Rejection Letter Rundown: The Unspoken Rejection
It’s been a while since I posted a new Rejection Letter Rundown, mostly because I’ve covered just about every kind of rejection you can get. That said, there’s always something new in submission land. 🙂 So this time we’re discussing a rejection letter sans, uh, letter. Yep, there are times you know you’ve been rejected without any kind of formal notice from the publisher. No letter, no auto-generated response from a submission manager, just meaningful silence. Let’s call it the unspoken rejection (though implicit rejection works too). In my experience, this kind of rejection is expected in certain situations. Other times it might take some sleuthing to figure out that’s what’s happened. Anyway, let’s take a look three situations where I’ve received unspoken rejections in my career.
1) ExpectedÂ
Contests are the most common scenario where I don’t expect to receive an unspoken rejection. In fact, the publisher often lets you know that’s what’s going to happen in the guidelines, like this:
Because of the volume of submissions we anticipate, there will be no rejection letters. When you submit, you’ll be given a receipt of the transaction. All winners will be contacted by October 1st. If you have a problem, feel free to reach out by email, but we won’t be giving status updates like we normally would.
In the above situation, if I don’t find my name on the winner’s list, I know to go out to Duotrope and record the submission as a rejection. I don’t mind at all when a publisher handles rejections like this. If I know up front that’s how it’s gonna be, it’s really no different than getting a form rejection. Record and move on.Â
2) SuspectedÂ
There are times when I’m not certain but still pretty sure no rejection will be sent if a publisher passes on my story. Most often this is an anthology with a limited, but clearly stated number of open slots. Helpfully, sometimes the publisher will keep a running count on their website of the number of spots remaining. When all spots are filled, and, you know, you haven’t filled one, you know you’ve been rejected. Most publishers come right out and say that on their website and/or on social media once they’ve selected all the stories they need. A few might not, but there’s enough information to make a decision and record that submission as a rejection.
3) Surprise!
The rarest of unspoken rejections (and I’ve only run into it once, a long time ago) is when you submit a story to an anthology that has not stated how many stories will be published nor addressed how rejections will be handled in the guidelines. You only find out you’ve been rejected (months later) because the anthology is published and, uh, your name isn’t in the table of contents.Â
Look, I don’t expect every story I send to be published. Hell, I don’t expect the vast majority of the stories I submit to be published. I do, however, expect a publisher to let me know, in some fashion, that my story hasn’t been accepted. Otherwise, it keeps me from submitting the story elsewhere, especially to markets that don’t accept simsubs. If an actual rejection letter isn’t possible, then all I want is a quick announcement via social media or on the publisher’s website letting folks know the anthology is full and anyone who hasn’t been contacted should consider their stories rejected. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Do you have any experience with the unspoken rejection? Tell me about it in the comments.
Six Speeds of Submission Response
How long does a short story market take to respond to a submission? Does the response time differ with rejections and acceptances? These are questions every author, new and old, needs to know in order to strategize where to send a new story. In my experience, markets fall into six broad types or categories with regards to submission response times, and we’ll take a look at each one in this post.
As with all my posts, what follows is based entirely on my experience, and though I’ve sent a lot of submissions in the last decade, others who have sent the same or more might come to different conclusions. Also, everything I’m about to say is specific to the genre market. I know next to nothing about lit-fic markets, and wouldn’t presume to speak about them. Finally, keep in mind that market response times are due to a host of factors, from the size of a publisher’s editorial staff and slush pile to the number of submissions they recieve on a monthly or even daily basis. I make no guesses or judgements as to why one market is faster or slower than another.Â
Okay, let’s take a look at those six market types.Â
Type One – Fast Rejections/Fast Acceptances
These publishers respond to submissions fast, sometimes within a few hours for a rejection. They take a bit longer for an acceptance, but they’re still super speedy, and you might get a yes in under a week. Publishers like this don’t generally accept sim-subs for obvious reasons–they don’t need to. I often start out a new story with markets like this. It allows me to cover a lot of ground in a short space without having to monkey around with simsubs.Â
Type Two – Fast Rejections/Average Acceptances
These markets are pretty quick with rejections, often responding in a few days, but sometimes it’ll take two weeks to a month. They are slower with acceptances, but usually make a decision within 60 days. Many of these markets will send you a further consideration letter if your story is being considered for publication, i.e., it made it out of the slush pile. Some do accept sim-subs but not many (around 25% in my experience). These publishers are also a good place to start with a new story too, especially if you think your piece is a particularly good fit. The rejections come quick enough that sim-subs aren’t an issue, and, hey, if you get a further consideration letter, that’s good too.
