Submission Statement: August 2024
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, mostly because I just haven’t been as active with short story submissions as I used to be. Well, that’s changed in recent months, so it’s time to return to my monthly updates and share the trials, tribulations, and occasional triumphs of throwing yourself to the mercy of the publishing industry. 🙂
August 2024 Short Story Submissions
- Submissions Sent: 10
- Rejections: 8
- No Response: 0
- Acceptances: 1
- Further Consideration/Shortlist: 1
- Withdrawals: 0
Ten submissions last month is the most I’ve sent in quite a while. Those ten bring my submissions for the year up to 45, which is well off my traditional target pace of 100 per year, but I’m okay with that. At my current pace, I should get somewhere around 65 to 70. That’s pretty solid.
Rejections
Eight rejections in February.
- Form Rejections: 3
- Personal Rejections: 2
- Close-But-No-Cigar Rejections: 3
Kind of a heartbreaker of a month, to be honest. Three CBNC rejections is tough, though somewhat encouraging (I’ll share a couple of these with you below). The personal rejections are from markets that always give you some level of feedback, some of which is useful and some of which is, uh, not. The form rejections were, well, typical and uninteresting.
Okay, as promised here are two of the CBNC rejections.
Dear Aeryn,
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read [story]. Unfortunately, it does not meet our needs at this time. This submission did, however, reach our final round of review and was close to an acceptance. We are huge fans of your writing and this story featured a lot of what we love most with your stories, with the opening really grabbing us. Ultimately, we found that we wanted a bit more from the ending.
We’re sorry it’s not the right fit for us, but we wish you luck placing it elsewhere. We also appreciate your interest in [market] and very much hope you’ll keep us in mind in the future.
Regards,
Obviously, this market has published me before and tends to like my work (bless them). The feedback here is minimal (hey, they mostly liked the story), but it’s worth taking a look and seeing if I can’t add more impact to the ending and stay under 1,000 words. I think I’ll end up selling this piece eventually.
Dear Aeryn,
Thank you for your latest submission and continued interest in [market]. Our editors are always honored to read and discuss your submissions. Unfortunately, we have decided not to publish this particular piece.
Please know it was a difficult decision, and your story reached the very final discussion.Â
We note that you remain a master of flash fiction which possesses devastating (in a good way) pathos and emotionally dark endings that linger with a reader.
This draft of the story we felt had slight pacing issues in the middle which brought down your excellent opening and ending. Â While Kevin dismantles and rebuilds his home the story movement feels slow, with one of the few excitments of this section the main character running someone over with their Humvee. The middle section reminded some of us of a sequence from The Walking Dead/Fallout as we watched the characters complete a task.
Your story’s title and ending remain a creative highlight in our readings, and we are truly happy to have read your story. We are glad to have a submission from you at any time.
Best regards,
Another market that has published me a fair amount and who also tends to like what I send them (seriously, bless these folks). One of my favorite things about this market is the excellent feedback they tend to give on rejections. Now, in this case, I was actually going for a Walking Dead/Fallout kind of thing in the middle, as I tend to enjoy those task-oriented sequences in postapocalyptic shows and games. That said, I might have gotten a little self-indulgent and let the scene drag on too long, which, as the editors astutely pointed out, hurt the pacing of the story. I’ll definitely see if I can’t shorten or summarize more of that middle section and maybe add another event with more emotional resonance.
Also, I should point out, it’s hard to get too mad at a rejection that calls you a master at anything (even if I humbly disagree). 🙂
Acceptances
One acceptance in August, which ended a four month drought. I’m really pleased to see this one get picked up, as it might have my favorite title for one of my short stories ever. Here’s the acceptance letter.
Hi Aeryn,
Thank you for submitting “The Last Labor of Larry Lizard” for consideration. We are happy to let you know that your story has been accepted, and will be tentatively scheduled on [date].
Please complete the contributor agreement located here:
Please also forward a short 3rd person bio and photo to accompany your story if you have not published with Shotgun Honey or you wish to update this information.
Thank you for your contribution and we hope to work with you again soon.
All the best.
This’ll be my second publication with Shotgun Honey. I’d submit more often to them (they’re a great market for crime fiction), but they have a hard 700-word limit, and I struggle to write flash under about 900 words. Both stories I’ve sold to them started out at over 900 words, which I then cut down to 700, so it’s certainly possible for me to produce saleable flash fiction at that length, but whoo boy, is it hard.
Anyway, I’m thrilled to have placed another story with Shotgun Honey, and I’ll be sure to share the piece with you when it publishes in a month or so.
And that was August. My goals for September are to send at least six submissions, finish up a bunch of freelance work, and keep plugging away at the revisions on a novel (which, god willing, I’ll be done with by the end of the month).
How was your month of submitting/writing?
