On This Day in Submission Land: June 21st
Time for another installment of On This Day in Submission Land. Slight change in format going forward. I’ll show you the submissions I sent on the fateful day, including my cover letter if it’s interesting, as well as responses I received. So, let’s take a look at June 21st.
Submissions Sent
1. 6/21/15 – “Manny” to EGM Shorts
Dear Fiction Editors,
Please consider my flash fiction piece “Manny” for publication at Evil Girlfriend Media. The story is approximately 1,000 words in length.
Bio: I currently work as the publications manager for Privateer Press, Inc., and my short fiction has recently been published by Allegory, Devilfish Review, and The Molotov Cocktail.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Aeryn Rudel
Back in 2015, I was fairly new to sending submissions, and my cover letter, thought not terrible, shows some of my inexperience. There are a few things in here I don’t do anymore, such as the closing phrase “Thank you for reading” and the opening “Dear Fiction Editors.” Now I just address the letter to Dear Editor, and I don’t use thanks for reading at all. I was also including a bio even if the submission guidelines didn’t call for it. Though, in truth, that “bio” was really just a list of my writing bona fides and a few credits. I don’t do that anymore, as it’s not necessary, and if the guidelines don’t ask for a bio, it’s probably best not to include one.
The story, “Manny,” I never sold, and it has been relegated to the trunk dimension. I did, however, eventually sell a story to EGM Shorts, a saucy little take of autophagia called “The Rarest Cut.” Sadly, EGM Shorts closed down years ago.
2. 6/21/17 – “Small Evil” to The Spectral Book of Horror Stories 5
Dear Editors,
Please consider my short story “A Small Evil” for publication in The Spectral Book of Horror Stories 5. The story is approximately 2,100 words in length. My short fiction has recently appeared in DarkFuse Magazine, Pseudopod, and Havok magazine.
Thank you,
Aeryn Rudel (byline)
The story here, “A Small Evil” I eventually sold to The Arcanist as a flash fiction piece. I had less luck with the longer version I sent to this anthology. As far as I can tell, The Spectral Book of Horror Stories 5 was the last in this series.
3. 6/21/18 – “The Last Scar” to Trembling With Fear
Dear Editor,
Please consider my short story “The Last Scar” for publication at Trembling With Fear. The story is approximately 1,000 words in length.
Bio: Aeryn Rudel is a writer from Seattle, Washington. His second novel, Aftershock, was recently published by Privateer Press, and his short fiction has appeared in The Arcanist, Havok, and Pseudopod, among others. He occasionally offers dubious advice on writing and rejection (mostly rejection) at www.rejectomancy.com or on Twitter @Aeryn_Rudel.
Best,
Aeryn Rudel
Publisher Responses
1. 6/21/17 – Rejection from Black Static for “A Small Evil”
Many thanks for sending “A Small Evil”, but I’m sorry to say that it isn’t right for Black Static. I wish you luck placing it elsewhere, and hope that you’ll send me something new soon.
This is a standard form rejection from Black Static, a pro market I’ve been trying to crack for years. Not much else to say here other than you might notice I submitted this story on the same day this rejection arrived. That’s not unusual for me. If I get a form rejection with no feedback, and I still feel confident about the story, I’ll generally send it out again the same day.
1. 6/21/17 – Rejection from Arsenika for “The Last Scar”
Thank you for sending “The Last Scar” to Arsenika. Unfortunately, it’s not quite what we’re looking for at the moment. Best of luck placing it elsewhere, and thanks again for trying us.
Noticing a pattern here yet? 🙂 This rejection from Arsenika for “The Last Scar” was turned around immediately into a submission to Trembling With Fear, which I detailed earlier in this post. Arsenika was a speculative flash fiction and poetry market that ran from 2016 to 2021. The were a pro market, paying $60.00 for flash fiction up to 1,000 words. I only submitted to them twice, both times in May of 2018. Both stories were rejected. I definitely would have kept trying, as they were a quality market and, looking back, I think they might have been a good fit for some of the stories I was writing in 2020 and 2021.
And that is June 21st in submission land. Thoughts on these submissions and responses? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
On This Day in Submission Land: June 12th
It’s time for another installment of On This Day in Submission Land. Today, we cast our gaze back to the dim, misty past, to the ancient before times of 2015 and 2020, and a pair of rejections for two of my most-rejected stories. Let’s have a look.
June 10th, 2016 – Rejection
We have read your submission and will have to pass, as it unfortunately does not meet our needs at this time.
This was a form rejection from The Dark for my story “Paper Cut.” As per usual with The Dark, the rejection was speedy and succinct. I submitted the story at 12:32 p.m., and it was rejected at 1:21 p.m., a span of 49 minutes. That’s fast, even for The Dark, but not fast enough to be an outlier. Tales abound of authors who’ve been rejected quicker, some as fast as ten minutes or less. Personally, I love that The Dark is so quick. They’re usually the first market I submit to if I have an appropriate story. I know I’ll hear back quickly, and, hey, there’s always a chance I’ll break through and get to add this fantastic market to my publishing credits.