Type Three – Average Rejections/Average Acceptances
These publishers take about 45 to 60 days to respond to all submissions. I find they’re about 50/50 on further consideration letters, and roughly half accept sim-subs. I might start with a publisher like this if I think my story is a good fit. If they allow simsubs, I might submit here and to another type three or type four that also accepts simsubs.
Type Four – Average Rejections/Slower Acceptances
These markets are going to take a good 30 to 60 days for a rejection and as long as 150 days for an acceptance. They will almost always let you know via a further consideration letter if you’re story is going to be held for longer than 60 days. In my experience, most are open to simsubs. Like type three publishers, I’ll start with a type four if I have a story that is a good fit or I’ve specifically written a piece for them. Since most of are open to sim-subs, I can send the story to multiple markets without issue.
Type Five – Slower Rejections/Slower Acceptances
These markets take on average between 150 to 180 days for any response to submissions. Some send further consideration letters and some don’t. These markets are well suited to sim-sub submissions, and the vast majority accept them. Be warned, though, there are a few type fives with wait times in excess of 150 days that do NOT allow simsubs (remember, always read the guidelines). When I submit a story to these markets, I generally simsub to some type threes and fours too. There are a couple of good type five markets that have published me and tend to publish stories like mine, so I’ll sometimes start with them.Â
Type Six – Glacial Speed
These markets take an extraordinarily long time to respond to any submission. I’m talking up to and more than a year. There aren’t many genre markets of this type, and I can only think of two off the top of my head. One is a well-regarded publication, and the other was but has since gone out of business. I submitted once to the latter and received no response for sixteen months. Then I got a very nice rejection stating my story had been held for consideration and almost made the cut. Note, they did not send me a further consideration letter. Look, I’m not saying you shouldn’t submit to type six markets, but don’t send a story to a market like this and then start firing off query letters after thirty days. The response data is out there, so you should know what you’re getting into.
So how can you tell if a market is a type one or type three or whatever? Easy. Just head over to Duotrope or the Submission Grinder (it’s free), look up the market, and all the response data will be right there at your fingertips. It’s tougher with brand-new markets, but most publishers will state their expected response times in their guidelines.Â
To give you an idea of how you might use this information, here’s my submission record for a story I sold to a type five market. Note, all these markets are either pro or semipro publishers. Also, all markets to which I sent simultaneous submissions clearly stated in their guidelines they’re A-Okay with them.Â
| Submission | Market Type | Response | Days Out | Notes |
| Sub 1 | Type One | Rejection | 7 | Â |
| Sub 2 | Type One | Rejection | 1 | Â |
| Sub 3 | Type Two | Rejection | 29 | Â |
| Sub 4 | Type One | Rejection | 0 | Same-day rejection |
| Sub 5 | Type Four | Rejection | 63 | Shortlisted |
| Sub 6 | Type One | Rejection | 1 | Â |
| Sub 7 | Type One | Rejection | 2 | Â |
| Sub 8 | Type One | Rejection | 9 | Â |
| Sub 9 | Type Five | Acceptance | 231 | Simsub, shortlisted |
| Sub 10 | Type Two | Rejection | 15 | Simsub |
| Sub 11 | Type Three | Rejection | 67 | Simsub |
So, with my first two subs, I sent the story to markets I knew would respond quickly and give me some feedback, even with a rejection. With my third, I went with a slightly slower type two market that does not accept simsubs, but I thought the story might be a good fit. When that rejection arrived, I fired off the story to the quickest market I know. They did not disappoint. 🙂 The next sub was to a type four, which I probably should have sim-subbed since they accept them, but I didn’t for some reason. When the rejection came quicker than expected, I sent the story to three type ones, one after the other. When the last of those came back, I fired off a final volley of simsubs, a type five, a type two, and a type three. As you can see, the type five shortlisted then accepted the story after about eight months, which is right on the money for an acceptance according to their response data at Duotrope.Â
Knowing what I know now, I would have started with the market that accepted me (duh, and also they tend to publish the kind of stories I write) plus a handful of simsubs to type twos and threes before I might have moved on to all the speedy type ones. That said, this is fairly representative of what my short story submissions look like. I tend to sell flash quicker, so the number and kinds of markets are different.Â
So there you have it, the six market types based in response speed. As stated earlier, these are broad categories, and some markets might drift between two or more depending on their editorial staff, size of their slush pile, and so on. Also, word to the wise. Failing to follow submission guidelines has the potential to turn any market into the fastest type one. So, you know, follow the guidelines. 🙂
What do you think about my six categories? Tell me about it in the comments.Â
Submission Statement: October 2020
A little late with the October tally, but here’s how I did.
