Submission Statement: June 2017
My acceptance slump continued in June, though I did have one publication. I have two new stories I started sending out last month, so they’ve been piling up the rejections with all the usual suspects. Let’s have a look.
June 2017 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 5
- Rejections: 4
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 1
- Other: 0
Roughly one submission per week in June. Not bad, but I’d like to double that in July.
Rejections
Four rejections this month, all of the form variety.
Rejection 1: Submitted 5/22/17; Rejected 6/19/2017
Thank you for submitting “XXX” to XXX. 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.
A form rejection from a top-tier magazine, one I’ve been trying to crack for a long time. I don’t find it particularly disheartening to receive a form rejection from this market (and others like it). The competition here is absolutely fierce, and they publish some of the best speculative fiction in the industry. In other words, I have to keep working to improve my craft and send them my very best. It’s a real challenge, and I dig that.
Rejection 2: Submitted 5/24/17; Rejected 6/19/2017
Thank you for submitting your story, “XXX”, to XXX. Unfortunately, we have decided not to publish it. To date, we have reviewed many strong stories that we did not take. Either the fit was wrong or we’d just taken tales with a similar theme or any of a half dozen other reasons.
Another standard form rejection from a top-tier market. I have had no luck with this particular market after seven submissions, and some of that may be because they primarily publish sci-fi, and what I tend to send them is sci-fi-ish. There are, of course, other reasons for the rejections, as they state in their letter.
Rejection 3: Submitted 6/19/17; Rejected 6/19/2017
Thank you so much for thinking of XXX. Unfortunately “XXX” is not quite what we’re looking for at the moment. Best of luck placing it elsewhere.
You may have noticed that the receipt date for the last three rejections are all 6/19/17. Yep, three rejections in one day. It happens, and I’ve become sufficiently inured to rejections now that it doesn’t bother me overmuch. You might also notice this is a same-day rejection. I sent the story at 9:46 a.m. and it was rejected at 3:43 p.m. That’s just under six hours. That’s not too uncommon either, and it doesn’t even come close to my record of 45 minutes for same-day rejections.
Rejection 4: Submitted 6/19/17; Rejected 6/21/2017
Many thanks for sending “XXX”, but I’m sorry to say that it isn’t right for XXX. I wish you luck placing it elsewhere, and hope that you’ll send me something new soon.
Another form rejection from one of my go-to markets. Like the market in the first rejection, I submit just about every new story I write to this market (if it’s of the appropriate genre, of course). No luck yet, but I’ll keep trying.
Publications
One publication for this month, and it’s a fun one. My short story “Scare Tactics” was published by Dunesteef in an audio format. They really nail all the voices, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. You can listen to the story by clicking the link or photo below.
Episode 194: Scare Tactics by Aeryn Rudel
And that’s my June. Tell me about yours in the comments.
8 Comments on “Submission Statement: June 2017”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
I had a pretty good June:
Submissions Sent: 9
Rejections: 3
Acceptances: 2
Publications: 1
Other: 1
The “Other” was a same-day acceptance from an online journal for a brief anecdote, which was less than 200 words. I hesitate to consider it an “acceptance” because this may be a case where they probably accept anything as long as it sticks to the theme and meets the guidelines. (I did include it in my number for “Submissions Sent” only because I had to go through Submittable.)
Nice month! Whenever your acceptances, publications, and others outnumber your rejections, that’s cause for celebration. 🙂
AR,
“Roughly one submission per week”…that strikes me as a good rule of thumb. At least, for me. I think I’m going to try to hit that goal.
Thanks for the post,
DJ
Yeah, I think that’s a good steady pace. Fifty-some submissions a year.
Awesome work on the publication brother!
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I’ve been posting here from a few different accounts. Sorry for that. I keep forgetting which one I am using. I’ll stick with this one from now on.
Congrats on the publication. I’ll give it a listen soon.
I had a slow June.
Submissions Sent: 4
Rejections: 2
Acceptances: 0
Publications: 1
On the plus side, my social sci-fi story “The Pink Life (La Vie En Rose)” was published as the lead story in Issue 8 of “Shoreline of Infinity”. They also commissioned some great artwork.
Nice month. Congrats!
Ah, June. Kind of embarrassing, actually.
1 acceptance (a reprint)
3 rejections
3 stories published