Submission Statement: April 2020
Okay, let’s get accountable again. Here’s a breakdown of my submission endeavors for April.
April 2020 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 8
- Rejections: 9
- Acceptances: 2
- Publications: 3
Pretty good month, really. I’m a tad off my pace of 100 subs for the year, but I hope to catch up in May. A fair amount of rejections, but there are some encouraging nos from new markets that tell me I should keep trying stories with them. Two acceptances in a month is always good, and the three publications is extra good.
Rejections
Nine rejections this month.
- Standard Form Rejections: 4
- Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 1
- Personal Rejections: 4
I’ve been shopping a new short story, and it’s gotten some pretty good feedback. That’s were some of the personal rejections come from. The others are from new markets (to me), and the response was encouraging. I’ll definitely submit to these markets again. The form rejections are your typical boilerplate nos from pro markets.
Spotlight Rejection
The spotlight rejection for last month is one that again illustrates why stories get rejected, even good ones.
Thank you very much for your submission, and we’re sorry for the delayed reply.
That said, [story] is fascinating, and the end quite genius. However, and sadly, we’re already contracted several stories with a similar tone, so we’ll be passing on this at this time.
Thank you again, and we hope this finds a good home soon.
I’d call this a personal rejection, and they say some nice things about my story. The reason they give for the rejections is, I think, one that a lot of authors run into and never know about. My story was a sci-fi noir thriller type thing, which is not terribly uncommon, and it’s perfectly understandable that a market would want a diverse mix of tones and styles in an issue. Now, of course, I’m practicing a little rejectomancy here, but as usual, I think you should take editors at their word
Acceptances
Two acceptances this month. One from The Arcanist for my flash story “Liquid Courage” and one from 50-Word Stories for my micro “Dead Bugs.” My goal every month is to get at least one acceptance, and getting two is, well, uh, better than one. 🙂 I haven’t been skunked yet in 2020, and hopefully I can continue my streak into May.
Publications
The first publication is the flash story “Liquid Courage,” which you may have gleaned from the letter above took 4th place in The Arcanist’s Western Story Contest. You can read or listen to it below.
The next publication is a good old-fashioned print pub. I sold my story “The Back-Off” to On Spec Magazine back in October, and I received my contributor copies in the mail a few days ago. It’s a great looking magazine, full of excellent stories. If you’re into speculative fiction, give a thought to picking up an issue or a subscription to On Spec. Here’s the cover of the latest issue.
Finally, I finish up the month with a publication of my microfiction tale “Dead Bugs” over ay 50-Word Stories, which you can read right here.
And that was my April. Tell me about yours.
4 Comments on “Submission Statement: April 2020”
Leave a Reply
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 
Congrats on the acceptances and publications! But I’m really commenting to say I appreciate the use of “skunked.” As a fellow baseball fan, I’m missing sports and like the use of sports terminology. Maybe ESPN will get the rights to broadcast the Korean baseball league. I’d watch that.
Heh, yeah. I am sorely missing my baseball. I would LOVE to see the Korean baseball league, and it would be awesome if ESPN could work that out.
Well done with the acceptances.
Thanks! 🙂