Overanalyzing Story Acceptance Rates Part 271 – Rates By Market Tier
One of my favorite rejectomantic topics is acceptance rates. I’ve picked apart my own for nearly a decade, overanalyzing them in an attempt to understand the whims and vagaries of the publishing industry. What have I learned? Not much, honestly, but, fuck it, let’s take an even deeper dive into my acceptance percentages and look at them by market payment tier! I mean, that’ll teach us something, right? RIGHT? 🙂
Okay, so if you’re new to this whole story submission nonsense, what do I mean by market payment tier? Simply put, in genre fiction, markets are broken into broad categories based on how much they pay. The three categories are pro, semi-pro, and token. There are also markets that pay nothing, the so-called for-the-love-of-it markets, but I tend to lump them in with token. YMMV there. Now, as to what constitutes pro payment, it varies by genre and is set by the various genre writing organizations like the SFWA, HWA, and MWA. For sci-fi and fantasy, the pro rate is generally considered to be at least 8 cents per word. For horror it’s 5 cents per word. I think it might be 5 cents per word for mystery and crime, too, but don’t quote me on that. Semi-pro markets pay a wide range that works out to just under pro rates to a bottom floor of one cent per word. Finally, token markets pay under one cent a word (usually flat fee).
So, how have I fared in each market tier? First, let’s get some baseline numbers.
Not including pending responses, withdrawals, non-responses, and submissions of things that are not short stories (novels), I have sent 739 submissions since I started tracking them on Duotrope way back in 2012. Of those 739 submissions, 105 have come back as acceptances. That works out to an overall acceptance rate of 14%. That’s not too shabby, but now lets break it out by market tier.
Pro Markets
To date, I have sent 379 submissions to pro markets, and I have received 32 acceptances from those markets. That’s an 8% acceptance rate. I knew it was gonna be not great, but ouch. Letting the single-digit sting wear off a bit and looking at the numbers closer, turns out that 8% isn’t that bad when you look at the acceptance rates of the markets I’m submitting to. They generally hover in the 1% or LESS range, so it could be a lot worse. Of course, I’d like to do better, but competition is fierce at pro markets, so lots of rejections is just part of the game.
Semi-Pro MarketsÂ
As of today, i have sent 296 submissions to semi-pro markets, but I’ve been A LOT more successful with them than I have with pro markets. Twice as successful, in fact. I have, currently, 49 acceptances from semi-pro journals and zines, which works out to a 17% acceptance rate. That’s solid. Hell, that’s good. Now, of course, the question is why am I so much more successful at these markets than the pro markets? Well, with a few exceptions, there’s just not as much competition. Though semi-pro markets can and do receive a lot of submissions, they’re generally not getting the absolute bonkers numbers that a market like Clarkesworld is pulling down. So, if you write a good story, you have a better shot at standing out, and therefore a better shot of getting published. That same story might get a close-but-no-cigar rejection at a pro market (or even a form rejection). It’s honestly just a numbers games. If you’ve been writing successfully for a while, i.e., you’re what some folks might consider good, you’re chances are just better at a semi-pro zine. I want to point out, however, that this absolutely does not mean that semi-pro markets don’t have high standards when it comes to the stories they publish. They definitely do, and most have standards as high as any pro market.
Token and Free Markets*
Though I sent a fair number of submissions to token and free markets when I first started out, I don’t generally submit to them anymore. This is not because there aren’t some very good markets in this tier. I just want to get paid something for my work. So, I’ve only sent a total of 64 submissions to token and free markets, and of those 64 submissions, a whopping 24 were accepted. That’s a 38% acceptance rate. Pretty damn good. Now, in my case, this inflated rate is mostly due to the fact that early on, I found a wonderful market that really liked my work, and they’ve published me a lot. I’d guess even without that market, my acceptance rate at this tier would be pretty solid, but not, you know, 38%.
*You might have noticed the asterisk in this section header. Well, that’s because one of the token markets I submitted to a lot also runs contests that offer cash prizes. I made the command decision to lump those contests in with semi-pro markets (because they technically pay), but I would understand if some folks considered that dirty pool. So, my revised acceptance rates if you count the contests as token are 14% at semi-pro markets and 43% at token markets. Not a massive change, but significant enough that I thought I should point it out.
Conclusion
Not that it’s any great surprise, but the more a market pays, the tougher it is to get published by them. That said, I don’t think we should chalk that up to quality necessarily. I’ve seen markets that pay nothing that are incredibly professional and publish only high quality work. On the flip side, I’ve seen markets that pay a pro rate, are run in a, uh, less than professional manner, and then fold after a couple of issues. I think my personal acceptance rates at each tier comes down to simple math. The more submissions a market receives, the tougher it is to get published, and, in general, pro markets receive the most submissions, then semi-pro, then token/free. But, you know, I also have to face facts. It’s entirely possible (even probable) that I’m simply not writing the kind of fiction some of the big markets want to publish. I’ve gotten close, of course, but I’ve never managed to cross the threshold at a lot of the big names. Don’t get me wrong; I see that entirely as a me problem, not a them problem, and all I can do is keep writing the kind of fiction I love and hope that some day I can stick the landing at one of my dream markets. 🙂
To sum up, here are my quick and dirty numbers at each tier.
