Submission Statement: June 2018
June was another active month that kept me well ahead of pace for my goal of 100 submissions for the year. Here’s the down and dirty.
June 2018 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 12
- Rejections: 10
- Acceptances: 1
- Publications: 1
- Other: 1
Twelve submissions is great, and I ended the month with 72 total for the year (and an average of exactly twelve per month). A couple of the rejections stung a bit, only because I thought I had a good shot at an acceptance on at least one of them. Still, I did get an acceptance from a market I haven’t submitted to before, so that’s always good. The publication is for a story accepted in May, and the “other” is a withdrawal letter.
Rejections
Ten rejections, which is about average for my submission output at this point. Here’s how the rejections breakdown.
- Standard Form Rejections: 5
- Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 2
- Personal Rejections: 3
Half the rejection were upper-tier form or personal rejections, and there was one short list rejection and a couple of close-but-no-cigars. I really wanted an acceptance for that short-listed story because it was for a fairly prestigious anthology, and I thought my story was a nice fit for the theme. But that’s the way these things go, and editors have to make tough decisions when they’re filling those final slots. This is one of those stories that’s gotten close a couple of times, so I think it’ll find a home in the near future.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how long it took for each market to read and reject the story.
| Rejection | Date Sent | Date Received | Days Out |
| Rejection 1 | 8-Apr-18 | 1-Jun-18 | 54 |
| Rejection 2 | 11-May-18 | 1-Jun-18 | 21 |
| Rejection 3 | 10-Jun-18 | 14-Jun-18 | 4 |
| Rejection 4 | 17-Jun-18 | 18-Jun-18 | 1 |
| Rejection 5 | 11-May-18 | 21-Jun-18 | 41 |
| Rejection 6 | 26-Apr-18 | 24-Jun-18 | 59 |
| Rejection 7 | 25-Jan-18 | 25-Jun-18 | 151 |
| Rejection 8 | 25-Jun-18 | 26-Jun-18 | 1 |
| Rejection 9 | 26-Jun-18 | 27-Jun-18 | 1 |
| Rejection 10 | 27-Jun-18 | 29-Jun-18 | 1 |
Pretty standard rejection times for these markets, though some were a bit speedier than usual. The longest wait was 151 days, and that’s because the story was short listed. In that case, the publisher sent a short list letter to inform authors the wait time could be longer than usual as they made final decisions.
Other
The “other” this month was another withdrawal letter.
Dear Editors,
I submitted my short story [story title] to [publisher] on [date]. I sent a submission status query on [date]. At this time, I would like to withdraw the story from consideration.
Best,
Aeryn Rudel
This is an example of one of my basic withdrawal letters. Like all queries and withdrawals, be professional and simply state the facts.
Acceptances
One acceptance for the month, from a market I haven’t subbed to before (but almost certainly will again).
Many thanks again for your story, we both really enjoyed it and would like to publish it at [publisher]. Attached is a copy of our standard contract for you to fill in, sign, and return.
In my experience, most acceptance letters read like a very welcome type of form letter. I think this is because they are the opening salvo in a longer communication between editor and writer. Yes, you should always respond to acceptance letters. 🙂 Additional communications of a much more individual nature always follow, revolving around the contract, any necessary edits to the story, when the story might be published, etc.
More on this acceptance as it nears publication.
Publication
One publication in June. My story “The Inside People” was published by Ellipsis Zine. You can read it by clicking the link below.
“The Inside People”
And that was my June. Tell me about yours.
14 Comments on “Submission Statement: June 2018”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
Congrats on the acceptance and publication. Not only was June the best month I’ve had in a while, but it may have been my best month ever:
Submissions Sent: 20
Rejections: 8
Acceptances: 5
Publications: 3
Withdrawals: 8
I got three acceptances for fiction, one for a nonfiction piece, and one for a song recommendation in Memoir Mixtapes.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to do some shameless self-promotion. These were the pieces published in June:
The Anderson Bridge (fiction):
https://formercactus.wordpress.com/2018/06/15/the-anderson-bridge-by-christopher-iacono/
Speaking in Tongues (nonfiction):
http://www.lunalunamagazine.com/blog/non-fiction-by-christopher-iacono
Christopher Recommends: “Drifting” by Jimi Hendrix (song recommendation):
View at Medium.com
Wow, what a month. The acceptances are awesome, but the number that has me boggling is EIGHT withdrawals. I thought I was racking them up at one a month. 🙂
Congrats on the stellar months, and, yes, self-promote away. 🙂
What’s the goal this year? 100 submissions or 100 rejections?
The goal is 100 submissions. At this pace, I should surpass that, and if my acceptance rate stays about the same, then I’ve got a good shot at 100 rejections too. 🙂
I keep forgetting you sim-sub – I’m still gun shy about that. So if you send out a story to 5 publishers, and one accepts it, do you count it as 5 submissions: 1 acceptance, 4 rejections? Or do you have a separate Withdraw count going?
You know, I hardly ever sim-sub. I think I might have sent one or two this year, but each time was one story to two publishers. A fair number of the genre publishers I submit to don’t accept them, but they’re pretty speedy with turnaround times, so I don’t mind.
Yeah? I could’ve sworn I saw you sub the same thing multiple places but I think I just missed that they had fast turn around times. I have a hard time keeping track of who’s got what so I’d rather they be one place at a time – makes it easier for me to keep an eye on them.
Ah, yeah. So I got three one-day rejections on the same story in a row. I can see how that might look like sim-subs on the LF spreadsheet. This year, I’m pretty sure I’ve only sim-subbed twice. One of those is still under consideration with both markets.
I think I’ll be hitting 100 of each this year too. I didn’t even realize those could be goals until reading your blog.
It’s kind of arbitrary like a lot of goals, but I tend to perform best when I’m shooting for something numeric like that. Number of submissions, word count totals, and so on. The real benefit a 100 submission goal, for me anyway, is that you have to write a lot of new material.
It was my first time sending out withdrawal letters last Friday because a Canadian publication accepted one of my short stories. I knew I’d be going back to this blog to get an idea of how to do it. I just didn’t expect it would be this soon. Thank you!
Oh, the sim-sub withdrawal is the best kind. I mean, it comes after an acceptance. 🙂
Wow, this is amazing! I’m a little new to this and really enjoyed seeing the breakdown, and knowing that I wasn’t alone in this boat. Please keep it up, and I’ll be reading this blog regularly. Great story on “Molotov Cocktail” as well!
Hi there. Thanks for commenting, and I’m glad you found the post (and, hopefully, the blog) useful. Thanks much for the follow. 🙂