On This Day in Submission Land: June 10th

Over the last decade and change, I’ve sent 803 submissions. Most of those submissions came back as rejections, with the occasional further consideration, short list, or even an acceptance providing a bit of sunshine in the nigh-perpetual gloom the clouds every writer’s literary skies. I thought it might be fun to look back each day, and see what kinds of publisher responses I received on the same date in prior years. So, let’s do that. I’ll try to keep up with this, though I likely won’t do every day, just those I actually received something interesting to talk about. Most of the time, I’ll go ahead and name the publisher(s) that provided the response(s), though these are absolutely NOT call-out threads. Like all my posts about rejections and other publisher responses, the goal of these posts is educational and to normalize the experience of getting rejected. That said, I have left off the greeting and signature for each response, mostly just to avoid redundancy and save space.

So with that in mind, let’s dive in.

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The first entry into OTDISL is for, well, today, June 10th, and though not my busiest day on record, I had three responses on this date. Let’s talk about them.

June 10th, 2016 – Rejection

Thank you for submitting “Caroline” to Apex Magazine. We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, we don’t feel it is a good fit for us and we’re going to have to pass on it at this time.

 

Thanks again. Best of luck with this.

This was my second submission and rejection from Apex Magazine. Though the rejection is a form letter, this story did make it out of the slush pile (a further consideration letter preceded this rejection), which is generally an indication you’ve got a good story on your hands. That proved true, and I went on to sell “Caroline” twice, first to a now sadly defunct market called Red Sun Magazine, then as a reprint to Dark Matter Magazine. 

June 10th, 2019 – Rejection

Thank you for submitting “The Back-Off” to Dark Moon Digest. Unfortunately, this didn’t work for us, so we’re going to pass. Best of luck placing it elsewhere.

Another form rejection three years letter, this time for my supernatural crime story “The Back-Off.” This remains one of my absolute favorite stories I’ve written, though it did take me a while to sell it. “The Back-Off” accumulated eight rejections, including a couple of short-list and close-but-no-cigar NOs, until I sold it to On Spec. Interestingly, this submission to Dark Moon Digest is a reprint submission. I’ve tried to sell the story as a reprint three times, but, so far, no dice. The only thing to take away from this rejection is simply that you need to submit your work widely. Not every story is going to work for every editor, and good stories get rejected all the time. I mean, I sold this story to a very good semi-pro market, and then it was rejected immediately on my first attempt to sell it as a reprint. I think that illustrates my point nicely.

June 10th, 2020 – Acceptance

Thank you for submitting “The Past, History” to Dark Matter Magazine. We loved this and would like to accept it for publication. We have received hundreds of submissions so far, but yours stood out significantly. It’s a great science-fiction thriller with some really cool tech-induced psychedelia sprinkled in–exactly the kind of stuff we want to publish. Thanks so much for submitting to Dark Matter Magazine. I’d be honored to publish your work.

Well, apparently June 10th hasn’t always been a bad day. Back in 2020, I sold my story “The Past, History” to Dark Matter Magazine. They’re a great outfit, and though they no longer publish the magazine, they’ve become a fantastic indie press of novels and novellas, publishing fantastic writers like Ai Jiang and Eliane Boey. This was my first sale to Dark Matter Magazine, and, funnily enough, my second sale was “Caroline.” The story rejected by Apex Magazine on this date in 2016. This is another story that took me a while to sell. It racked up eight rejections before Dark Matter Magazine accepted it. I’ve since gone on to sell it again as a reprint to Black Cat Weekly. This is yet another example of something I’ve been saying for years. Selling a story is about putting the right piece in front of the right editor at the right time. They’re like tumblers in a lock. If all three don’t line up, you’ll get a rejection, but keep at it. I’m living proof that persistence eventually opens doors. 🙂

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And that’s it for the first entry in On This Day in Submission Land. Check back, uh, let’s see . . . looks like tomorrow for the next entry.

Thoughts on these publisher responses? Tell me about it in the comments.