October 2020 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 10
- Rejections: 5
- Acceptances: 2
- Publications: 2
- Further Consideration: 0
October was a legitimately good month submission-wise, and I managed a respectable number of subs plus a couple of acceptances and publications. The 10 submissions last month puts me at 77 for the year, which means I’m going to need an exceptionally good November and December to hit my goal of 100. Doable, sure, but it’ll take some, uh, doing. Anyway, the two acceptances gives me a total of 14 in 2020, which equals last year’s tally. I think I’ve got an excellent shot of exceeding 2019’s mark, and maybe an outside chance of beating my best-ever total of 19. More about October’s rejections, acceptances, and publications below.
Rejections
Five rejections this month.
- Standard Form Rejections: 4
- Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 0
- Personal Rejections: 1
Mostly garden-variety form rejections in October, but I did get one personal no that illustrates my oft-repeated mantra of even good stories get rejected.
Here’s the personal rejections.
Hey Aeryn,
We sat on your story for some time as it was an enjoyable read, but ultimately it’s not going to fit into the book.
Thanks for submitting!
This rejection was for an anthology. I knew the story I submitted was borderline for the theme of the book but close enough I thought it might be worth a shot. Well, seems like the editor’s liked it, but my initial instincts were correct. The story was likely a little too far afield to fit with the others in the anthology, which is pretty much what the editor said. 🙂
Acceptances
Two acceptances in October. The first was from Flash Fiction Magazine, a new market for me. Also, that particular acceptance was for a story called “Fair Pay,” which just so happens to be my first-ever non-genre publication. I know; I’m as surprised as you are.
The second acceptance was with my old pals at The Arcanist. My story “Childish Things” took third place in their recent Halloween Flash contest.
Publications
Two publication in October. The first is a story about, uh, a toilet that takes you to hell. That one’s called “Stall Number Two” (I’m sorry) and was published by Ellipsis Zine. The second is the aforementioned “Childish Things” published by The Arcanist. You can read both by clicking the links below.
Read “Stall Number Two”
Read “Childish Things”
And that was my October. Tell me about yours.
A Week of Writing: 10/12/20 to 10/18/20
Another week of writerly doings. Here’s how I did.
Words to Write By
This week’s quote comes, once more, from Elmore Leonard.
“My characters have to talk, or they’re out. They audition in early scenes. If they can’t talk, they’re given less to do, or thrown out.”
-Elmore Leonard
I love this one, mostly because I write the same way. I tell my stories primarily with dialogue, and characters who don’t talk–or, you know, ones I can’t figure out how to make talk–fade into the background or even disappear in revision. All of my main characters, especially in long-form fiction, are absolute motor-mouths, and since they need someone to talk to or at, my secondary characters follow suit. I always hear dialogue first when I start writing, and my characters reveal their motivations and personalities by talking, first in my head, and then on the page.
The Novel
As I mentioned in last week’s update, Hell to Play is on hold until I get moved at the end of the month. I’ve tinkered a little, but I’m not going to get into the meat of the next revision until I’m set up in my new office. I gotta admit, I’m kind of enjoying the break, and I think I’ll be recharged and rearing to go once I dive back in.
Short Story Submissions
Zilch. Nada. Bupkis.
- Submissions Sent: 0
- Rejections: 0
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 1
- Shortlist: 0
- Pending: 14
Yeah, I know, pretty pathetic. I didn’t send a single submission last week, mostly because I was busy packing. I’m gonna try to get at least one or two out this week, but, again, packing and moving take priority. I also did not receive a single rejection last week, which is odd because I have whooping 14 submissions pending. I expect this week will be busier, and I’d guess at least one rejection will show up in my inbox before the week is done. I did have a publication last week, and I’ll talk about that below.
