Category: Rejection Letters

Current Pending Submissions: What Are My Chances?

One thing I spend far too much time doing is poring over my pending submissions on Duotrope and trying to divine my chances of publications by studying the market in question, my past history with said market, how long the story has been under… Continue Reading “Current Pending Submissions: What Are My Chances?”

Rejection Feedback – Inspiring, Informative, or Insensitive?

Editorial feedback on a rejection is as varied as editorial tastes, and how an editor chooses to relate something like “close-but-no-cigar” to an author can be radically different from market to market. A recent discussion about a comment I received a while back got… Continue Reading “Rejection Feedback – Inspiring, Informative, or Insensitive?”

Rejectomancy Rabbit Hole: Acceptance Rates

Recently, I was discussing the chances of getting published at some of the big genre markets with my author pals, and a few numbers were thrown around, some by yours truly. These numbers were mostly guess-work. None of us really know the exact percentage chance… Continue Reading “Rejectomancy Rabbit Hole: Acceptance Rates”

Query Quest: Baby’s First Query Rejection

Recently, I started querying agents with my supernatural thriller novel SECOND DAWN. Though I’ve published novels before, as well as a ton of short stories, the querying process is completely new to me. It does, however, fit neatly under the umbrella of rejectomancy, so I’ll… Continue Reading “Query Quest: Baby’s First Query Rejection”

Charting Rejection Progression II

A few years ago, I posted the rejections I’d received from a pro market I’d been trying to crack from some time. The point of that post was to illustrate that rejections often indicate if you’re making progress with an editor/publisher and getting closer… Continue Reading “Charting Rejection Progression II”

Submit or Surrender? A Tale of Three Publishers

A popular topic in writerly circles is if and when a writer should give up on a market after multiple rejections. The idea being that if an editor rejects you a certain number of times, it’s likely they are not interested in your work… Continue Reading “Submit or Surrender? A Tale of Three Publishers”

Rejected Stories: When to Revise or Resubmit

When I get a rejection on a short story, my first thought is do I need to revise this piece? Often as not, the answer is no, and I send the story right back out. I don’t come to this decision without due consideration,… Continue Reading “Rejected Stories: When to Revise or Resubmit”

Rejection Roundup: 3 Shortlist Rejections

I’ve received a fair number of close-but-no-cigar or final-round or shortlist rejections this year, which I’m just gonna shorthand to shortlist rejections (hah!) in this post to make things easy. Overall, this kind of rejection is a positive thing, as it generally tells you… Continue Reading “Rejection Roundup: 3 Shortlist Rejections”

Multiple Rejections in a Single Day?! Why & What To Do

Well, here’s a topic I haven’t discussed in over five years, which is weird because I certainly have had occasion to discuss it many times. Recently, in fact. I’m talking about the multi-rejection day. That moment when the stars align and rejections rain down from the… Continue Reading “Multiple Rejections in a Single Day?! Why & What To Do”

Rejection Letter Rundown: The Reprint Rejection

Been a while since I talked about the specific types of rejections a writer might receive, but here’s one that falls into kind of a unique category: the reprint rejection. It’s unique because it’s a story you know at least one editor/publisher liked enough… Continue Reading “Rejection Letter Rundown: The Reprint Rejection”