Submission Statement: August 2021
And there goes August. A better month than July, but just barely.
August 2021 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 11
- Rejections: 9
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 1
- Further Consideration: 1
I did manage a solid number of submissions in August, and 11 more gives me a total of 71 for the year. I’m still on pace for 100. I also managed a bunch of rejections, most within the last week of the month. I knew those birds were overdue to come home and roost. No acceptances again, but a further consideration letter has me daring to hope (foolish man; I know). One publication, which I’ll talk about below.
The big picture here is that my dismal year for acceptances continues. I could go on about why that’s happening, but it would be just conjecture and theory. The truth is that it just happens. It’s happened before, and, as always, when I least expect it, the acceptances will start rolling in again. Just gotta be patient and keep doing what I’m doing: writing and submitting.
Rejections
A whopping nine rejections in August.
- Standard Form Rejections: 4
- Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 4
- Personal Rejections: 1
Yeah, lots of rejections last month, and most of the form variety. I did get a personal rejection, which is maybe the nicest one I’ve received. It’s below.
Dear Aeryn,
We appreciate the opportunity to read [story] and we appreciate the time and effort you spent crafting it. Unfortunately, we have chosen to not accept this story for publication.
This doesn’t mean the story was necessarily bad. It might have been accepted had the magazine been able to publish stories more frequently. Sadly, we can only currently publish one story a month, and we receive hundreds of excellent submissions per month. This means we must reject many stories we enjoy and appreciate. We do not accept revised stories at [publisher], but we hope you have success finding a home for this story, and we encourage you to submit another story to this magazine.
We really loved this worthy and thoughtful story. It reached the final round of submissions. This is rarified air that the vast majority of submissions to [publisher] do not reach. I hope this news provides some measure of consolation, even though I know this rejection letter must be disappointing.
Personal note: This is such an intriguing, devastating piece. You recognize that so much of what makes the best stories (especially speculative stories) work is ambiguity, that which transcends rational comprehension. The mysterious dialogue between the two figures at the center of the story is great, and the idea of the protagonist having to make a choice they don’t quite understand is a striking, unsettling one that denies the audience simple catharsis. This is a fantastic piece, and I really do hope you’re able to get it published.
I like how this publisher does their rejections. They give you the form bit up front, which is good as such things go, and then they tell you how far you got in their submission process, and finally they leave a thoughtful bit of personal feedback. I don’t expect every publisher to send rejections like this, but I appreciate it mightily when they do.
Publications
Just one publications in August. The final Rejectomancy article over at Dark Matter Magazine. I’ll be penning a new article series for Dark Matter starting in October, so keep an eye out for that.
“Acceptance Rates: What Are the Odds” at Dark Matter Magazine
And that was my month. How was yours?
Hold, Please: Further Considering the Short-List Letter
I’ve discussed the hold or further consideration letter a few times on the blog, but since I’ve received a bunch of them this year, I thought it was time to revisit. We’ll look at a couple of examples, what they may tell us, and then try and determine how common they are. I’ll be focusing on pro genre markets in this article because, in my experience, they send more hold/further consideration letters.
Some definitions first. You will often see the terms further consideration, hold, and short list used to describe essentially the same thing: a story that has made it through one or more rounds of review. The term short list can have slightly different connotations in large contests, but for our purposes it means the same as hold or further consideration.
Okay, let’s dive in with an example.
Thank you for submitting [story] to [publisher]. One of our first readers has read your story and believes it deserves a closer look. We would like to hold it for further consideration. Good luck!
Many publishers use first readers to weed through the slush pile for stories that might be a good fit for the market. The above is an example I received earlier in the year. If I understand the process correctly, a first reader flags the story as one with potential, and it goes to the editors for review. The story then likely goes through additional rounds of review before it is chosen for publication (or rejected). This particular hold letter did end up as a rejection, which looked like this.