Publications
My story, “Childish Things” was published last Friday at The Arcanist. It took third place in their HalloweenFlash contest. Interesting note, I have placed in every one of The Arcanist’s flash and short story contests (five so far). Of course, by writing that, I have all but guaranteed I won’t place in the next one. 🙂 Anyway, you can check out “Childish Things” by clicking the graphic below.
Goals
Again, no stated goals this week. I need to get packed, get moved, and if I can, squeeze a little writing in between.
And that was my week. How was yours?
Weeks of Writing: 9/14/20 to 10/11/20
I’m a month behind, so this’ll be four weeks of writing. 🙂
Words to Write By
Here’s one from author Richard Bach.
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
—Richard Bach
I really like this quote for the bit about not quitting. The rest of it isn’t incorrect or anything, but folks tend to have different definitions of words like “amateur” and “professional.” But however you define those words, the second part of the quote remains undeniably true. You can’t quit. You have to keep going, and pushing, and writing, and submitting, and failing, and sometimes succeeding to achieve your goals. It’s an exhausting, soul-crunching process, but I think that’s what makes it worthwhile. It’s cliche, sure, but if it was easy everyone would do it. The truth is it’s not easy. It’s work. Fulfilling work, yes, maybe even necessary work, but work all the same.
The Novel
Hell to Play is still in revisions and likely to stay there for the foreseeable future. We just bought a house, and all the packing and moving shenanigans have taken center stage. Should be moved in with my office set up by the end of the month, and then revisions will begin again in earnest. I have started the process, which primarily involves adding scenes to fill in plot holes or pieces missing from a character’s central motivations. The new material should take my word count north of 90,000 but probably not more than 95,000. Still feeling pretty good about it, and I think the additions will make for a better book.
Short Story Submissions
A solid four weeks of submissions.
- Submissions Sent: 11
- Rejections: 4
- Acceptances: 2
- Publications: 0
- Shortlist: 1
- Pending: 14
Eleven submissions over four weeks is good work. This bumps me up to a total of 72 submissions for the year and gives me a reasonable shot of hitting 100 for 2020. The two acceptances kept my streak of at least one acceptance per month in 2020 alive for September and October. The shortlist was a surprise, and a welcome one, from a top-tier market that’s been on my bucket list since I started submitting work seriously almost eight years ago. I have 14 submissions pending, which is more than I’ve had in a long time. That means a bunch of rejections (and hopefully an acceptance or two) are in my future.
Acceptances
The two acceptances over this four-week period came on September 17th and October 1st. The first acceptance is from Ellipsis Zine for a flash piece called “Stall Number Two”. The second acceptance is from my old pals at The Arcanist and is for another flash fiction story called “Childish Things,” which also took third place in their recent Halloween flash contest. Both stories will be published and available to read online in the next week.
This gives me a baker’s dozen worth of acceptances for the year, with two months and change to go. I managed 14 acceptances last year, so I definitely have a shot at beating 2019’s total. I’d love to break my record of 19 acceptances in a year, but seven yeses in ten weeks feels like a tall order.
Goals
No stated goals for this week (and probably the next couple) while we pack and move house. I am looking forward to a new writing space in my new office at the end of the month. I think that’ll be more conducive to goal-oriented activities. 🙂
And those were my weeks. How were yours?
The First 500 Submissions
Recently, I sent my 500th submission since I’ve been tracking them through Duotrope. It took me roughly eight years to amass this many, though the bulk of them have come in the last four years or so. Anyway, it’s a big milestone, so I thought I’d write a blog post about it and show you what 500 subs looks like, what it gets you, and what it does for you (or maybe to you).
The Numbers
Here’s the basic composition of my 500 submissions.
| Acceptances | 67 |
| Rejections | 400 |
| Withdrawn | 16 |
| Lost/Never Responded | 3 |
| Pending | 14 |
- Acceptances: What you see here translates to an acceptance rate of just over 14%. Decent, but some lean years early in my submission career and a weird blip in 2017 have kept it lower than I’d like. I’ve managed to get over 15% in the last three years, but I’d really like to push that number up over 20%.
- Rejections:Â Yep, 400 of them. If you’d like a more detailed look at those 400 rejections, check out this post. Anyway, I’d like fewer rejections–wouldn’t we all–but I’m certainly not ashamed of this number. I’ve learned a lot from these rejections, and that’s translated to more acceptances in recent years.