As I alluded to in my opening, this story, “Paper Cut,” was rejected a lot before I finally sold it to Red Sun Magazine in May of 2016. It accrued 15 rejections before the sale, and it has since picked up another three as a reprint sub. Just another example of why you have to keep trying and keep submitting when you believe in a story. The right publisher is out there; it can just take a while to find them.
June 10th, 2020 – Rejection
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read your story. We regret that we are not able to make a personal reply or give criticism on returned manuscripts. The large number of submissions we receive makes it impossible to do so. We can assure you, however, that your work has been given careful consideration. Unfortunately, it does not meet our present needs.
We wish you the best of luck in placing your work with another magazine.
This form rejection is from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for my story “The Scars You Keep.” I’ll admit, this was a bit of a long shot. The story is nominally a crime story, but the supernatural element is overt and drives the narrative. This is not to say that Ellery Queen won’t publish the odd speculative piece, but, from what I’ve seen, it’s not their usual fare. That said, after 16 rejections, I was running out of places to send the story, so I took a chance. I eventually sold “The Scars You Keep” to Wyldblood Magazine in September of 2021 on it’s 19th submission. This is one of those weird stories that racks up short-lists and close-but-no-cigar rejections but just never quite breaks through. I’m glad it finally found a home, but, damn, it was a SIX-YEAR odyssey getting there.
One last thing about this rejection that I think is interesting is how different it is to the rejection from The Dark, while being essentially the exact same thing–a common, boilerplate form letter. Personally, I’m fine with either style of form letter, and view this kind of thing as simply an expression of editorial style.
And that’s my submission track record for June 12th. Care to share one of your own “on this day” rejections? I’d love to see it in the comments.
On This Day in Submission Land: June 10th
Over the last decade and change, I’ve sent 803 submissions. Most of those submissions came back as rejections, with the occasional further consideration, short list, or even an acceptance providing a bit of sunshine in the nigh-perpetual gloom the clouds every writer’s literary skies. I thought it might be fun to look back each day, and see what kinds of publisher responses I received on the same date in prior years. So, let’s do that. I’ll try to keep up with this, though I likely won’t do every day, just those I actually received something interesting to talk about. Most of the time, I’ll go ahead and name the publisher(s) that provided the response(s), though these are absolutely NOT call-out threads. Like all my posts about rejections and other publisher responses, the goal of these posts is educational and to normalize the experience of getting rejected. That said, I have left off the greeting and signature for each response, mostly just to avoid redundancy and save space.
So with that in mind, let’s dive in.
The first entry into OTDISL is for, well, today, June 10th, and though not my busiest day on record, I had three responses on this date. Let’s talk about them.
June 10th, 2016 – Rejection
Thank you for submitting “Caroline” to Apex Magazine. We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, we don’t feel it is a good fit for us and we’re going to have to pass on it at this time.
Thanks again. Best of luck with this.
This was my second submission and rejection from Apex Magazine. Though the rejection is a form letter, this story did make it out of the slush pile (a further consideration letter preceded this rejection), which is generally an indication you’ve got a good story on your hands. That proved true, and I went on to sell “Caroline” twice, first to a now sadly defunct market called Red Sun Magazine, then as a reprint to Dark Matter Magazine.
June 10th, 2019 – Rejection
Thank you for submitting “The Back-Off” to Dark Moon Digest. Unfortunately, this didn’t work for us, so we’re going to pass. Best of luck placing it elsewhere.
Another form rejection three years letter, this time for my supernatural crime story “The Back-Off.” This remains one of my absolute favorite stories I’ve written, though it did take me a while to sell it. “The Back-Off” accumulated eight rejections, including a couple of short-list and close-but-no-cigar NOs, until I sold it to On Spec. Interestingly, this submission to Dark Moon Digest is a reprint submission. I’ve tried to sell the story as a reprint three times, but, so far, no dice. The only thing to take away from this rejection is simply that you need to submit your work widely. Not every story is going to work for every editor, and good stories get rejected all the time. I mean, I sold this story to a very good semi-pro market, and then it was rejected immediately on my first attempt to sell it as a reprint. I think that illustrates my point nicely.
June 10th, 2020 – Acceptance
Thank you for submitting “The Past, History” to Dark Matter Magazine. We loved this and would like to accept it for publication. We have received hundreds of submissions so far, but yours stood out significantly. It’s a great science-fiction thriller with some really cool tech-induced psychedelia sprinkled in–exactly the kind of stuff we want to publish. Thanks so much for submitting to Dark Matter Magazine. I’d be honored to publish your work.