Thank you for submitting [story] to [publisher]. We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, the story does not meet our needs at this time. We’re going to pass.
I wish you the best of luck finding a home for [story] and I hope to read something new from you soon.
This is a form rejection, but a good one. This publisher does not generally include the “I hope to read something new from you soon” line in their rejections (I should know). So, if you get a letter like this, take the publisher at their word. They would like to see something else from you. Now, how close to publication did I get here? No idea. The final rounds of review are rarely revealed to the author. That said, I suspect I would have received a personal rejection if I’d gotten real close, but that’s entirely conjecture.
Now let’s look at a hold letter with a more successful ending.
The editorial team has read your story, [story]. They have decided to put this story on the “short-list” to be considered for publication. We want to respect your time as an author, so we will make a final decision as soon as possible.
You’ll notice this further-consideration letter states it is the editorial team and not a first reader who decided to short-list the story. This was a smaller market, though it still offered a pro rate, and maybe did not use a team of first readers to whittle down the slush pile (though editorial team could encompass first readers). You’ll notice they used the term short-list here instead of further consideration, and as I stated earlier, they are essentially the same thing. You could infer this one holds a tad more weight since it is a short list complied by the editors, but that’s probably a bit of a stretch. Anyway, as promised, this further consideration letter had a happy ending.
We are pleased to inform you that we’ve decided to select [story] for publication in an upcoming issue of [publisher].
Contract details will be sent next however please be patient as we will not send these out until all stories have been selected for the issue.
In the meantime, if you have any questions please feel free to email me.
I got this one through. Always nice when that happens, because many of my hold letters end up as rejections.
What can we take away from a further consideration letter? What does it tell us about our story?
- It was good enough to make it through at least one round of cuts. In other words, somebody liked it. Whether it was a first reader or the editors who flagged it for further consideration, the story probably has some merit. Even if the story is ultimately rejected by the short-listing publisher, I think you can safely resubmit the story elsewhere without further revision. It’s important to remember that pro markets are going to turn away stories they like A LOT simply because they don’t have the room (more on that in a bit).
- You’ve written something that fits the style and tastes of the market, at least a little. Even if you don’t end up with an acceptance, a short-list letter says you’ve at least gotten in the ballpark of what the market publishes. Send them more stories like that.
- You’ve hit somewhat rarified air. Getting a hold letter from a big market is an achievement all by itself, and for once, I have the numbers to back that up. (more below).
Okay, what are the chances of a) getting a further consideration letter and b) getting an acceptance once you do? Normally, I have to simply guess at these kinds of things, but one publisher, Diabolical Plots, makes their submission data public (bless them, seriously) and openly discusses it on social media. Here are the numbers they released from their last submission window.
Diabolical Plots received 1,074 submissions, held 96 for further consideration, and they’ve stated they’ll publish 10 of those held stories. So ballpark math says you have a 10% chance of having a story held, and then about a 10% chance of getting a held story accepted. Now, is that typical of most pro-paying markets? Hard to say, but its a good hard data and not a bad place to start. (Again, many thanks to the editorial team at Diabolical Plots for making this information available. It’s incredibly helpful.) Of course, your “chances” of getting a hold or an acceptance are not random. These markets aren’t pulling names out of a hat; they’re carefully weighing a story’s literary merits and how it fits the style and needs of the publication. Basically, the right story has a 100% chance of acceptance, while the wrong story has a 0% chance.
So instead of looking at these numbers as rolling the dice, it’s better to look at them from the viewpoint of the publisher. Any publisher receiving a deluge of submissions for a handful of spots is going to reject many stories they like because they don’t quite fit the magazine’s style, or there’s another story with a similar theme they like a bit better, or a dozen other perfectly valid reasons. They can’t publish all the good stories they receive. They don’t have the room or the resources. So, if you get a further-consideration letter from a publisher like this and it’s ultimately rejected, I think you’ve still likely written a sellable story. (I’ve gone on to sell the majority of stories that received further consideration letters.) Submit it somewhere else right away. Chances are there’s a publisher out there where you and the story are a 100% lock.