- Withdrawn: Generally, when I withdraw a story, it’s because the publisher hasn’t responded after a significant amount of time and ignored a submission status query. I don’t like pulling a story for this reason, but sometimes you don’t have much choice.
- Lost/Never Responded: All three of the submissions in this category were to markets that went under while I had stories pending.
- Pending:Â I currently have 14 stories pending, which is a lot, even for me. Based on my overall acceptance percentage, two of these should result in acceptances. (Yeah, we’ll see.)
The Stories
Now let’s take a closer look at the composition of the actual stories I’ve submitted.
| Unique Stories | 106 |
| Published | 56 |
| Flash Fiction | 81 |
| Microfiction | 3 |
| Short Stories | 22 |
- Unique Stories:Â I have subbed 106 unique stories, although I did count stories I subbed as flash and then expanded to short stories as the same story. If you counted flash and short as distinct versions, my total is 112. Is this a lot of stories? Hard to say. I do write a lot, and I also write a lot of flash, which no doubt pumps up my submission numbers. If I was focused purely on short stories, I’d expect my total to be about half of what it is.
- Published:Â This is my favorite number out of all the stats I’ve listed. I’ve published over half the stories I’ve submitted. Yeah, sure, some of them have taken me a while to sell, and some of that is because my submission targeting is not as good as it could be, but I think selling one out of every two stories I write is pretty solid. The discrepancy between the number of stories published and my number of acceptances is simply due to the eleven stories I’ve sold as reprints.
- Flash Fiction: As I mentioned above, I write a lot of flash, and it represents the bulk of my submissions. Most of this is due to the fact that I participate in a bi-weekly one-hour flash fiction writing contest/exercise, and the vast majority of my flash stories come from that event.
- Microfiction: I started writing microfiction in the last year and a half, mostly as part of the #vss365 hashtag on Twitter. I haven’t submitted much of it, but I’ve published all three of the micros I’ve submitted on the first try. Huh, maybe I should submit more.
- Short Stories: Even though I’ve only subbed 22 short stories, and despite publishing a a bakers dozen, they account for almost half of my 500 submissions. Why is that? Well, my completely unscientific answer is simply that, in my experience, short stories are harder to sell. Even the shorts I’ve sold to pro-paying markets often racked up double digit rejections before the sale. Of course, some of this stems from my difficulties with submission targeting, but I still contend that selling a short story to a good market takes some effort and no few amount of submissions. Or maybe it’s just me. 🙂
And there you have it, 500 submissions. It’s certainly been an eventful journey to get to this point, but all these submission, and all the rejections, acceptances, and feedback that come with them, have definitely made me a better writer. No doubt, by the time I hit 1,000 submissions, I’ll be a bestselling author and a household name. 🙂
Hit any submission milestone of your own lately? Tell me about in the comments.
A Bad Request? 400 Rejections
Today I received my 400th rejection since I started tracking my submissions through Duotrope. Yeah, I received a few pre-Duotrope, in what amounts to my literary Dark Ages, but those rejections are lost to the sands of time and ancient Hotmail accounts, so we’ll work with the numbers we can verify. Anyway, what does 400 rejection look like? Let’s find out. 🙂
Rejections by Year
| Year | Rejections |
| 2012 | 4 |
| 2013 | 14 |
| 2014 | 31 |
| 2015 | 37 |
| 2016 | 43 |
| 2017 | 63 |
| 2018 | 100 |
| 2019 | 62 |
| 2020 | 46 (year to date) |
As you can see in the table above, the number of rejections I’ve received increased steadily but has leveled off in recent years. Obviously, 2018 was a banner year, where I set personal submission, rejection, and acceptance records. I haven’t managed to reach those lofty heights again, but they’re an excellent goal to shoot for.
Unique Stories/Markets
| Total | Accepted | |
| Unique Stories | 91 | 46 |
| Unique Markets | 108 | 18 |
Yep, I have had 91 stories receive a not for us, a we’re gonna pass, or a does not suit or needs at this time. It feels like a lot, but when I look deeper into the numbers, it’s not so bad. Of the 91 stories that have been rejected, I’ve gone on to publish 46 of them, which is a skoosh over fifty percent. That’s not too shabby.
