Codex Q&A: Have you ever rejected a story and then later wished you had bought it?

In July 2013, I served as the “editor-in-residence” for the Codex Writing Group, which meant basically I was asking a month-long AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) interview. With Codex’s permission, I’m re-posting the Q&As here on my blog. The questions were all provided by members of Codex.

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Have you ever rejected a story and then later wished you had bought it when you first had the chance?

I’ve had plenty of second thoughts about stories. In a couple of cases, I rejected the story, and then actually went back to the author and said “Hey, is that still available?” and then ended up publishing it after all. For these cases, it was usually because I couldn’t quite get the story out of my mind, and that, of course, is always a good sign.

On the other hand, I’ve rejected stories that later went on to some critical-acclaim, and I’ve gone back to revisit them and found that I still didn’t like them. I don’t often revisit stories I’ve previously rejected, though.

And on the other hand, I think I’ve actually reprinted a couple of stories that I initially rejected.

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