Submission Statement: August 2025
Welp, another month has come and gone, and it’s time to tally up and see how I did submission-wise for August. Let’s take a look.
August 2025 Short Story Stats
- Submissions Sent: 10
- Rejections: 4
- No Response: 1
- Acceptances: 1
- Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0
- Withdrawals: 0
- Pending: 14
- New Stories: 1
I sent 10 submissions in August, which is not bad, but it does put me behind my goal a bit. I’ve got 83 subs in total for the year, and if I want to hit my goal of 150, I’m gonna have to send at least 15 subs a month for the rest of the year. Doable, but I need to write more new material, which is something I’ve been struggling with of late.
It was a really slow month for rejections, which is, you know, fine by me. Of the four, two were form rejections, another was a nice second-round personal NO, and the last was a dreaded no-response rejections. I just hate those, but that’s, unfortunately, how some publishers operate.
I did manage to sell one story last month to a new-to-me semi-pro market. It was another vampire story, and I’m always thrilled whenever I can get yet another bloodsucker in print.
The bad news for August is that I only managed one new story, and I’ve really fallen off my initial one story per week goal. Now, I’m not too upset about that. I’ve still been more productive on the short story front this year than I have in a long time, and I will write more in 2025. I’ve got 22 new stories thus far, and if I can into the 30s, I’ll be very pleased.
Rejections
Four rejections for August.
- Form Rejections: 2
- Personal Rejections: 1
- No Response Rejection: 1
- Close-But-No-Cigar Rejections: 1
Nothing too exciting in my rejections for August. The form rejections were your typical boilerplate specials, and the personal rejection was also a close-but-no-cigar rejection, which I’ll share below.
Personal Rejection
Dear Aeryn,
We appreciate the opportunity to read “Love Is Like That Sometimes,” and thank you for submitting it to us. Unfortunately, we’ve not accepted this story for publication.
You made it to the second round of submissions, which is no small feat! We publish one story a month, and we receive hundreds of excellent submissions. As a result, we turn away many stories we enjoy and admire.
I really enjoyed the creeping sense of dread that works its way into your story— it kept me riveted all the way to the end. What a brilliant ending as well, I was so conflicted over my emotions for your main character; I went from sympathy to curiosity to wondering if she did the right thing by keeping her mother and Jasper “alive” in the states they were in. Grief can be a powerful and crazed thing, for sure. Very well done.
I wish you success in publishing your piece elsewhere and hope you’ll consider submitting more work to us in the future.
Best regards,
Fiction Editor, Orion’s Belt
How can you not love Orion’s Belt, huh? Yeah, they’re a tough market to crack because they only publish one story a month, but their personal rejections are so sincere and validating. There’s never any doubt in my mind when I get a NO from Orion that a) they actually read the story and b) they meant every word they said. Definitely some good folks running that outfit.
2025 Writing Goals Bingo
And, finally, here’s my 2025 Writing Goals Bingo card. Nothing has changed, though I’m at the threshold for a few more green stickers, which I hope to hit next month.
Like I said, no changes from the last update, but next month I will definitely fill in the 60 Rejections and 90 Subs spots, and I have a pretty good shot at filling in the 25 New Stories and the 10 Accept spots. Fingers crossed and all that.
And that’s it for August. My goals in September are more stories, more subs, and to finally make some headway on some larger projects I’ve been putting off.
I’ve told you all about my August. Tell me about yours.
One Comment on “Submission Statement: August 2025”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
Have you read Jack London’s “Martin Eden”?
Now there was a stubborn submission demon. Back when the USPS was the only way, he beat the doors down with postage stamps.