A Week of Writing: 8/16/21 to 8/22/21
One more week in the books. Here’s how I did.
Words to Write By
Another good one from Ray Bradbury.
“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”
― Ray Bradbury
I don’t know if I agree that it’s not possible to write 52 bad stories in a row, but, then again, who am I to argue with the great Ray Bradbury? I do like the idea of a story per week, and if you write a lot of flash fiction like I do, then it doesn’t seem too impossible. I did a quick, ballpark calculation of how many stories I’ve written this year, and I came up with 31. I have more coming with commission work, so I have a pretty good shot at 52 for the year. Not counting commission work, I’ll probably end up with 30 or so stories of my own IP. That’s the number I’d like to push up to a story-a-week. I might give that a try in 2022.
Short Story Submissions
Another not-so-stellar week in submission land
- Submissions Sent: 1
- Rejections: 0
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 0
- Shortlist: 0
- Pending: 16
- 2021 Total Subs: 68
I only managed one submission again last week, but it was a big one. I sent my novella Effectively Wild out on it’s first submission. It’s gonna be a long shot no matter where I send it because magazines that publish novellas are not common and those that do might publish one every two or three issues. So I’ve got an uphill battle if I continue to focus on spec-fic magazines. A better approach will likely be to shop it to small book publishers that publish standalone novellas. No rejections last week and no publisher responses of any kind, actually. The deluge has got to be right around the corner.
Commission Work
I’ve been commissioned to write another gaggle of media tie-in short stories, and work on those will commence soon. I’m also in talks to write a 5E D&D adventure, and I’m looking forward to that. It’s been a minute since I dipped a toe into that particular pool, but I love 5E and the world this adventure will be set in is also one I’m intimately familiar with. It’s been a damn good year for commission work, and I forgot how much I enjoy doing it. I might start actively seeking it out more in the future.
Goals
I came up with a really good idea for a short story, and I’d like to bang out the first draft. I also need to write a flash piece for an upcoming competition. I’d love to accomplish both this week.
That was my week. How was yours?
A Week of Writing: 8/9/21 to 8/15/21
Another week gone by. Here’s how I did.
Words to Write By
This week’s quote comes from one my favorite sci-fi writers Joe Haldeman.
“I think any writer keeps going back to some basic theme. Sometimes it’s autobiographical. I guess it usually is.”
—Joe Haldeman
I agree with Joe here, and moreover, I think when you figure out what that basic theme is, it’s a big step in your development of a personal style. I have an inkling what my basic theme is, and there are definitely some character types that seem to pop up in my work as protagonists. Most are folks with personal demons of some kind, sometimes self-inflicted or at least self-sustaining, that colors both their place in the world and the decisions they make. My characters tend to start at the bottom of a hole and must dig their way out, while also trying to understand what got them into trouble in the first place. Is that autobiographical? Maybe. Probably. I’m still figuring it out, but I think I might be on the right track.
Short Story Submissions
After last week, I came to a screeching halt in submission land.
- Submissions Sent: 1
- Rejections: 1
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 0
- Shortlist: 1
- Pending: 15
- 2021 Total Subs: 67
A very quiet week for submissions, and I only managed one new one. Still, I’m at 67 for the year, and making good progress toward 100. I’d like to get 5 more subs out by the end of the month to maintain that comfortable pace. That said, that one new submission meant I had to finish an old story (one I started over seven years ago), which is great since I haven’t completed a short story in a while. I got one form rejection and one shortlist notification and that’s it for the week. I seem to be in a bit of a lull with submission responses, but I expect a bunch to come through in the next couple of weeks.
