9/28/05: Well, poot

[davidlevine]

Gordon Van Gelder didn't buy the rewrite of the Bigfoot story. No "alas" in the rejection, but he also included his assistant editor JJA's comments and they started with "Eh." Which if you ask me is worse than an Alas.

Oh well, it goes off to scifi.com tomorrow.

Comments

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Still nursing my "send us more stuff please!" from Asimov's, I feel almost pleased. Eh. :-)

I'd kill for a rewrite request right now. Not a sale - just anything but "Great! but we're not buying it, sorry."

[marksiegal.livejournal.com]

That sucks. Hope you have luck placing it elsewhere. So which version do you like better, the original or the rewrite?

[shawn-scarber.livejournal.com]

Hope she buys it. I'm a sucker for Bigfoot stories.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Qplah'. I have a story winging its way to Sheila as we speak. Actually, it's probably already in her office, composting.

[(Anonymous)]

Do Gordon's "alas"-es mean something bad? Like, are they a code word for "you suck"? Or do people generally dislike them just because they're a distinctive part of his rejections?

Just wondering if I should have been more disturbed about all the "alas"-es I've gotten over the years ... :-)

Good luck with the Bigfoot story!!

M

[mkhobson.livejournal.com]

Oh duh. That was me.

M

[davidlevine]

Interesting question. The rewrite is probably a better story (it certainly has a more dramatic ending) but it's lost the basic concept I had for the original story, which is "we are all primates." I should probably try to refocus the story on the new ending before I send it out again.

[davidlevine]

You've probably noticed that almost all of Gordon's rejections have an "alas" in them somewhere. Urban legend says that the rare "alas"-less rejection indicates you came about as close to acceptance as possible without actually being accepted. But that's just rejectomancy -- a rejection is still a rejection, dammit, and you still have to send it somewhere else no matter how much the rejecting market liked it.