Now, unique markets paints a different picture. I’ve been rejected by 108 of them, 18 of which have gone on to publish me at some point (up 5 from when I last ran these numbers). It’s important to note that of the 108 markets that have rejected me 44 of them are now defunct or on indefinite hiatus, and a fair number of them are anthology projects, essentially one-and-done publications. Still, this is a number I’d like to improve, especially if I can add a few of my bucket-list pro markets to the accepted column.
Most Rejected Stories
| Story | Rejections | Published | Retired |
| What Kind of Hero | 10 | Y | |
| When the Lights Go On | 10 | Y | |
| A Point of Honor | 10 | Y | |
| The Back-Off | 10 | Y | |
| Teeth of the Lion Man | 11 | Y | |
| Bites | 12 | Y | |
| After Birth | 12 | Y | |
| Caroline | 15 | Y | |
| The Scars You Keep | 15 | ||
| Paper Cut | 17 | Y | |
| Set in Stone | 24 | Y |
The table above shows all my stories that have received 10 rejections or more. I’ve published 7 of the them and 3 are retired pending a complete rewrite. What you see here is sort of my overriding philosophy when it comes to submissions. Keep submitting until you get a yes or you are absolutely certain the story isn’t working. Now, you might be looking at “Set in Stone” and thinking, “Wait, you didn’t think a story with 15-plus rejections should have been retired?” I get it, but in my defense, “Paper Cut” received 15 rejections before it was published, and “Set in Stone” accumulated shortlist and personal rejections throughout its entire submission run. Still, the numbers are the numbers, and 24 rejections says it’s time to find some space in the trunk. The other stories I’ve retired are ones with good premises, but insightful beta readers have convinced me they could be better. I should note that “Caroline” and “Paper Cut” have received a few rejections as reprint submissions.
Most Rejected Markets
| Rejections | Acceptances | |
| Market 1 | 44 | 16 |
| Market 2 | 21 | |
| Market 3 | 21 | 10 |
| Market 4 | 19 | |
| Market 5 | 17 | 1 |
Yes, I haven’t named the markets, but if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know that’s just how I do things. Obviously, 44 rejections from one market is a lot, but since they’ve published 16 of my stories, I don’t take issue with the rejections. 🙂 The other markets here are pro and semi-pro publications that I continue to submit to, sometimes with success. If I were to expand this list to all the markets that have rejected me 10 times or more, you’d see a veritable who’s who of professional and well-regarded genre publishers, some of which I’ve managed to crack and some of which I’m still trying to.
Wait Times
| Days | Notes | |
| Fastest | 0 | 10 minutes |
| Slowest | 419 | |
| Average | 29 |
Since I last ran these numbers–when I hit 300 rejections–not much has changed. My fastest and slowest rejections are the same, and the average wait time has ticked up a little from 27 to 29 days. I doubt I’ll ever get a quicker rejection than 10 minutes, and, to be honest, I won’t submit to markets where waiting longer than 419 days for a response is even a possibility.
And that’s a snapshot of 400 rejections. I won’t inflict any more stats on you, but I think this should give you a good idea of what my submission process looks like. We’ll talk again when I hit 500. 🙂
Reached any rejection milestones of your own lately? Tell me about it in the comments.
Submission Statement: September 2020
September is in the books, and here’s how I did.
September 2020 Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 8
- Rejections: 6
- Acceptances: 1
- Publications: 0
- Further Consideration: 1
A solid month, and almost identical to August’s tally. The 8 submissions in September give me 67 for the year, which leaves me 33 to get in October, November, and December to hit my goal of 100. Certainly doable, though I’ll need an average of 11 per month to pull it off. More rejections than last month, but still manageable. The acceptance keeps my streak of at least one acceptance per month in 2020 alive, so that’s good. Finally, I received a further consideration letter from a top-tier professional publisher. I’m not gonna get my hopes up, but it was a nice surprise. No publications in September, but I’ll have at least one in October.
Rejections
Six rejections this month.
- Standard Form Rejections: 4
- Upper-Tier Form Rejections: 0
- Personal Rejections: 2
A better crop than August with a couple of personal rejections, one from a pro market. The form rejections where your usual run-of-the-mill boilerplate no thank yous we all know and love. 🙂
Here’s one of the personal rejections.