- Pro – 379 subs, 32 acceptances, 8% acceptance rate
- Semi-Pro – 296 subs, 49 acceptances, 17% acceptance rate
- Token/Free – 64 subs, 24 acceptances, 38% acceptance rate
- Total – 739 subs, 105 acceptances, 14% acceptance rate
Thoughts on these acceptance rates? Care to share your own? I’d love to hear it in the comments.
Rejection Feedback – Inspiring, Informative, or Insensitive?
Editorial feedback on a rejection is as varied as editorial tastes, and how an editor chooses to relate something like “close-but-no-cigar” to an author can be radically different from market to market. A recent discussion about a comment I received a while back got me thinking about this and how we, as authors, might react to different styles of feedback, even when feedback from different editors essentially says the same thing. So, let’s look at three comments I received on three rejections and see how each one lands.
All three of the comments I’m going to show you are from close-but-no-cigar rejections. Publisher names and story titles have been removed to protect the innocent. 🙂
Comment 1
An 8, while we’re looking for 9s and 10s.
The comment above is the one that got me thinking about this issue, and when I shared it with writer friends and on social media, the response was pretty varied. Some folks found the comment insulting, blunt, and didn’t like the idea of having their work reduced to a numerical value. My opinion? I’m fine with it. Yeah, this is not generally how editors handle feedback on a story, but when I take a step back and think about it, there’s nothing insulting here. The commenter is saying what a lot of editors say, i.e., this is good, but not quite good enough. Honestly, it’s hard for me to get upset at someone who thinks my story is an 8 out of 10, and I like the unambiguous directness of it. YMMV, of course.
Comment 2
Thank you for your patience. Your story [title] made it to the second round for consideration, but ultimately, our editorial team decided against accepting it. This reading period was very competitive, so I hope you won’t be too discouraged. We look forward to future stories from you next time we’re open for submissions.
This is a pretty standard response when your story makes it to late rounds or final round of consideration. The editor doesn’t make any kind of value judgment on the work nor do they give any actionable feedback (not uncommon), but they’re saying the same thing as the editor in the first comment – good, but not good enough. Now, they do hint at why it wasn’t good enough – a very competitive environment – but that’s gonna be true of any submission to any market. The comment tells me I should try again, and I definitely will. So, nothing to get upset about here other than garden-variety disappointment at getting this close and not making the cut. I’d guess most authors would have no real issues receiving this response from an editor.
Comment 3
We really loved this worthy and thoughtful story. It reached the final round of submissions. This is rarified air that the vast majority of submissions to [market] do not reach. I hope this news provides some measure of consolation, even though I know this rejection letter must be disappointing.
Personal note: Congrats on reaching the final round of submissions! I dearly hope you’re able to find a beautiful and appropriate home for such a daring and thoughtful story. This is such an elegantly written and surprisingly sweet story—it’s concise but not terse, and it conveys a real sense of cross-cultural intimacy and connection. It’s romantic but not cheesy or sentimentalist; the speculative conceit is metaphorical, to an extent, but it’s above all an avenue for closeness and connection. It reminded me a little of Kimi no na Wa, one of my favorite films.
Well, rejections letters don’t get much nicer than this, folks. The editor says a lot of wonderful things about my story, which I appreciate, and assures me that even getting to this point is a feat in and of itself. Knowing how few stories this market actually publishes, I believe it. That said, at the end of the day, the editor isn’t saying anything different than the editor in the first comment. Good, but not good enough comes in a much nicer package, but it’s the same message. Now, I’d guess most authors would prefer a close-but-no-cigar rejection to be delivered in this fashion, and I get it, but, if I really think about it, my reaction to this comment and the first one are the same: initial disappointment, some feeling of validation, and a commitment to try the publisher again.
So, thoughts on these three comments? Do you find any of them inspiring, informative, or insensitive? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
On This Day in Submission Land: June 21st
Time for another installment of On This Day in Submission Land. Slight change in format going forward. I’ll show you the submissions I sent on the fateful day, including my cover letter if it’s interesting, as well as responses I received. So, let’s take a look at June 21st.
Submissions Sent
1. 6/21/15 – “Manny” to EGM Shorts
Dear Fiction Editors,
Please consider my flash fiction piece “Manny” for publication at Evil Girlfriend Media. The story is approximately 1,000 words in length.