The Novella
Effectively Wild is through my critique partners, and with a few minor tweaks, they have pronounced it good. The revisions will be simple on this one, and my readers both agreed I was writing in my element here. That element being classis monsters and baseball. I expect to have a draft ready to to submit this week, but where to submit? There are a handful of pro markets that will take novellas, and I’ll try them first, but that’s a long shot. I think a better option for me is to submit Effectively Wild to some of the small presses that publish standalone novellas. Think I might get more traction there. In any case, I’m about to find out.
Goals
Finish up the revisions of Effectively Wild and get it out the door for submission. Then, as always, write more and submit more.
That was my week. How was yours?
The Rejectomancer’s Grimoire: Mazie’s Marvelous Marketing
The Rejectomancer’s Grimoire contains all manner of useful spells, a number of which can aid a rejectomancer’s efforts to attract new readers. This week, we explore the relatively benign Mazie’s marvelous marketing, a handy enchantment that enhances a rejectomancer’s promotional endeavors.
(If you’re wondering what all this rejectomancer stuff is, start here.)
Mazie’s Marvelous Marketing
2nd-level enchantment
Casting Time: Five minutes
Range: 1 tweet, post, etc.
Components: Material
Duration: One day
You cast this spell on one promotional tweet, Facebook post, Instagram post, or other social media application. The spell makes the post or tweet more appealing to its target audience and generates 3d8 additional likes, retweets, and shares and 1d8 additional followers. Mazie’s marvelous marketing also obscures up to 1d6 negative comments or reactions, making them invisible to readers for the duration of the spell.
The material component for this spell is a small object universally considered to be bait. This could be a piece of cheese, a fishing lure, or even a live worm. Most rejectomancers go with the cheese, as the material component must be eaten for the spell to take effect.
Rumors persist of a more powerful version of Mazie’s marvelous marketing called Vernon’s viral verve. This mighty enchantment is said to generate 5d100 additional likes, retweets, and shares and 1d100 additional followers. The spell can be dangerous, however, as each casting attracts 1d4 internet trolls, which much be defeated or blocked for the spell to take full effect.
I seem to accidentally cast Mazie’s marvelous marketing from time to time because I cannot for the life of me figure out why one promotional tweet or Facebook post does so much better than another. I have not yet achieved sufficient rejectomantic experience to attempt Vernon’s viral verve, and I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to do it even if I had that kind of power. 🙂
Looking for more rare and wondrous rejectomancer powers? Links below.
Weeks of Writing: 7/26/21 to 8/8/21
A couple of productive weeks of writing and submitting. Let’s see how I did.
Words to Write By
This week’s quote comes from Mark Twain.
“It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.”
—Mark Twain
I think this quote is particularly important for speculative fiction writers because we tend to write thing that are not only not true but not even remotely possible. In order to get your readers to buy into a vampire that plays baseball, for example, you gotta build the world around that vampire in a way that doesn’t make the reader go, “Well, this is some bullshit right here.” Essentially, everything in your world has to ring true and authentic so when that bloodsucker steps up to the plate, it adds an element of wonder or terror but the sheer nonsense of it all doesn’t bring the entire story tumbling down. So, I think what Mark Twain is saying here is your world needs to make sense so the nonsense makes sense too. I think. 🙂
Short Story Submissions
A very good couple of weeks in submission land.
- Submissions Sent: 7
- Rejections: 3
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 0
- Shortlist: 0
- Pending: 15
- 2021 Total Subs: 66
I fired off 7 submissions over the last two weeks, and 6 of those were in the first week of August. Not bad. That gives me 66 for the year and puts me firmly back in the hunt for 100. Three rejections over those two weeks, one nice personal and a couple higher-tier form letters. No acceptances or much else, really. I should hear back on a number of pending subs soon, and hopefully some of them will be of the acceptance variety.