Well, apparently June 10th hasn’t always been a bad day. Back in 2020, I sold my story “The Past, History” to Dark Matter Magazine. They’re a great outfit, and though they no longer publish the magazine, they’ve become a fantastic indie press of novels and novellas, publishing fantastic writers like Ai Jiang and Eliane Boey. This was my first sale to Dark Matter Magazine, and, funnily enough, my second sale was “Caroline.” The story rejected by Apex Magazine on this date in 2016. This is another story that took me a while to sell. It racked up eight rejections before Dark Matter Magazine accepted it. I’ve since gone on to sell it again as a reprint to Black Cat Weekly. This is yet another example of something I’ve been saying for years. Selling a story is about putting the right piece in front of the right editor at the right time. They’re like tumblers in a lock. If all three don’t line up, you’ll get a rejection, but keep at it. I’m living proof that persistence eventually opens doors. 🙂
And that’s it for the first entry in On This Day in Submission Land. Check back, uh, let’s see . . . looks like tomorrow for the next entry.
Thoughts on these publisher responses? Tell me about it in the comments.
Back-Edits & Brain Weasels: A Brief Look at My Writing Process
Recently, someone was asking me about my writing process. More specifically, they asked me what my draft to done process looks like. Well, I just finished a 5,000-word freelance piece, and I think it’s a good example of what my meandering path to a done(ish) story looks like. This story took me roughly five working days to write (not counting outlining). Now, “days” in this example are not necessarily contiguous and they more represent blocks of working time I fit around other projects than complete eight-hour sessions. So, with that in mind, let’s dive in.
Day One – 1,500 words
Working off a detailed outline, I got off to a good start and wrote the first scene and a half 0n the story (it’s a total of four scenes). I did not back edit. I rarely do, and there’s a reason for this. If I read through text I just wrote, I will absolutely fucking hate it, and it’ll bum me out the rest of the day. I don’t know why that is, but it’s just how my brain works, and in order for me to produce publishable material, I generally need to let new text sit a while before I come back to it.
Day Two – Editing and 750 words
On the second day, I went back and cleaned up the first 1,500 words. They were a tad messy, but I didn’t feel the absolute loathing I would have if I’d tried to edit immediately after writing them. I tightened, polished, and rewrote where appropriate, and then banged out another 750 words, bringing me roughly to the halfway point in the story.
Day Three – 1,000 words
For whatever reason, my confidence in my ability to write compelling fiction was flagging on day three (OCD brain weasels have joined the chat), so I avoided the back edit and simply plowed ahead with the rest of the story. It was tough going, and this was one of those days where I really, really did not want to write, but I have a deadline, and I have learned over the years that just because I think I’m writing absolute dog shit does not mean I actually am. I managed 1,000 words and finished the third scene. I did not back edit because in he state of mind I was in, I might have deleted the entire story in a fit of writerly pique. 🙂
Day Four – Editing and 2000 words
Easily the best writing day of the bunch. I started by back editing everything I’d written thus far, tightening and polishing, and then I banged out the rest of the story in one frenzied session of keyboard pounding. After that two-thousand-word burst, I was feeling pretty good, so I broke with tradition and went back over what I’d written. Might have been a mistake because I kinda hated everything. That said, I knew this was just another brain weasel talking, so I finished the back edit, took a breath, and reveled in doneness. (Well, almost).
Day Five – Final polish and turnover
This morning, I set to work polishing the entire 5,000-word story. I was in a good mood, and I felt what I’d written was not just decent, but like actually good. I managed to improve some scenes by expanding dialogue and tightening or removing exposition and the like. After the initial polish, I hit the spell check, which, for freelance in this IP, is not only about catching run-of-the-mill typos and whatnot, but also about giving me an opportunity to make sure all the made-up fantasy words are spelled correctly and consistently. For example, words like necomechanika, helljack, necrotech, Wraithbinder, and so on, are always gonna pop as misspelled, giving me a chance to make sure I’ve got them correct and even add them to the dictionary where appropriate.
The story I turned over came in at around 4,900 words that I think are pretty good. Now, once the publisher has had a chance to review the story, there will be revisions, but I think we’re starting from a good place.
So that’s my writing process in a nut shell. Even though this is a freelance piece, when I draft my own stories and novels, it looks pretty much the same. For example, I generally do not back edit the same day, and I tend to carve up projects into blocks of working time that can range from an hour to four hours and from 500 words to 3,000. I can draft faster, of course, and sometimes I do, but four writing days for a 5,000-word short story is solid, especially if I’m hitting my deadlines, which I always do.
Thoughts on my writing process? Care to share your own? Tell me about it in the comments.
800 Submissions: An Analysis
Recently, I sent out my 800th submission since I started tracking them through Duotrope way back in April of 2012. Feels weird to even say that, but, I guess 12 years of steady submissions adds up. As usual, when I hit a major milestone like this, I like to break down the numbers and bombard you poor people with a bunch of stats. So here we go!
First, the basic numbers.
