Saturday, March 10, 2007

Rejection!

The first respondent in the rejection sweepstakes for 'Such Great Faith' is... Rock and Sling! They have sent a 5x8 form letter that politely rejected my story and looked forward to more. Of course, the real fun is in the handwritten note:

"We don't publish retelling of Bible stories but your writing is good and we look forward to more from you." Then it is personally signed by the editor.

I knew this when I submitted it but my tremendous ego convinced me that it didn't apply to me. So that's one magazine down and a few more to go. I haven't submitted to Relief yet but I think I may do that next week.

The rejection is not much of a surprise. I realized after doing some research that getting this story published would be difficult. It is a retold bible story. It is not fantasy and it is not science fiction. It is sort of an historical. In short, it is a difficult story to find a market for. But I like it a lot so I will keep on trying.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I like it too.

Have you tried the argument that the story is not just a historical retelling of a Bible story, but concerns an aspect of Jesus' ministry that particularly interests you. The story, therefore, is your attempt to understand that and articulate it.

Jeff Draper said...

I may try to work some sort of suggestion like that into the next cover letter.

Anonymous said...

Jeff -

Keep trying with that story. It's amazing.