Submission Statement: July 2022
July was another good month. The third quarter is definitely looking better than the first two.
July 2022 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 5
- Rejections: 6
- No Response: 0
- Acceptances: 2
- Publications: 1
- Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0
Slightly better than last month, but five submissions in thirty-one days is not gonna cut it if I want to hit one hundred subs for the year. Right now, I’m at an even fifty, which means I need fifty more in five months. That’s ten a month, and doable, but I need to step on the gas. The good news is I received two more acceptance in July. So even though my submission output has been less than stellar, my acceptance rate has been good. I also had a publication last month, which I’ll detail later in the post.
The six rejections are mostly ho-hum form letters, but there’s one heartbreaker in the bunch. I currently have seven submissions pending, one short-listed, and three others that are getting long in the tooth. I hope to hear back on some of these soon, and, hopefully, that shortlist will turn to gold.
Rejections
Six rejections in June.
- Standard Form Rejections: 5
- Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 0
- Personal Rejections: 1
As you can see, most of the rejections were simple form jobs, but one of them was a personal note from a market I’ve been trying to crack for a long time. It’s as close as I’ve ever gotten (though, there’s no way to tell just how close), and that’s an encouraging sign. Here’s said rejection.
Thanks for submitting [story], but I’m going to pass on it. We had a good time reading it, but it’s not quite the right fit for me right now. Best of luck to you placing this one elsewhere, and thanks again for sending it my way. I look forward to seeing your next submission!
I break down this rejection and others I’ve received from the same market in this post. The progression is interesting, and it shows that rejectomancy is sometimes useful in divining whether or not you’re getting closer to an acceptance.
Publications
My old pals at The Arcanist published my story “Drums” last month. You can read it for free by clicking the image below.
The Rejectonomicon
The fourth installment of my Q&A column out at Dark Matter Magazine went up a few days ago. You can check it out by clicking the banner below. And, as always, send me your questions! Guidelines below.
Here’s how to send writing and rejection questions to me.
- Email your question to questions@rejectomancy.com.
- Put REJECTONOMICON in the subject line of the email.
- Write your question in the body of the email. Try to keep it brief.
- Please let me know if you’d like your first name published along with your question or if you’d like to remain anonymous.
- Please restrict your questions to the subjects of writing, submissions, and rejections. Those are pretty broad categories, though, and I’d be happy to field questions about my past career as a Tabletop RPG game designer/editor and media tie-in writer.
Got it? Then send me those questions!
And that was July. How was your month?
2 Comments on “Submission Statement: July 2022”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
Nice work, Aeryn. I like how you analyse the type of rejections you receive. I need to start paying more attention to that. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s a form rejection or personalised, I find. It’s also great to see another one of your stories with The Arcanist. Classic.
Thanks, Nick. Yeah, trying to figure out if a rejection is form or personal can be difficult, especially with the big markets. The only way I’m able to do it is when I have A LOT of data points, i.e., rejections. 🙂