27 Submissions: My Most-Rejected Story SOLD!

No, this is not a new rom-com starring Katherine Heigl; it is a tale of literary woe and eventual triumph. You see, last weekend, I set a new rejectomancer record. I sold my most rejected story. That’s right; “Time Has No Memory” finally sold after twenty-seven submissions and twenty-five rejections. I thought I’d celebrate this momentous occasion by looking back on the five-year journey of this poor, beleaguered story as a reminder to myself (and hopefully to you) not to give up, and that acceptance is, as always, putting the right story in front of the right editor at the right time.

Okay, first, let take a look at the arduous submission journey of “Time Has No Memory.” Below is a screenshot of the Duotrope record for the piece. I should note that this is in now way whatsoever a call-out of the publishers that rejected the story. They all had perfectly valid reasons for passing, and sometimes it just takes a long time to find the right market for a piece. I’m showing you the complete record just to give you an idea of the types of markets I was submitting to and nothing more.

If you don’t want to stare at a blurry screenshot, here are the basic submission stats for the story.

• Submission: 27*
• Personal Rejections: 6
• Final-Round Rejections: 6
• Form Rejections: 18
• No Response: 1
• Acceptances: 1

*One of the subs was to Diabolical Plots, which is not listed on Duotrope.

I’m thrilled I ended up placing the story with Abyss & Apex, but you might be wondering why did it take so long for me to sell this piece? Excellent question, and the real answer is I don’t know, but let’s go ahead and speculate anyway. Here are three things that may (and in some cases did) contribute to the story getting a rejection 🙂

1. Overused Trope: The story is a time travel story, and, well, time travel is kinda like vampires and zombies in horror. It’s been done a lot, and many publishers are tired of seeing it. In addition, I don’t go into a lot of depth about the science behind the time travel, and that can be a deal breaker for some sci-fi markets. It’s even in the guidelines of some of the big ones.
2. Narrative Style: The story is an epistolary, told through journal entries, and I know for a fact that some markets don’t like those. How do I know? They told me. 🙂 Of course, I bear none of these publishers any ill will, and now that I know some are not fans of epistolary, I won’t send them any. It’s excellent info to have.
3. Kinda bleak. Like a lot of my work, “Time Has No Memory” is a bit of a downer, and while there’s definitely still a market for that, I do find that a lot of publishers are gravitating toward more hopeful fare (I can’t imagine why).

With some exceptions, I don’t know for sure if any of the elements above were a factor in any of my rejections, but In the end, it really doesn’t matter. A lot of this comes down to timing. If I’d sent the story to Abyss & Apex first, well, you wouldn’t be reading this blog post. 🙂

The most important thing to take away from this post is that if you believe in a story or a poem or a novel or whatever, don’t give up on it. All those rejections likely have more to do with timing than the quality of your work. Keep writing, keep submitting, KEEP GOING.

Thoughts on my most-rejected story? Want to share your own tale of rejection woe? Tell me all about it in the comments.