even better than yours.
In short, don't feel bad that your articles didn't make it through - it doesn't necessarily mean they weren't good, it only means that they've found something even better.
Rejection is totally part and parcel of the writing world. I 100% agree getting little or no response as to why it was rejected is frustrating, but truth be told I've always been lucky with my responses. In particular, Matt has always given me a good few words as what I can do to improve or why a certain idea wasn't appropriate or acceptable.
Now this often isn't the case for Dungeon queries, where in fact I've only ever recieved a personalized (and not the robo-"Thanks for the query, but no" reponse) once or twice.
You also must appreciate the amount of stuff they get sent to them. It's frustrating, yes. But you have to live with it.
I'm glad my query was rejected. I would be gladder if it had been accepted, though.
I'm glad because now I don't have to sit down every once in a while and think, whatever happened to that query that I sent in so long ago?
Thanks for replying. :) (Even if it is rejection...) (And even if it is a form letter...completely understandable, though.)