Bio: I currently work as the publications manager for Privateer Press, Inc., and my short fiction has recently been published by Allegory, Devilfish Review, and The Molotov Cocktail.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Aeryn Rudel
Back in 2015, I was fairly new to sending submissions, and my cover letter, thought not terrible, shows some of my inexperience. There are a few things in here I don’t do anymore, such as the closing phrase “Thank you for reading” and the opening “Dear Fiction Editors.” Now I just address the letter to Dear Editor, and I don’t use thanks for reading at all. I was also including a bio even if the submission guidelines didn’t call for it. Though, in truth, that “bio” was really just a list of my writing bona fides and a few credits. I don’t do that anymore, as it’s not necessary, and if the guidelines don’t ask for a bio, it’s probably best not to include one.
The story, “Manny,” I never sold, and it has been relegated to the trunk dimension. I did, however, eventually sell a story to EGM Shorts, a saucy little take of autophagia called “The Rarest Cut.” Sadly, EGM Shorts closed down years ago.
2. 6/21/17 – “Small Evil” to The Spectral Book of Horror Stories 5
Dear Editors,
Please consider my short story “A Small Evil” for publication in The Spectral Book of Horror Stories 5. The story is approximately 2,100 words in length. My short fiction has recently appeared in DarkFuse Magazine, Pseudopod, and Havok magazine.
Thank you,
Aeryn Rudel (byline)Â
The story here, “A Small Evil” I eventually sold to The Arcanist as a flash fiction piece. I had less luck with the longer version I sent to this anthology. As far as I can tell, The Spectral Book of Horror Stories 5 was the last in this series.
3. 6/21/18 – “The Last Scar” to Trembling With Fear
Dear Editor,
Please consider my short story “The Last Scar” for publication at Trembling With Fear. The story is approximately 1,000 words in length.
Bio: Aeryn Rudel is a writer from Seattle, Washington. His second novel, Aftershock, was recently published by Privateer Press, and his short fiction has appeared in The Arcanist, Havok, and Pseudopod, among others. He occasionally offers dubious advice on writing and rejection (mostly rejection) at www.rejectomancy.com or on Twitter @Aeryn_Rudel.
Best,
Aeryn Rudel
Publisher Responses
1. 6/21/17 – Rejection from Black Static for “A Small Evil”
Many thanks for sending “A Small Evil”, but I’m sorry to say that it isn’t right for Black Static. I wish you luck placing it elsewhere, and hope that you’ll send me something new soon.
This is a standard form rejection from Black Static, a pro market I’ve been trying to crack for years. Not much else to say here other than you might notice I submitted this story on the same day this rejection arrived. That’s not unusual for me. If I get a form rejection with no feedback, and I still feel confident about the story, I’ll generally send it out again the same day.
1. 6/21/17 – Rejection from Arsenika for “The Last Scar”
Thank you for sending “The Last Scar” to Arsenika. Unfortunately, it’s not quite what we’re looking for at the moment. Best of luck placing it elsewhere, and thanks again for trying us.
Noticing a pattern here yet? 🙂 This rejection from Arsenika for “The Last Scar” was turned around immediately into a submission to Trembling With Fear, which I detailed earlier in this post. Arsenika was a speculative flash fiction and poetry market that ran from 2016 to 2021. The were a pro market, paying $60.00 for flash fiction up to 1,000 words. I only submitted to them twice, both times in May of 2018. Both stories were rejected. I definitely would have kept trying, as they were a quality market and, looking back, I think they might have been a good fit for some of the stories I was writing in 2020 and 2021.
And that is June 21st in submission land. Thoughts on these submissions and responses? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
On This Day in Submission Land: June 12th
It’s time for another installment of On This Day in Submission Land. Today, we cast our gaze back to the dim, misty past, to the ancient before times of 2015 and 2020, and a pair of rejections for two of my most-rejected stories. Let’s have a look.
June 10th, 2016 – Rejection
We have read your submission and will have to pass, as it unfortunately does not meet our needs at this time.
This was a form rejection from The Dark for my story “Paper Cut.” As per usual with The Dark, the rejection was speedy and succinct. I submitted the story at 12:32 p.m., and it was rejected at 1:21 p.m., a span of 49 minutes. That’s fast, even for The Dark, but not fast enough to be an outlier. Tales abound of authors who’ve been rejected quicker, some as fast as ten minutes or less. Personally, I love that The Dark is so quick. They’re usually the first market I submit to if I have an appropriate story. I know I’ll hear back quickly, and, hey, there’s always a chance I’ll break through and get to add this fantastic market to my publishing credits.
As I alluded to in my opening, this story, “Paper Cut,” was rejected a lot before I finally sold it to Red Sun Magazine in May of 2016. It accrued 15 rejections before the sale, and it has since picked up another three as a reprint sub. Just another example of why you have to keep trying and keep submitting when you believe in a story. The right publisher is out there; it can just take a while to find them.
