Submission Statement: October 2017

October was a slightly more productive month. I sent out more submissions than what I’ve been averaging, and I finished some new stories that’ll be going out soon. I also expanded into a new genre, mystery/crime, which will certainly be reflected on these monthly tallies in the near future. 🙂

October 2017 Report Card

• Submissions Sent: 6
• Rejections: 6
• Other: 0
• Acceptances: 2
• Publications: 0

I can live with this, especially with a couple of acceptances. I’d still like to bump up my average number of monthly submissions to around ten, though.

Rejections

Six rejections this month. Let’s have a look.

Rejection 1, 2, and 3: Submitted 9/28/17; Rejected 10/16/17

Thank you for submitting “XXX”, “XXX”, and “XXX” to XXX. They weren’t quite right for us, but we appreciate your interest in XXX and we hope you’ll keep us in mind in the future.

I love a market that allows multiple submissions, but there is a downside. Sending three stories at once creates the very real possibility of getting three rejections at once, like you see here. Still, this is a nice form letter from a market that is new to me, and I’ll definitely submit to them again.

Rejection 4: Submitted 10/15/17; Rejected 10/26/17

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.

A standard form rejection from a top-tier market. Not much to see here. I’m gonna crack these guys, eventually. 🙂

Rejection 5: Submitted 10/9/17; Rejected 10/30/17

A higher-tier form rejection from my favorite purveyors of fine flash fiction, The Molotov Cocktail. Yes, The Molotov is pretty much the only market I’ll actually identify in these rejection tallies. They’ve published me a bunch, and I know the editors don’t mind (because I asked). Anyway, this is for their Flash Monster 2017 contest, and as soon as you finish reading this post, you should go read the top ten stories for the contest. They’re great.

You should also check out the Ranks of the Rejected interview I did with Molotov editor Josh Goller. Lots of good insight into submissions, rejections, and publishing in general.

Rejection 6: Submitted 10/19/17; Rejected 10/30/17

Thank you for submitting work to the Flash Monster 2017 contest. As always, we had a high number of quality submissions. 

Unfortunately, “XXX” was not selected for our Top 10, but we very much enjoyed the chance to read it. 

Thanks so much for your participation

Another rejection from The Molotov Cocktail for the Flash Monster 2017. Again, you should really head out to their site and read the winning stories; they’re awesome. I’m looking forward to entering their next contest and hopefully getting back into the winning circle.

Acceptances

Two acceptances this month. Well, one and a half. I’ll explain below.

Acceptance 1: Submitted 7/24/17; Rejected 10/4/17

Thanks for letting us read “Reunion.” We would love to publish it in The Arcanist!

There’s more to this acceptance letter, but this is the important bit. This is my second acceptance from The Arcanist, a market that is quickly becoming one of my new favorites, and not just because they’ve published my work. They’ve been putting out some great speculative flash fiction on a weekly basis, so do yourself a favor and head on over and check ’em out. “Reunion” is one of my few Lovecraftian stories, and I’m excited you’ll get to read it soon.

If you write speculative flash fiction, you should definitely submit to The Arcanist. If you’d like some pointers in that arena, check out my Ranks of the Rejected interview with editor Josh Hrala.

Acceptance 2

Okay, this one is not a true acceptance since I was asked to contribute a story to a new sword-and-sorcery magazine called Tales from the Magician’s Skull, but, hey, it gives me another chance to talk about the magazine and my old friends at Goodman Games who are putting it out. Although the Kickstarter to support the magazine has ended (it funded like a boss), the campaign site will tell you all you need to know about Tales from the Magician’s Skull. My story, “Beyond the Block,” is a huge expansion on a flash piece I wrote a few years ago. It was a blast to write, and I hope you’ll check it out along with a whole bunch of other fantastic stories when the magazine drops.

---

And that’s October. Tell me about your October in the comments.