- Rejections: 642
- Acceptances: 104
- Withdrawals: 26
- Lost/Never Responded: 22
- Pending: 6
I won’t lie; I did track some of my last round of novel queries through Duotrope (there’s a novella in there, too), so not all of these are short story subs. That said, queries are basically the same thing as subs, and since all those queries ended up rejections and brought my acceptance percentage way, way down, fuck it, I’m counting them. 🙂
Okay, now lets look at individual pieces.
- Total Unique Stories: 164
- Microfiction: 4
- Flash Fiction: 127
- Short Stories: 29
- Novellas: 1
- Novels: 3
Clearly, flash fiction makes up the bulk of what I write and submit. There’s a few reasons for this. One, I’ve been participating in a bi-weekly flash fiction contest/exercise for the over a decade, so I generally have a couple of new stories to submit every month. Two, as much as I like writing short stories, they just take longer to complete, and they take longer to sell, too. That said, my success rate with short stories is pretty good. I’ve sold 17 of the 29 I’ve submitted.
Though I write microfiction just about every day, I rarely submit it. The four I have submitted were all accepted, though, and I don’t know if I want to mess up my perfect record by submitting more. 🙂
Now, the novels needs a little explanation. I have only technically submitted one complete novel. The other two were first chapter contests, but I’m still gonna count them.
Now let’s talk about publishers.
- Total Unique* Publishers: 228
- Most Subs: 67 (The Molotov Cocktail)
- Most Subs Without An Acceptance: 37 (Flash Fiction Online)
- Most Acceptances: 17 (The Arcanist and The Molotov Cocktail)
The asterisk by the word unique denotes that this number includes some literary agents (39) and some markets that have multiple listings. For example, Flame Tree Press has their individual short story collections and their fiction newsletter as separate listings on Duotrope. In that past I’ve consolidated, but this time, I left them separate.
Yep, I’ve submitted to Flash Fiction Online 37 times without a single yes, but I’ve made it to their final selection round enough that I’ll keep trying. Other markets where I’ve got a big fat o’fer include Apex (24), Daily Science Fiction (24), and The Dark (19). I’ve made it out of the slush pile frequently enough at Apex that I’ll keep trying. Unfortunately, Daily Science Fiction is on indefinite hiatus, so my chances of ever cracking them are pretty remote. As for The Dark, I mean, they reject in under 24 hours, so why not try? 🙂
I think that’s enough stats for now. I’ll have more for you when I hit 900. 🙂
The Monsters the Guidelines Forgot: Vampires
Continuing my series of post about how to sell stories featuring monsters who frequent publisher do-not-send list, we’re gonna talk about the only monster that might give zombies a run for their money as most maligned. Yep, it’s time sharpen our fangs and talk about everyone favorite undead parasites: vampires. As with zombies, I’ve had a bit of success selling vampire stories, and to date, I’ve managed to convince seven editors to give my vampire tales a shot. Let’s discuss some of the way I did that.
As with my first entry into this series, I’ve come up with four ways you can add variety to your vampire stories that might give you the edge you need to sell one. Of course, these changes are not sure-fire or bulletproof by any means, but I do believe they’ve helped me snatch a few acceptances from the jaws of rejection.
1) Real Monsters (or Real Funny). In my experience, much of the antipathy toward vampires is essentially a kind of literary fatigue around a specific type of vampire, a type that dominated films, TV, and fiction in the early to mid-aughts. I’m of course talking about the beautiful, sexy vampire first popularized by Anne Rice that later took the market by storm with shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries and, of course, massive bestsellers like the Twilight series. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of vampire or telling stories like those in the IPs I listed (I’ve done it and even sold a few), but there seems to be a lingering distaste toward that kind of vampire. So, what are you to do? Easy, return to the vampire’s roots, when it was a horrific, blood-drinking abomination fit only for destruction. The vampire as monstrous antagonist has been making a real comeback in film and other media, and editors seem to be more open to this representation of the vampire than the more benign type.
Of course, we’ve also seen the vampire jump back into the spotlight by going completely in the other direction and embracing humor rather than horror. The best example of this is the show What We Do in the Shadows, which takes tons of traditional vampire tropes and plays them for laughs instead of, you know, choking death gurgles. I personally love injecting a bit of humor into my horror, and I’ve used that to successfully sell vampire stories a number of times.
2) Creative Creation. Vampires are usually created when a vampire drains a human of blood and then reanimates them with a bit of their own. There’s nothing wrong this creation method, of course, but changing it wholesale can add an interesting new twist to the traditional vampire story. There’s so many other ways you can go here, but I think my favorite is removing the need for another vampire entirely and having vampirism gained from an outside source. Often this a dak ritual or even some kind of cursed artifact. I went with the latter in my story “Second Bite” where I combined two horrors–dentistry and vampirism. In the story, a character becomes one of the undead after being fitted with dentures crafted from the teeth of a particularly powerful vampire. A little silly, sure, but I played it straight and ended up selling the piece.
