2 Rejections for the Price of 1

Last week, I submitted a story to Lightspeed. I was impressed by their response times, 2.0 days on average. Of course, I am also impressed by their editor, JJA, and their magazine. But 2.0 days, unheard of.

I submitted a story. It went into their queue. Slowly, over the next day and a half, it crept up higher and higher to #1.

And it stayed at #1.

And it stayed at #1. I started to get excited. I was rounding on 4 days for a 2 day rejection place. I had *gulp* made it out of the slush pile.

So I got a rejection from JJA. It it didn't work as a reprint. Good luck on finding a home for your reprint.

A reprint? Why, I haven't even published yet! What's this about a reprint?

So I sent back a message. It's not a reprint! Won't you love it now?

JJA sent back immediately. He pulled my cover letter. Yep, I'd written "previously published" instead of "previously unpublished".

And besides, it didn't work as an original story, either.

Oh well.

So I'm counting that as 2 rejections, for the price of 1.

And I'm changing my cover letters.

But here's a toast to Lightspeed and JJA. Immediate response, and he cleared up the error quickly. He didn't have to do that, on his own time, probably from home. But he did. I think that says a lot about him as a person.