June 10th, 2020 – Rejection
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read your story. We regret that we are not able to make a personal reply or give criticism on returned manuscripts. The large number of submissions we receive makes it impossible to do so. We can assure you, however, that your work has been given careful consideration. Unfortunately, it does not meet our present needs.
We wish you the best of luck in placing your work with another magazine.
This form rejection is from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for my story “The Scars You Keep.” I’ll admit, this was a bit of a long shot. The story is nominally a crime story, but the supernatural element is overt and drives the narrative. This is not to say that Ellery Queen won’t publish the odd speculative piece, but, from what I’ve seen, it’s not their usual fare. That said, after 16 rejections, I was running out of places to send the story, so I took a chance. I eventually sold “The Scars You Keep” to Wyldblood Magazine in September of 2021 on it’s 19th submission. This is one of those weird stories that racks up short-lists and close-but-no-cigar rejections but just never quite breaks through. I’m glad it finally found a home, but, damn, it was a SIX-YEAR odyssey getting there.
One last thing about this rejection that I think is interesting is how different it is to the rejection from The Dark, while being essentially the exact same thing–a common, boilerplate form letter. Personally, I’m fine with either style of form letter, and view this kind of thing as simply an expression of editorial style.
And that’s my submission track record for June 12th. Care to share one of your own “on this day” rejections? I’d love to see it in the comments.
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.
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.Â
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. 🙂
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.
Back-Edits & Brain Weasels: A Brief Look at My Writing Process
Recently, someone was asking me about my writing process. More specifically, they asked me what my draft to done process looks like. Well, I just finished a 5,000-word freelance piece, and I think it’s a good example of what my meandering path to a done(ish) story looks like. This story took me roughly five working days to write (not counting outlining). Now, “days” in this example are not necessarily contiguous and they more represent blocks of working time I fit around other projects than complete eight-hour sessions. So, with that in mind, let’s dive in.
Day One – 1,500 words
Working off a detailed outline, I got off to a good start and wrote the first scene and a half 0n the story (it’s a total of four scenes). I did not back edit. I rarely do, and there’s a reason for this. If I read through text I just wrote, I will absolutely fucking hate it, and it’ll bum me out the rest of the day. I don’t know why that is, but it’s just how my brain works, and in order for me to produce publishable material, I generally need to let new text sit a while before I come back to it.
Day Two – Editing and 750 words
On the second day, I went back and cleaned up the first 1,500 words. They were a tad messy, but I didn’t feel the absolute loathing I would have if I’d tried to edit immediately after writing them. I tightened, polished, and rewrote where appropriate, and then banged out another 750 words, bringing me roughly to the halfway point in the story.
Day Three – 1,000 words
For whatever reason, my confidence in my ability to write compelling fiction was flagging on day three (OCD brain weasels have joined the chat), so I avoided the back edit and simply plowed ahead with the rest of the story. It was tough going, and this was one of those days where I really, really did not want to write, but I have a deadline, and I have learned over the years that just because I think I’m writing absolute dog shit does not mean I actually am. I managed 1,000 words and finished the third scene. I did not back edit because in he state of mind I was in, I might have deleted the entire story in a fit of writerly pique. 🙂
Day Four – Editing and 2000 words
Easily the best writing day of the bunch. I started by back editing everything I’d written thus far, tightening and polishing, and then I banged out the rest of the story in one frenzied session of keyboard pounding. After that two-thousand-word burst, I was feeling pretty good, so I broke with tradition and went back over what I’d written. Might have been a mistake because I kinda hated everything. That said, I knew this was just another brain weasel talking, so I finished the back edit, took a breath, and reveled in doneness. (Well, almost).
Day Five – Final polish and turnover
This morning, I set to work polishing the entire 5,000-word story. I was in a good mood, and I felt what I’d written was not just decent, but like actually good. I managed to improve some scenes by expanding dialogue and tightening or removing exposition and the like. After the initial polish, I hit the spell check, which, for freelance in this IP, is not only about catching run-of-the-mill typos and whatnot, but also about giving me an opportunity to make sure all the made-up fantasy words are spelled correctly and consistently. For example, words like necomechanika, helljack, necrotech, Wraithbinder, and so on, are always gonna pop as misspelled, giving me a chance to make sure I’ve got them correct and even add them to the dictionary where appropriate.
The story I turned over came in at around 4,900 words that I think are pretty good. Now, once the publisher has had a chance to review the story, there will be revisions, but I think we’re starting from a good place.
