Saturday, July 12, 2008

A very little tale of a very small amount of woe

As Womagwriter has mentioned the My Weekly guidelines recently I thought I'd share my own tiny tale about submitting Christmas stories to them from last year.

Well, basically, the nutshell version is that having sent a Christmas story to them in May or some such ridiculously early month, I was finally told in November, after they'd been requesting timely tales and when it was too late to send elsewhere, that they'd been inundated and so they'd have to return it. Hmmm.

Now, I can take a rejection as well as the next person. Probably better than the next person - I get lots and lots of practice. But I just don't believe they'd been overrun with red-breasted robins and tinsel-garlanded reindeer since the early part of the year. So I suppose what I'm saying is I'm not entirely convinced that they read the stories last year in the order in which they arrived. And well, I like to think that's how it works: that we wait forever for a reply, but that never mind, because everyone else is waiting forever for a reply as well and we're all in the same boat.

It probably wasn't a topnotch story. I could've taken a straight 'no'. Honest I could. (Ideally in July or August.)

PS The rider to this is that I won't have a word said against the lovely Sarah Proctor who has never bought a single thing of mine, but is consistently friendly and approachable. And - news flash - not all eds are like that.

7 comments:

Jill Steeples said...

Aargh,Honeysuckle, that is so frustating. I sent a Christmas story to TAB in May of this year and I suspect the same thing will happen.

I wonder if they hang on to them to the very last moment to see if they get anything better in!

I hope you've sent that story off somewhere else this year.

Karen said...

That's VERY frustrating indeed. I like to believe that they read them in order as well, but who knows? Do send it off elsewhere though :o)

Jen said...

Definitely send it elsewhere. Karen P sounds a good egg. They are certainly to be encouraged.

I suspect Maddie M may have a point about hoarding the festive stories before making a decision. How infuriating. Still, there's always next time.

Honeysuckle said...

Maddie - yes, they probably hedge their bets with the ones that come in through the year. Down to me to write a better story then!

Karen, Spiral Skies - Nice to see you over here!
Will def send elsewhere after a little remedial work - maybe to the lovely Jill at The Weekly News.

Kath McGurl said...

I have heard, to my horror, that My Weekly aren't accepting any Christmas stories at all this year. Presumably they bought too many last year. I sent them one anyway.

Honeysuckle said...

Oh goodness, Womag, not accepting any at all?? I think you're quite right to send yours off anyway - you might get ahead of the crowd for next year...good luck!

Amanda said...

Hi Honeysuckle

I've just found my way here via Womag's blog.

How frustrating that My Weekly kept your story for so long. In my experience (and loads of it!) MW are pretty good at rejecting quickly if they don't want your story. So they may must have been considering it!

Annie