The Novella
I finished my readthrough and first revision of my novella Effectively Wild, and I think it’s in pretty good shape. It’s now with my gracious and wonderful critique partners, who will help me sharpen it up into submittable shape. Of course, once that happens, the real challenge begins. Where do I submit it? There are a couple of speculative magazines that will take novellas of this length, but it’s a tough sell. Maybe this one gets self-pubbed. Just have to see.
Commissions
I have more commission work on the horizon, which is always cool. In fact, I’ve done so much commission work this year, it kinda makes up for the lack of acceptances. If things go as planned, I should add nearly twenty paid publication credits to ye olde writer resume in 2021. That’s good stuff.
Goals
There’s a submission call that closes on the 14th that I really, really want to take advantage of, but I’ll need to writer a new story or finish an existing one. That’s my primary goal for this week.
Those were my week. How were yours?
Submission Statement: July 2021
July has come and gone, and, uh, good riddance. Not my best month in submission land.
July 2021 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 6
- Rejections: 2
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 2
- Further Consideration: 0
Only 6 submissions in July, bringing my total to 60. Technically, that still puts me on pace for 100 submissions for the year, but I’d hoped to get a few more subs out. One of the reasons I didn’t is, well, I didn’t get many rejections. Only two in July, so I didn’t get a chance to “turn and burn” more stories for a few more subs. I also didn’t get any acceptances for the month, but that just seems to be par of the course in a year that is shaping up to be one of my worst. Still, one must soldier on and keep submitting. I still have five months to turn this thing around.
Rejections
Only two rejections this month.
- Standard Form Rejections: 0
- Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 1
- Personal Rejections: 1
As I mentioned, it was a light rejection month, though both were, uh, premium rejections, I guess. The first was a nice upper-tier rejection from a prominent market, and the second was a personal close-but-no-cigar rejection from a market I’ve been trying to crack for a while . With each rejection, I seem to be inching ever closer to an acceptance, so gotta keep trying.
Publications
Two publications in July. A flash piece published in The Arcanist’s Hunger Flash collection and another Rejectomancy article over at Dark Matter Magazine. The Arcanist story is only available in the Kindle collection, but you can read the Dark Matter article by clicking the link below.
“Wish You Well” in The Arcanist: Hunger Flash
“Old is New Again: Reprints” at Dark Matter Magazine
And that was my month. How was yours?
The Rejectomancer’s Grimoire: Resurrect Manuscript
Once more we delve into the Rejectomancer’s Grimoire in search of dark writerly enchantments. This week, we explore a powerful rejectomancy that can restore life to a long-dead project. But beware! Resurrect manuscript can have dire consequences for weak-willed rejectomancers, who may abandon all other projects for the revivified scribblings of the literary undead.
(If you’re wondering what all this rejectomancer stuff is, start here.)
Resurrect Manuscript
5th-level rejectomancy
Casting Time: 1 page
Range: Touch
Components: Verbal
Duration: See below
You revive a manuscript that has been inert and unworked on for no longer than one year. The spell restores your memory, with perfect clarity, of plot, characters, and themes, while obscuring your recollections of weak writing, plot holes, and other problems for 1d6 hours. If you add words to the resurrected manuscript within the spell’s duration, this effect becomes permanent. Once the spell is cast, you must attempt a Wisdom save. On a failure, you abandon all other novel-length projects for 1d3 weeks in favor of the resurrected manuscript. At the end of this period, you must attempt another Wisdom save. On a failure, the resurrected manuscript becomes your new, primary project.
The verbal component for resurrect manuscript requires you to read aloud the first page of your current manuscript, after which you must denounce the project with a literary curse, such as “This is all shit,” or “My other book was better.”
That half-finished novel collecting digital dust in your hard drive always looks a lot better when you’re in the dog days of the current project, right? Be careful with this spell, lest you abandon a perfectly good book for one that only seems better. 🙂
Looking for more rare and wondrous rejectomancer powers? Links below.
A Week of Writing: 7/19/21 to 7/25/21
Here’s my accounting of another week gone by.