So that’s my writing process in a nut shell. Even though this is a freelance piece, when I draft my own stories and novels, it looks pretty much the same. For example, I generally do not back edit the same day, and I tend to carve up projects into blocks of working time that can range from an hour to four hours and from 500 words to 3,000. I can draft faster, of course, and sometimes I do, but four writing days for a 5,000-word short story is solid, especially if I’m hitting my deadlines, which I always do.
Thoughts on my writing process? Care to share your own? Tell me about it in the comments.
800 Submissions: An Analysis
Recently, I sent out my 800th submission since I started tracking them through Duotrope way back in April of 2012. Feels weird to even say that, but, I guess 12 years of steady submissions adds up. As usual, when I hit a major milestone like this, I like to break down the numbers and bombard you poor people with a bunch of stats. So here we go!
First, the basic numbers.
- Rejections: 642
- Acceptances: 104
- Withdrawals: 26
- Lost/Never Responded: 22
- Pending: 6
I won’t lie; I did track some of my last round of novel queries through Duotrope (there’s a novella in there, too), so not all of these are short story subs. That said, queries are basically the same thing as subs, and since all those queries ended up rejections and brought my acceptance percentage way, way down, fuck it, I’m counting them. 🙂
Okay, now lets look at individual pieces.
- Total Unique Stories: 164
- Microfiction: 4
- Flash Fiction: 127
- Short Stories: 29
- Novellas: 1
- Novels: 3
Clearly, flash fiction makes up the bulk of what I write and submit. There’s a few reasons for this. One, I’ve been participating in a bi-weekly flash fiction contest/exercise for the over a decade, so I generally have a couple of new stories to submit every month. Two, as much as I like writing short stories, they just take longer to complete, and they take longer to sell, too. That said, my success rate with short stories is pretty good. I’ve sold 17 of the 29 I’ve submitted.
Though I write microfiction just about every day, I rarely submit it. The four I have submitted were all accepted, though, and I don’t know if I want to mess up my perfect record by submitting more. 🙂
Now, the novels needs a little explanation. I have only technically submitted one complete novel. The other two were first chapter contests, but I’m still gonna count them.
Now let’s talk about publishers.
- Total Unique* Publishers: 228
- Most Subs: 67 (The Molotov Cocktail)
- Most Subs Without An Acceptance: 37 (Flash Fiction Online)
- Most Acceptances: 17 (The Arcanist and The Molotov Cocktail)
The asterisk by the word unique denotes that this number includes some literary agents (39) and some markets that have multiple listings. For example, Flame Tree Press has their individual short story collections and their fiction newsletter as separate listings on Duotrope. In that past I’ve consolidated, but this time, I left them separate.
Yep, I’ve submitted to Flash Fiction Online 37 times without a single yes, but I’ve made it to their final selection round enough that I’ll keep trying. Other markets where I’ve got a big fat o’fer include Apex (24), Daily Science Fiction (24), and The Dark (19). I’ve made it out of the slush pile frequently enough at Apex that I’ll keep trying. Unfortunately, Daily Science Fiction is on indefinite hiatus, so my chances of ever cracking them are pretty remote. As for The Dark, I mean, they reject in under 24 hours, so why not try? 🙂
I think that’s enough stats for now. I’ll have more for you when I hit 900. 🙂
The Monsters the Guidelines Forgot: Vampires
Continuing my series of post about how to sell stories featuring monsters who frequent publisher do-not-send list, we’re gonna talk about the only monster that might give zombies a run for their money as most maligned. Yep, it’s time sharpen our fangs and talk about everyone favorite undead parasites: vampires. As with zombies, I’ve had a bit of success selling vampire stories, and to date, I’ve managed to convince seven editors to give my vampire tales a shot. Let’s discuss some of the way I did that.
As with my first entry into this series, I’ve come up with four ways you can add variety to your vampire stories that might give you the edge you need to sell one. Of course, these changes are not sure-fire or bulletproof by any means, but I do believe they’ve helped me snatch a few acceptances from the jaws of rejection.
1) Real Monsters (or Real Funny). In my experience, much of the antipathy toward vampires is essentially a kind of literary fatigue around a specific type of vampire, a type that dominated films, TV, and fiction in the early to mid-aughts. I’m of course talking about the beautiful, sexy vampire first popularized by Anne Rice that later took the market by storm with shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries and, of course, massive bestsellers like the Twilight series. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of vampire or telling stories like those in the IPs I listed (I’ve done it and even sold a few), but there seems to be a lingering distaste toward that kind of vampire. So, what are you to do? Easy, return to the vampire’s roots, when it was a horrific, blood-drinking abomination fit only for destruction. The vampire as monstrous antagonist has been making a real comeback in film and other media, and editors seem to be more open to this representation of the vampire than the more benign type.
Of course, we’ve also seen the vampire jump back into the spotlight by going completely in the other direction and embracing humor rather than horror. The best example of this is the show What We Do in the Shadows, which takes tons of traditional vampire tropes and plays them for laughs instead of, you know, choking death gurgles. I personally love injecting a bit of humor into my horror, and I’ve used that to successfully sell vampire stories a number of times.