3) What Are You Doing Here? I talked about this in my zombie article, but it applies here, too, and really to any classic monster. Just putting your vampire in a new environment can add a lot of depth and interest to your story, even if you go with a 100% traditional vampire. Unlike zombies, vampires are intelligent, free-willed monsters, and letting them deal with the problems that arise in unusual situations can make for an engaging story. For example, in my story “Night Games,” I had a vampire playing baseball in the minor leagues. The questions I had to answer to make that plausible helped me structure the narrative. For example, how did the vampire avoid sunlight? He only plays night games. How does a vampire baseball player get the blood he needs without drawing attention? Minor league teams travel a lot, so he can spread his kills around. When a player finds out there’s a vampire on the other team, how does he deal with the monster? Wooden bats and inside fastballs. 🙂
4) Myth Management. One of the great things about vampires is just about every culture features some version of them in their myths and legends. The general idea is the same–a creature that rises from the dead to prey on the living–but other details can be wildly different. For example, in Chinese and certain Eastern European myths about vampires, the monsters can be distracted by throwing a handful of rice, seeds, grains, etc. in front of them. The vampire is compelled to stop and count the tiny objects, allowing its victim to get away, or, if there’s enough rice or seeds or whatever, keep them counting until the sun comes up. You can treat these details form various myths as kind of an ala carte menu of vampiric traits or simply choose one of the more obscure and horrifying examples of vampires and run with that. Take the penanggalan, a vampire-like creature from Malaysian mythology created by a dark ritual (see point 2) that allows the practitioner to detach their head and all their internal organs, which dangle beneath the disembodied noggin, float away and prey upon and drink the blood of the living. You don’t have to tinker with that concept much (or at all) to make it unique and terrifying.
As I mentioned, I’ve sold seven vampire stories to date, and most of them features some of the methods I discussed above. Here are some examples.
- Real Monsters: “Bites” published in Footsteps in the Dark by Flame Tree Press
- Creative Creation: “Second Bite” published at MetaStellar
- What Are You Doing Here? “Night Games” published at PseudoPod
For whatever reason, I’ve never used the myth management change-up in my vampire stories, though I’ve always admired authors that do that. Sounds like I need to write another vampire story. 🙂
So there you have it, four ways to give your vampire stories more, uh, bite and maybe convince an editor there’s still some (un)life left in vampire fiction.
Thoughts on writing and selling vampire stories? Tell me about it in the comments.
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 we’ll make it out of the slush pile and onto the editor’s desk, to say nothing of our chances of actually getting published. Then I remembered a few markets had actually told me how close I’d gotten to publication in their rejections, relating my near miss in terms of percentages. So let’s take a look at those rejections, use a little rejectomancy, and see what we can learn.
The first rejection is from Escape Pod, a fantastic sci-fi audio market.
[1] Thank you for sending [story title] to Escape Pod. Unfortunately, this story wasn’t a good fit for us. Choosing stories is a subjective process, and we have to reject many well-written stories. Please note that we do not accept revised stories, but we wish you the best in finding this one a good home, and we look forward to your next submission.
[2] Our Associate Editors enjoyed this story, and the Assistant Editors liked it enough to hold it for a second look, but ultimately the competition was too strong this month. About 5-7% of submissions reach this stage.
[3] This was a well-written story with a great setup, but we wanted the story to be set at a point when the narrator was still making decisions.
A nice little rejection that I’ve broken down into three sections. Let’s discuss each one.
[1] It’s not uncommon in close-but-no-cigar rejection to find the same boilerplate language you’d see in a form rejection. The reason for this is, I think, pretty simple. There’s certain information a publisher needs to relate to every author in every rejection, no matter how close the story actually gets to publication, and there’s no point in reinventing the wheel. That’s what we have here.
[2] Okay, now we’re getting to the good stuff. The editors relate some of how their selection process works. In addition to the info here, Benjamin C Kinney, a former assistant editor at Escape Pod, provided even more details on the selection process on his blog, here. What we’re looking at is three tiers of readers: associate editors, assistant editors, and then, finally, the co-editors (EICs?) of the publication. I don’t know if Escape Pod also employs first readers, but I assume so, as most markets this do. My story was rejected by the assistant editors, and as the rejection states, that’s roughly 5-7% of submissions. Not bad.
[3] As is common with this level of rejection, the editors provided a bit of specific feedback on my story. This is always exceedingly helpful. Even if you don’t end up using the feedback, it lets you know what the editors might want to see in a future story. So, when I submit another piece to Escape Pod, this piece of feedback will help me determine which story to send them.
Okay, the next rejection is from Flash Fiction Online, one of the premier markets for genre flash fiction.
[1] Thank you for considering Flash Fiction Online 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.
[2] 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.
[3] In winnowing, stories are discussed and vetted before I make my final selections. If you are interested in receiving feedback based on those discussions you are welcome to email me at [email]. Please use the following subject line: FEEDBACK REQUEST: [Story Title].