Words to Write By
This week’s quote comes from Ernest Hemingway.
Good dialogue is not real speech–it’s the illusion of real speech.
—Ernest Hemingway
I have said many times that dialogue is my favorite way to tell a story. Many of my pieces are just folks talking to each other, and I feel I can capture drama, horror, love, angst, rage, and all that other good stuff between a couple of quotation marks. That said, I think Hemingway is absolutely correct. Dialogue is NOT how people actually talk. The closer you can get to that, though, the more realistic it sounds, but most casual conversations are so full of pauses, repetition, and people talking over each other I wouldn’t know how to write it let alone punctuate it correctly. Still, if you can add some of those pauses, a couple of those repetitions, and some of the nonverbal stuff folks do when they talk, I think you get a much more sumptuous spread of dialogue that FEELS more authentic.
Short Story Submissions
A better week in submission land.
- Submissions Sent: 2
- Rejections: 0
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 1
- Shortlist: 0
- Pending: 12
- 2021 Total Subs: 59
I managed 2 submissions last week, which is better than the week before, but I need to send 4 more submissions by the end of the month to stay on pace for 100. Other than that, it was quiet as a crypt. I haven’t received a rejection since July 1st, which makes me more than a little nervous. I expect I’ll get some this week and maybe an acceptance too. More about the publication below.
The Novella
I finished the first draft of Effectively Wild last week, and it came in at just over 25,500 words. I’m currently doing my first read-through and revision before I ask my critique partners to take a look. I’d like to get it down around 22,000 words, as that’ll give me a few more submission options. That shouldn’t be hard; there are definitely a few scenes that drag on with unnecessary dialogue (yes, I also overuse dialogue) and whatnot. Overall, I’m happy with what I ended up with, though I’m not sure I stuck the landing. Even so, all can be fixed in revision.
Publications
There’s a new installment of my monthly Rejectomancy column over at Dark Matter Magazine. This month, we’re talking about reprints, which is one of my favorite submission subjects. You can read that article (and all the other ones) by clicking the link below.
Old is New Again: Reprints
Night Walk
My flash fiction anthology Night Walk & Other Dark Paths features 40 of my best stories. Here are some of the nice things folks have said about it. 🙂
“I’ve been a fan of his stories for years, and now they’ve been collected in Night Walk it’s possible to fully appreciate the many wounded landscapes of his imagination, the harrowing beauty of his prose, and the consistency with which he weaves his tales of despair.”
— Christopher Stanley
“Aeryn has proven with this dark anthology, that he is truly one of the very best flash fiction writers around. At times, you have to pinch yourself to remember these terrifying tales are the work of just one mind.”
— Andrew J. Anderson
“The tales are short, snappy, well-paced, often witty, and always satisfying. I had to force myself to limit myself to a couple of tales a day–to savor them like rich and bitter dark chocolates.”
— MM Schreier
Goals
Revise the novella and send out four more submissions.
That’s my week. How was yours?
The Rejectomancer’s Grimoire: Resist Response
The next entry in the Rejectomancer’s Grimoire shields the rejectomancer from dangerous temptations. This minor enchantment is called resist response and prevents vulnerable rejectomancers from penning angry responses to rejections and reviews. (If you’re wondering what all this rejectomancer stuff is, start here.)
Resist Response
1st-level rejectomancy
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Components: Somatic, Verbal
Duration: One hour
You strengthen your mental fortitude against deleterious temptation. For the duration of the spell, you gain advantage on Wisdom saves to resist responding to a rejection or a negative review. This spell is effective against all rejection and review formats, including email, social media, and Amazon.
The somatic component for this spell is turning off your computer and/or putting away your phone.
As I’ve said many times, responding to rejections and reviews is almost never a good idea. Make liberal use of resist response to protect your sanity. 🙂
Looking for more rare and wondrous rejectomancer powers? Links below.
Effectively Wild – A Baseball Horror Story
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 