2) Creative Creation. Vampires are usually created when a vampire drains a human of blood and then reanimates them with a bit of their own. There’s nothing wrong this creation method, of course, but changing it wholesale can add an interesting new twist to the traditional vampire story. There’s so many other ways you can go here, but I think my favorite is removing the need for another vampire entirely and having vampirism gained from an outside source. Often this a dak ritual or even some kind of cursed artifact. I went with the latter in my story “Second Bite” where I combined two horrors–dentistry and vampirism. In the story, a character becomes one of the undead after being fitted with dentures crafted from the teeth of a particularly powerful vampire. A little silly, sure, but I played it straight and ended up selling the piece.
3) What Are You Doing Here? I talked about this in my zombie article, but it applies here, too, and really to any classic monster. Just putting your vampire in a new environment can add a lot of depth and interest to your story, even if you go with a 100% traditional vampire. Unlike zombies, vampires are intelligent, free-willed monsters, and letting them deal with the problems that arise in unusual situations can make for an engaging story. For example, in my story “Night Games,” I had a vampire playing baseball in the minor leagues. The questions I had to answer to make that plausible helped me structure the narrative. For example, how did the vampire avoid sunlight? He only plays night games. How does a vampire baseball player get the blood he needs without drawing attention? Minor league teams travel a lot, so he can spread his kills around. When a player finds out there’s a vampire on the other team, how does he deal with the monster? Wooden bats and inside fastballs. 🙂
4) Myth Management. One of the great things about vampires is just about every culture features some version of them in their myths and legends. The general idea is the same–a creature that rises from the dead to prey on the living–but other details can be wildly different. For example, in Chinese and certain Eastern European myths about vampires, the monsters can be distracted by throwing a handful of rice, seeds, grains, etc. in front of them. The vampire is compelled to stop and count the tiny objects, allowing its victim to get away, or, if there’s enough rice or seeds or whatever, keep them counting until the sun comes up. You can treat these details form various myths as kind of an ala carte menu of vampiric traits or simply choose one of the more obscure and horrifying examples of vampires and run with that. Take the penanggalan, a vampire-like creature from Malaysian mythology created by a dark ritual (see point 2) that allows the practitioner to detach their head and all their internal organs, which dangle beneath the disembodied noggin, float away and prey upon and drink the blood of the living. You don’t have to tinker with that concept much (or at all) to make it unique and terrifying.
As I mentioned, I’ve sold seven vampire stories to date, and most of them features some of the methods I discussed above. Here are some examples.
- Real Monsters: “Bites” published in Footsteps in the Dark by Flame Tree Press
- Creative Creation: “Second Bite” published at MetaStellar
- What Are You Doing Here? “Night Games” published at PseudoPod
For whatever reason, I’ve never used the myth management change-up in my vampire stories, though I’ve always admired authors that do that. Sounds like I need to write another vampire story. 🙂
So there you have it, four ways to give your vampire stories more, uh, bite and maybe convince an editor there’s still some (un)life left in vampire fiction.
Thoughts on writing and selling vampire stories? Tell me about it in the comments.
Rejectomancy Rabbit Hole: Acceptance Rates
Recently, I was discussing the chances of getting published at some of the big genre markets with my author pals, and a few numbers were thrown around, some by yours truly. These numbers were mostly guess-work. None of us really know the exact percentage chance we’ll make it out of the slush pile and onto the editor’s desk, to say nothing of our chances of actually getting published. Then I remembered a few markets had actually told me how close I’d gotten to publication in their rejections, relating my near miss in terms of percentages. So let’s take a look at those rejections, use a little rejectomancy, and see what we can learn.
The first rejection is from Escape Pod, a fantastic sci-fi audio market.
[1] Thank you for sending [story title] to Escape Pod. Unfortunately, this story wasn’t a good fit for us. Choosing stories is a subjective process, and we have to reject many well-written stories. Please note that we do not accept revised stories, but we wish you the best in finding this one a good home, and we look forward to your next submission.
[2] Our Associate Editors enjoyed this story, and the Assistant Editors liked it enough to hold it for a second look, but ultimately the competition was too strong this month. About 5-7% of submissions reach this stage.
[3] This was a well-written story with a great setup, but we wanted the story to be set at a point when the narrator was still making decisions.
A nice little rejection that I’ve broken down into three sections. Let’s discuss each one.
[1] It’s not uncommon in close-but-no-cigar rejection to find the same boilerplate language you’d see in a form rejection. The reason for this is, I think, pretty simple. There’s certain information a publisher needs to relate to every author in every rejection, no matter how close the story actually gets to publication, and there’s no point in reinventing the wheel. That’s what we have here.