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. May the muse be ever by your side.
Like the rejection from Escape Pod, I’ve broken this rejection down into three parts. Let’s discuss them.
[1] Again, we see the boiler plate language here that relates important information regardless of the tier of rejection. I really love that they talk about turning away good stories. Every market does. They have to. There just isn’t enough space to publish all the stories they like. What’s great, though, is that when you do make it this far with a market like FFO, it’s pretty much a guarantee you’ve got a sellable piece on your hands. I’ve gone on to sell all the pieces FFO rejected at this stage, and I was able to submit those stories with greater confidence after FFO turned them down.
[2] The nitty-gritty details. FFO, like many of the big genre markets, as a multi-tiered selection process. I’m somewhat familiar with it as I’ve made it to this final stage a number of times. I know it begins with a team of first readers that choose stories from the slush pile for further evaluation. Then there are a number of rounds where the staff votes on their favorite stories (three, I think). Finally, the editor makes a decision on which stories get published. As noted above, about 5% of submitted stories make it to the final round. Again, that’s pretty good.
[3] Flash Fiction Online offers a very useful service to authors who make it to this final stage of the winnowing process. You can email the editor, and they’ll provide you with curated feedback from the staff when they were voting on stories. I’ve taken that offer once and received an excellent mix of praise and constructive feedback. I can say without reservation that that feedback and the revisions I made because of it helped me sell the story on the next submission.
With the above information in mind, what are the chances of getting published by these two markets? Even knowing the exact percentage of stories that make it to these final evaluation stages, all I can do is speculate. Duotrope and The Submission Grinder give us one more clue, though – the acceptance rate for each market. That’s roughly 3.5% for Flash Fiction Online and 3.0% for Escape Pod. Now, rejections are always underreported at both Duotrope and The Submission Grinder, which can inflate acceptance rates. My best guess is that both markets are closer to a one or two percent acceptance rate.
Of course, the burning question is how many submissions do these markets receive during their submission windows? I don’t know for sure, but we can look at another pro genre market, Diabolical Plots, that provides exact submission numbers for their submission window and draw some ballpark conclusions. In their last submission window, Diabolical Plots reported 1,451 submissions received. I’d guess Escape Pod and Flash Fiction Online receive a similar amount of submissions (maybe more, maybe less). If I put on my rejectomancy hat, I can surmise that roughly 75 stories reach the stage my story did with each publisher. I can then even more crudely guess that of those 75, maybe 20 to 25 stories actually go on to publication. I have no way to determine the accuracy of that statement, but it feels about right.
So, yeah, we’re looking at some long odds, but I think we all knew that, right? That shouldn’t dissuade you from submitting to these markets, though, and you should avoid thinking about acceptance percentages like gambling odds. It’s not really random. The right story has a 100% chance of getting published, and the more you write and submit to these markets, climbing up the rejection ranks and getting useful feedback, the closer you get to publication.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my little trip down the rejectomancy rabbit hole and that a look at my rejections provided you with some useful information. Thoughts on rejection percentages at these markets or others? I’d love to hear it in the comments.
The Monsters the Guidelines Forgot: Zombies
In this series of posts, I’m going to talk about writing and selling stories featuring classic monsters. You know, the ones you often find in publisher guidelines after the words “absolutely no”. It’s usually the big three—vampires, werewolves, and zombies—that make the do not send list, but other well-worn beasties show up as well. I’m not here to tell you not to write about these classic critters. On the contrary, I’ve had success selling stories featuring the big three, and I thought I’d share my thoughts on how I was able to do that.
Before we get started, a word of advice. If you do see a no vampires, zombies, werewolves, or [insert overused monster here] in a publisher’s submissions guidelines, don’t send them a story featuring the forbidden critter. It’s bad form and a guaranteed rejection. What I want to share in these posts are tips to win over the skeptical editor rather than try and change the mind of the decided one.
Finally, all this is only my (somewhat informed) opinion and what’s worked for me. My approach might not work for you, and that’s okay. There are certainly other ways to write new twists on classic monster stories than how I’ve done it.
Let’s kick off this series with everyone’s favorite animated corpses. Zombies might be the most maligned of the big three, which has much to do with the glut of zombie-related shows and movies. But how do you sell a zombie story? I’m here to tell you it is possible, and what follows are four ways tips that might make it possible to do so.
1) Original Origins. One of the easiest ways to keep a zombie story fresh is to come up with a novel origin for them. You can keep it in the natural world and change the biological mechanism that creates zombies, get more metaphysical with it and have the dead rise because of a supernatural event, or, hell, go sci-fi and make zombies the result of advanced technology. What’s great is that changing the origin of your zombies suggests other changes that’ll make the dead more unique. A great example of idea in action is the game/show The Last of Us. The cordyceps fungal infection introduced in The Last of Us not only offers a new origin for zombies, but it also changes just about everything about them: their appearance, how they hunt, and how the survivors must fight them. That’s the kind of thing that sells zombie stories.