Thank you for submitting [Story Title] to [Publisher], but I am going to pass on it. The [story detail] is nice, but overall it didn’t quite work for me. Best of luck placing this elsewhere, and thanks so much for sending it my way.
I’m seeing this kind of rejection more lately, and it’s essentially a form letter with an added bit of personalized feedback/encouragement. I can think of a couple of pro publishers that do this with every rejection (that I’ve received), and it’s certainly appreciated. Often this type of personal rejection tells you what is working in the story more than what isn’t, but that’s still incredibly useful information, and, again, appreciated.
Acceptances
The acceptance for September is from Ellipsis Zine for my story “Stall Number Two,” a quirky little Twilight Zone-esque piece I’m happy has found a home. The story will be published later this month.
And that was September. Tell me about your month.
Form Letters: More Than Just No?
I’ve covered the topic of form letters a fair bit on this blog, generally focusing on form rejections, which are by far the most common. But form letters come in all shapes and sizes and can communicate a lot more than “we’re not publishing your story.” Let’s take a look at a few from my copious supply and see what we can learn. Some of this will cover old ground, but it’s a favorite subject of mine, and, well, my perspective on rejection is ever-evolving just as my collection of rejection letters is ever-expanding. 🙂
The Basic Form Rejection
Let’s establish a baseline for our form letters with your basic, no-frills rejection.
We have read your submission and will have to pass, as it unfortunately does not meet our needs at this time.
If you’ve been submitting your work for any length of time, you’ve likely seen letters like this one a lot. There’s not much to learn here because the letter doesn’t say anything other than we’re not publishing your story. In fact, it’s purposefully designed to say nothing more than that. Move on and submit the story somewhere else.
The Higher-Tier Form Rejection
This is another one I’ve talked about a lot on the blog, but here’s an example so you can see the difference between these first two letters and those to follow.
We have read your submission and unfortunately your story isn’t quite what we’re looking for right now. While we regretfully cannot provide detailed feedback due to the volume of submissions, we thank you for your interest in our magazine and hope you continue to consider us in the future.
It can be difficult to tell a higher-tier form rejection from a basic form rejection unless you’ve received both from the same publisher. So I’ll make this easy. This higher-tier form rejection is from the same publisher as my example basic form rejection. Pretty stark contrast, huh? The higher-tier has the all-important “consider us in the future,” which is generally (but not always) an indicator of a “better” rejection.
The Further Consideration Letter
The first of the “good” form letters, the further consideration notice is often welcome news, especially when it comes from a pro market, like this one.
Thank you for submitting [story title] 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!
Even if a further consideration letter ultimately results in a rejection, as this one did, you’ve gained valuable information. You now have an idea what kind of story the publisher might accept or at least seriously consider. That info helps you fine tune your submission targeting in the future, which, hopefully, leads to more letters like this and maybe an acceptance or two.
The Final Round Form Rejection
Sometimes a form rejection has a lot to say, much of it good and encouraging. I’ve removed a few bits from this rejection to conceal the identity of the publisher, as I usually do, but the important bits are still there.
Thank you for considering [publisher] for your story, [story title].
Unfortunately we have decided not to accept it. As much as we wish we could, we can’t publish every good story that comes our way.
Truthfully, we’re forced to return a great many stories with merits that make them well worthy of publication, including yours. Your story did, however, reach the final stage of our selection process–one among an elite group. Less than 5% of stories make it this far. That is no small feat.
We wish you the best of luck finding a home for your story elsewhere, feel confident of your success in doing so, and hope to receive submissions from you in the future.Â
As rejections go, this one is pretty good. Sure, it’s disappointing that I didn’t make the final cut, but this is a tough market, and making it this far tells me I have a good story on my hands. In fact, I sold this story on the next submission. The information in a letter like this is incredibly useful and encouraging, and it should help you determine what type of story to send the publisher in the future. Of course, you might ask why the publisher doesn’t include any personal feedback if they liked the story so much. Likely because this publisher receives thousands of submissions a year and a form letter saves them valuable time. Honestly, if the form letter is this good, I don’t mind not getting a personal note. I should also point out that this publisher does offer curated feedback form their readers on stories that get this far.
The Form Acceptance
Yep, acceptances come in form-letter flavor too. In fact, I’m seeing more and more acceptances arrive as boilerplate letters. There’s a good reason for this, actually, which the example below clearly illustrates.