[2] Okay, now we’re getting to the good stuff. The editors relate some of how their selection process works. In addition to the info here, Benjamin C Kinney, a former assistant editor at Escape Pod, provided even more details on the selection process on his blog, here. What we’re looking at is three tiers of readers: associate editors, assistant editors, and then, finally, the co-editors (EICs?) of the publication. I don’t know if Escape Pod also employs first readers, but I assume so, as most markets this do. My story was rejected by the assistant editors, and as the rejection states, that’s roughly 5-7% of submissions. Not bad.
[3] As is common with this level of rejection, the editors provided a bit of specific feedback on my story. This is always exceedingly helpful. Even if you don’t end up using the feedback, it lets you know what the editors might want to see in a future story. So, when I submit another piece to Escape Pod, this piece of feedback will help me determine which story to send them.
Okay, the next rejection is from Flash Fiction Online, one of the premier markets for genre flash fiction.
[1] Thank you for considering Flash Fiction Online for your story, [story title]
Unfortunately we have decided not to accept it. As much as we wish we could, we can’t publish every good story that comes our way. Truthfully, we’re forced to return a great many stories with merits that make them well worthy of publication, including yours.
[2] Your story did, however, reach the final stage of our selection process–one among an elite group. Less than 5% of stories make it this far. That is no small feat.
[3] In winnowing, stories are discussed and vetted before I make my final selections. If you are interested in receiving feedback based on those discussions you are welcome to email me at [email]. Please use the following subject line: FEEDBACK REQUEST: [Story Title].
We wish you the best of luck finding a home for your story elsewhere, feel confident of your success in doing so, and hope to receive submissions from you in the future. May the muse be ever by your side.
Like the rejection from Escape Pod, I’ve broken this rejection down into three parts. Let’s discuss them.
[1] Again, we see the boiler plate language here that relates important information regardless of the tier of rejection. I really love that they talk about turning away good stories. Every market does. They have to. There just isn’t enough space to publish all the stories they like. What’s great, though, is that when you do make it this far with a market like FFO, it’s pretty much a guarantee you’ve got a sellable piece on your hands. I’ve gone on to sell all the pieces FFO rejected at this stage, and I was able to submit those stories with greater confidence after FFO turned them down.
[2] The nitty-gritty details. FFO, like many of the big genre markets, as a multi-tiered selection process. I’m somewhat familiar with it as I’ve made it to this final stage a number of times. I know it begins with a team of first readers that choose stories from the slush pile for further evaluation. Then there are a number of rounds where the staff votes on their favorite stories (three, I think). Finally, the editor makes a decision on which stories get published. As noted above, about 5% of submitted stories make it to the final round. Again, that’s pretty good.
[3] Flash Fiction Online offers a very useful service to authors who make it to this final stage of the winnowing process. You can email the editor, and they’ll provide you with curated feedback from the staff when they were voting on stories. I’ve taken that offer once and received an excellent mix of praise and constructive feedback. I can say without reservation that that feedback and the revisions I made because of it helped me sell the story on the next submission.
With the above information in mind, what are the chances of getting published by these two markets? Even knowing the exact percentage of stories that make it to these final evaluation stages, all I can do is speculate. Duotrope and The Submission Grinder give us one more clue, though – the acceptance rate for each market. That’s roughly 3.5% for Flash Fiction Online and 3.0% for Escape Pod. Now, rejections are always underreported at both Duotrope and The Submission Grinder, which can inflate acceptance rates. My best guess is that both markets are closer to a one or two percent acceptance rate.
Of course, the burning question is how many submissions do these markets receive during their submission windows? I don’t know for sure, but we can look at another pro genre market, Diabolical Plots, that provides exact submission numbers for their submission window and draw some ballpark conclusions. In their last submission window, Diabolical Plots reported 1,451 submissions received. I’d guess Escape Pod and Flash Fiction Online receive a similar amount of submissions (maybe more, maybe less). If I put on my rejectomancy hat, I can surmise that roughly 75 stories reach the stage my story did with each publisher. I can then even more crudely guess that of those 75, maybe 20 to 25 stories actually go on to publication. I have no way to determine the accuracy of that statement, but it feels about right.
So, yeah, we’re looking at some long odds, but I think we all knew that, right? That shouldn’t dissuade you from submitting to these markets, though, and you should avoid thinking about acceptance percentages like gambling odds. It’s not really random. The right story has a 100% chance of getting published, and the more you write and submit to these markets, climbing up the rejection ranks and getting useful feedback, the closer you get to publication.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my little trip down the rejectomancy rabbit hole and that a look at my rejections provided you with some useful information. Thoughts on rejection percentages at these markets or others? I’d love to hear it in the comments.
Effectively Wild – A Baseball Horror Story
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 