2) Apocalyptic Adaptation. Generally, I don’t like to set my zombie stories during the apocalypse. In fact, I much prefer a partial apocalypse that’s been contained so I can explore how society might change in the wake of such an event. One of my favorite angles to take in that scenario is to think about how certain industries and professions would take advantage of a zombie outbreak. For example, how would the funeral industry adapt now that the dead walk? What services might they offer to help grieving families deal not just with a loved one that’s passed on, but a loved one that’s passed on and will become a flesh-eating monster? How about police work? If a murder victim can literally get up and shamble away, it could be hard to make a case. The self-defense industry? You could see a whole host of anti-zombie products hitting the market, from bite-proof clothing to, I don’t know, anti-zombie spray. The options are practically limitless and offer opportunities to introduce new protagonists, narrative styles, and conflicts into your zombie tale.
3) What Are Your Doing Here? You could call this a trope unto itself, but putting classic monsters in unexpected situations and environments is an easy way put a fresh spin on an old tale. This approach, of course, works for zombies, too. You could go historical with it. How would the Romans deal with a zombie plague? Vikings? Prehistoric humans? How would the mythology around zombies change in these historical settings? Location is another dial you can turn to add something unique to your zombie tale. Enclosed spaces like hospitals, prisons, and ships at sea that cut off any chance of escape create interesting avenues for story telling. New environments, too, can make for an interesting change, especially in how they might affect the zombies themselves. What happens to zombies in the arctic? Do they freeze solid? What about the jungle? Do they rot faster? As soon as you start asking the questions, the stories almost write themselves.
4) A New Challenger. Often in zombie media, the folks facing down the walking dead are drawn from what I like to think of as the usual suspects: active and former military, law enforcement, doctors, scientists, and, in general, people who already possess skills useful in battling and surviving the undead. But that’s just a tiny fraction of the people who would end up facing down a horde of walking corpses in a zombie apocalypse. People from every walk of life, and every size, shape, age, and disposition would also be affected. Those folks have stories, too, and you can alter the tone and direction of a story for the good just by choosing a protagonist that’s not usually featured in zombie narratives. As the POV changes, so do the challenges a character faces when dealing with the walking dead. That’s a recipe for a unique and compelling tale.
Of course, all the above suggestions don’t mean much without some evidence they can actually sell a story, right? So here are some of the zombie stories I’ve sold that use one or more of the narrative devices I listed. The first three are free to read online.
- Original Origins: “Where the Bodies Are Buried”
- Apocalyptic Adaptation: “Grave Concerns”
- What Are You Doing Here? “Far Shores and Ancient Graves.”
- A New Challenger: “Caroline”
To sum up, though zombie stories are a well trodden (shambled?) road, there are always paths you might take to craft something fresh . . . or at least a little less decayed. 🙂
Thoughts on writing and selling zombie stories? Tell me about it in the comments.
Query Quest: Postmortem
Last month, I marked the last outstanding query for my novel SECOND DAWN as closed, no response (CNR), ending my first trek through the deep, dark jungle of query land. It was a rough trip, but I learned a lot, and I will absolutely put those lessons into practice when I start querying my second novel in the next month or so. In this post, I’ll give you a quick recap of my querying stats and then talk about some of the things I learned.
As always, this entire post comes with the disclaimer that all of my conclusions are based on my individual experience with specific agents. I could be (and probably am) dead wrong with some of my conclusions. So take that into account before, you know, taking anything I say here to heart.
First, the numbers.
- Queries: 53
- Rejections: 35
- CNR: 18
- FMR: 3
I feel like that’s a solid first outing. I could continue querying, but to be honest, I was running out of agents that repped the kind of horror I write, and my last ten queries or so really felt like shots in the dark. I don’t think that’s a great way to go about getting an agent. Now, of course, there are agents who might be a good fit who just weren’t open when I was querying, but there’s a good chance I’ll hit them with my next novel.
In addition, there are things I need to improve and revise in SECOND DAWN if I want to have a real shot at selling it, so pulling it back and focusing on the next novel, HELL TO PLAY, seems like a reasonable thing to do. I plan to revise SECOND DAWN while I’m querying the new novel, and there’s a every chance I’ll query SECOND DAWN again if I don’t land an agent with HELL TO PLAY.
The Query Package
So what did those fifty-some queries teach me that I can use in my next foray into query land? I think a good place to start that examination is an honest, even blunt appraisal of my query package. What did I do well and what did I do, uh, not so well? Again, this is all based solely on my perception of things and the limited feedback I received from agents, but I feel fairly confident I’m in the ballpark with my conclusions.
The Good
- Query letter. I think my query letter was strong. I had good examples to draw on from authors I know who successfully engaged an agent, and I think the structure, the brief synopsis, and my bio were all good enough to get an agent’s attention. Keeping it, however, is an entirely different matter. 🙂
- Sample pages. There’s a caveat here, which I’ll get into in a second, but I believe my first three chapters were good, moved quickly, and set the stage for the rest of the novel. My premise was unique enough to intrigue and may have been the biggest factor in the three full manuscript requests I received.
