Working as a freelance writer certainly has it’s challenges, but what’s made me an expert at hitting deadlines and producing work to order was the years I worked as an in-house staff writer and editor for a couple of gaming companies. My first gig… Continue Reading “Three Things I Learned as a Staff Writer/Editor”
Back in 2023, I received my 500th rejection since I started tracking submissions through Duotrope. I’m closing in on 700 now, but that first five hundred was an important milestone. Despite the mountain of no’s, it felt like a real achievement, a rite of… Continue Reading “Three Things I Learned from 500 Rejections”
I’m in a reflective mood, so let’s look back at my twenty-plus-year writing career and talk about one of my favorite projects. This is another D&D adventure, and while I wrote a fair number of those while I was working in the gaming industry,… Continue Reading “Aeryn’s Archives: Tomb of the Blind God”
Another month in the books; let’s see how I did with submissions, acceptances, and, of course, rejections. October 2024 Short Story Submissions I only managed 6 submissions in October, partly because I’ve been so focused on revising my novel and partly because I’m trying… Continue Reading “Submission Statement: October 2024”
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, mostly because I just haven’t been as active with short story submissions as I used to be. Well, that’s changed in recent months, so it’s time to return to my monthly updates and share… Continue Reading “Submission Statement: August 2024”
One of my favorite rejectomantic topics is acceptance rates. I’ve picked apart my own for nearly a decade, overanalyzing them in an attempt to understand the whims and vagaries of the publishing industry. What have I learned? Not much, honestly, but, fuck it, let’s… Continue Reading “Overanalyzing Story Acceptance Rates Part 271 – Rates By Market Tier”
Editorial feedback on a rejection is as varied as editorial tastes, and how an editor chooses to relate something like “close-but-no-cigar” to an author can be radically different from market to market. A recent discussion about a comment I received a while back got… Continue Reading “Rejection Feedback – Inspiring, Informative, or Insensitive?”