Submission Statement: September 2020

September is in the books, and here’s how I did.

September 2020 Report Card

• Submissions Sent: 8
• Rejections: 6
• Acceptances: 1
• Publications: 0
• Further Consideration: 1

A solid month, and almost identical to August’s tally. The 8 submissions in September give me 67 for the year, which leaves me 33 to get in October, November, and December to hit my goal of 100. Certainly doable, though I’ll need an average of 11 per month to pull it off. More rejections than last month, but still manageable. The acceptance keeps my streak of at least one acceptance per month in 2020 alive, so that’s good. Finally, I received a further consideration letter from a top-tier professional publisher. I’m not gonna get my hopes up, but it was a nice surprise. No publications in September, but I’ll have at least one in October.

Rejections

Six rejections this month.

• Standard Form Rejections: 4
• Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 0
• Personal Rejections: 2

A better crop than August with a couple of personal rejections, one from a pro market. The form rejections where your usual run-of-the-mill boilerplate no thank yous we all know and love. 🙂

Here’s one of the personal rejections.

Thank you for submitting [Story Title] to [Publisher], but I am going to pass on it. The [story detail] is nice, but overall it didn’t quite work for me. Best of luck placing this elsewhere, and thanks so much for sending it my way.

I’m seeing this kind of rejection more lately, and it’s essentially a form letter with an added bit of personalized feedback/encouragement. I can think of a couple of pro publishers that do this with every rejection (that I’ve received), and it’s certainly appreciated. Often this type of personal rejection tells you what is working in the story more than what isn’t, but that’s still incredibly useful information, and, again, appreciated.

Acceptances

The acceptance for September is from Ellipsis Zine for my story “Stall Number Two,” a quirky little Twilight Zone-esque piece I’m happy has found a home. The story will be published later this month.

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And that was September. Tell me about your month.