The Not-So Good
- Synopsis. In my opinion, my synopsis was just kinda okay. It got the job done, but barely. It was too long, and I’m not sure it conveyed the strengths of my novel as well as it could have. Writing a good synopsis is tough, as any writer will tell you, but it’s one of those things that can make a break a query package. In short, a “just okay” synopsis is not good enough.
- Comps. My comps for SECOND DAWN were, like my synopsis, adequate at best. I really struggled to find ones that fit the subject matter or the tone. The ones I ended up with were in the ballpark, but they weren’t as good as they could have been. Again, I need to do better than “adequate” going forward.
What Did I Learn
With the strengths and weaknesses of my query package in mind, here are two broad, but I think important, takeaways from my querying experience. The operating word here is broad, so, please keep that in mind, especially with my first point about the two different types of agents.
A Tale of Two Agents
There seemed to be two types of agents I was querying that differed primarily in the type and amount of information they wanted in the query package. I should point out that neither of these types of agents is “doing it wrong.” Every agent wants the same thing you do: to sell a novel. The way they go about choosing which novels are sellable, though, can differ from agent to agent.
The first type of agent generally wanted a query letter, a full synopsis, a separate pitch, a list of books like mine (in addition to comps), and a description of the target audience for my book. The kicker here is that usually these agents don’t ask for much in the way of sample pages, generally no more than ten and often as few as five.
The second type of agent often only wanted a query letter (sometimes a synopsis, but noy always) BUT they want much more of the book, usually three chapters and as much as 50 pages. These agents did occasionally want a pitch or more comps, but less often than the first type. Hell, one agent I queried didn’t even really want a standard query letter, just pages.
Conclusion: Whether or not I hit or miss with the two types of agents described above is going to depend a lot on both the book I’m querying and the relative strengths of my query package. If I look at SECOND DAWN, it’s somewhat clear my query package was more suited to the second type of agent (that’s where my full manuscript requests came from). Why? Well, some of the weaknesses in the package aren’t as glaring when an agent doesn’t put as much stock in a synopsis or comps (or doesn’t even ask for them). Also, I don’t think my novel really shines as brightly in five to ten pages as it does in two or three chapters.
All that said, I want to have a good shot with both types of agents in my next go around, which means a) I need to shore up the weaknesses in my query package and b) I need to take a good hard look at at my first five to ten pages and make sure they’re as compelling as I can make them.
Ghost Town
Coming from a background of short fiction, I was a little caught off guard by the lack of response that’s absolutely standard when querying a novel. A full third of my queries and two of my full manuscript requests simply received no response. Some thoughts on that.
In the case of an initial query, I quickly got used to the idea that there was a good chance an agent simply would not respond, and that no response meant they were not interested. Most agents are very up front about this and state it openly and clearly in their guidelines. I’m fine with that. Agents get A LOT of queries, and it’s simply not possible for them to respond to all of them. Forewarned is forearmed in this case.
Now, when an agent requests your full manuscript, I think there’s more of an expectation you’ll receive some kind of response, even if it’s just a form letter. This is simply not the case, and looking at the stats on QueryTracker, a fair few agents have a low response rate to manuscript requests even if their response rate for general queries is good. Look, it’s hard not to get your hopes up when you get a full manuscript request, but the reality of the situation is that there’s a good chance you won’t hear anything back.
Conclusion: The closed, no response (CNR) is just a fact of querying life, and it’s something I can accept without much rancor. That said, I think there’s nothing wrong with following up with an agent, especially one who has requested your full manuscript, after a reasonable amount of time has passed. You shouldn’t expect a response there, either, but sending a brief status query is perfectly reasonable in my opinion, and if/when there’s no response, it feels, to me, safer to go ahead and move on.
Now, you might wonder if I would query the agents who did not respond to my queries or manuscript requests with my next novel. The answer is absolutely, especially the agents who requested full manuscripts. I think it would be foolish not to. Those agents saw something they liked in my work, and even if SECOND DAWN wasn’t a good fit for them, my next novel might be. It’s the proverbial foot in the door (okay, maybe just a toe), and there’s no way I’m not gonna see if I can’t boot that thing open. 🙂
As I said in the beginning of this post, my initial foray into querying was very educational. I learned a lot about the process, what agents are probably looking for, and what are the likely strengths and weaknesses of both SECOND DAWN and my writing in general. My plan going forward is simple: rely upon my strengths and shore up my weaknesses as best as I can.
I do feel I’ll be more successful with my next novel, HELL TO PLAY. Maybe I won’t land an agent, but I think I’ll put forward both a better query package and a better novel. I like my chances with that combo.
Thoughts about my query conclusions? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
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 