We’re pleased to announce that your story [story title] is the fourth-place winner of our [publisher contest]!
Congratulations!
Your publication date will be [date].
We process all of our payments through PayPal and fourth place is awarded [$$$] as well as an e-copy of the contest anthology containing off of the winners and the runners up.
Some legal/rights things: Your acceptance of the payment means that you have given us the right to publish your story on our site and elsewhere under [publisher] name. After we publish it, you are free to send it elsewhere. We do not retain exclusivity rights.
You also ensure that this work is yours to sell and that it is not the product of any type of copyright infringement.
We just need your PayPal email and a 3-4 sentence bio.
Let us know if that works for you and feel free to reach out with any questions. We can’t wait to publish your story!
The reason the editor went with a form letter for this acceptance is they need to impart a lot information quickly and efficiently. They need to tell me my story has been accepted, when it will be published, how I will be paid and how much, what rights they are retaining to the story (none; bless them), what additional info they need to publish the piece, and, finally, what to do if I have questions. If you had to send all that information to a dozen different authors, a boilerplate form letter is absolutely the way to go.
And there you have it, five different form letters, four of which have a lot more to say than no. Have you received a form letter not covered in this post? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
A Week of Writing: 9/7/20 to 9/13/20
One more week of writerly doings.
Words to Write By
This week’s quote once again comes from Stephen King.
“Writers are often the worst judges of what they have written.
—Stephen King
I know, I know. I use Stephen King a lot. In my defense, the dude is a writerly quote machine. Anyway, again he clearly and concisely sums up my thoughts on an important aspect of writing. Yep, writers generally suck at judging their own work. This, uh, suckage, cuts both ways, though. Sure, we can get down on ourselves and become convinced what we’ve written is total garbage when it’s actually pretty good. Worse than that, though, is when you believe you’ve written something that’s pure gold and it’s spray-painted lead at best. For me, this is where my darlings in need of killing are often found. All of this is why you need eyes other than your own on your work, especially long-form fiction. As the author, you have blinders on (for a lot of reasons), and folks who can tell you what’s good and what needs work are invaluable.
The Novel
Another critique partner has finished with Hell to Play, and his notes are different from the first reader. This is a good thing, and I’ve chosen critique partners who will come at the story from different angles and perspectives. One might focus more on character motivation and backstory and another might drill down on the plot and world building. There’s always overlap, of course, and since they’re reading the novel in Google docs, they can respond to each other’s comments. That’s great because when they agree, I’m pretty confident whatever it is needs to be addressed. When they don’t agree and explain why, I can make an informed decision on which bit of feedback fits my vision for the story and revise (or not) accordingly. Anyway, I’ve got a number of things to work on that range from fixing trivial details that just need to be consistent throughout the novel to overhauling chapters that illustrate a character’s central motivation.
In other novel news, I’m continuing to outline the new version of my last novel Late Risers. I’ve slowed some, but I like where it’s going so far.
Short Story Submissions
Better but not great.
- Submissions Sent: 2
- Rejections: 3
- Acceptances: 0
- Publications: 0
- Shortlist: 0
Two subs last week, which puts me at 62 for the year. I need 38 more to hit my goal of 100, which might be difficult at this point, but it’s all about the attempt. If I land somewhere in the 90s with an acceptance percentage around twenty percent, I’m not gonna complain. The rejections were all standard form rejections, and the only noteworthy thing about them is they all arrived on the same day. 🙂
Market Spotlight
This week, I want to highlight Nightmare Magazine, a great market for horror and dark fantasy that is accepting submissions of short stories, flash fiction, and even poetry for the next week. Here’s some of the relevant details from their submissions guidelines.
- SFWA- and HWA-certified professional market.
- Short stories up to 7,500 words, flash and creative nonfiction up to 1,000 words.
- No reprints.
- No sim-subs.
- Payment is .08/word.
- “Most rejections will be sent out within a few business days, while stories being seriously considered may be held for up to a few weeks.”*
- Accepting submissions until 9/20/20.
*This has been my experience with the publisher with the submissions I’ve sent.
Goals
Here are my writing goals for this week.
- Continue to outline the new version of Late Risers.
- Start working on the third revision of Hell to Play
- Send. More. Submissions.
And that was my week. How was yours?
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 