I've been hit by a series of rejections over the last few days so I guess I'm living up to the thread title anyway.
It's always nice to have you back. Sorry about the swarm of rejections. I think a lot of places are cleaning house or trying to stay on top of the new submission periods. If you've got good stories, keep subtitling them. Now is the time to do it. Some places close at the end of the month. Others will be just opening. Message me if you want any help with where to submit. But you're putting it out there. You're taking that last step you can every time you submit. I'm trying to finish a few things in time for some submission deadlines. I think I sent out 25 submissions this month. It sucks to know all 25 of those submissions could be rejected. So, I've got a few new stories and want to try and submit them 25 times next month. I read this essay where this girl said you should try to get 100 rejections in a year. It's not easy. in fact it was when I was trying to do that I started selling my fiction, if I remember correctly. Another thing that helped me is that I made myself send out at least one submission every week. If I'm doing one, I'll usually end up doing a few. I still want to do that, but I'm slacking and writing and struggling with life. It sounds like I just gave you my excuses for failure. LOL. Hope you're doing well minus the rejections.
Thanks deadrats, I need to make more of an effort to be active here/actively be writing stories but my life over the last year has just been crazy busy with other commitments. I'm heading into a series of exams right now which are very difficult but after that I will have a lot more time to devote to the writing thankfully. I try to rebound with every rejection and submit it somewhere else, I have a few idea of some national journals I'd like to submit to so I'll probably try those, and if they reject them (which they probably will), I'll look across the pond haha. 25 submissions in one month is an incredible rate of progress though, and with each +1 you are increasing your chance of being accepted for publication. If you have anything you think is particularly promising - I probably wouldn't be able to proofread anything for the next few weeks mind, - but if you have any story you are particularly proud of, I'd love to read it. Although my email is different to the one I used previously so you'll have to PM me for it. I think I read that same essay too -- I think any number is sort of arbitrary, I think aiming for one submission a week is probably a fairer goal on oneself, at least to begin with. (I'm also trying to increase the amount I read as well, especially short story collections.) I would say the more committed to it you are however, the more efficient you become. These habits have a way of increasing productivity exponentially. Everyone in this thread knows that this is a difficult industry fraught with rejection, self-doubt, uncertainty and the need to motivate oneself so don't worry, I think we can all relate haha I was thinking a cool thing we could do in this thread would be to link short stories we are reading every so often? Or mention what we are reading at the present moment. That will hopefully help us all branch out from what we usually read/might inspire/motivate us a little/will give us more to discuss. Actively reading is so conducive to writing, I think it's a good idea.
@Funerary -- A really good book to check out is called Object Lessons. It was put out by The Paris Review a few years ago. At the time it came out they were saying something like it's the only MFA you need. It's got some great stories in it by the big known writers and then each story is followed by an essay on it by a contemporary successful short story writer. This book is amazing and really helped me. If you've only got a few good stories, send them to multiple places at once (as long as they allow that which most literary journals do. Genre publications can be different). Those 25 submissions I made were for about three or four stories. One of them was sent to a place that doesn't take simultaneous submissions. What I think is by best story was sent to 10 places. I will continue to submit that story before I've heard from all 10. If you think of it in terms of keeping stuff out there rather than waiting for responses, it helps. Every time I'm rejected from The New Yorker, I send them a new story. There are places where I always want to have a story on submission. A lot of the big ones are opened year round. I will confess that there is one submission I'm waiting on. It's been out at this place a really long time and I was notified that it's made it to the final round of consideration. That story is still on submission at other places, but I haven't sent it out again since getting that email. I recently got a similar notification for a different story at another place, but then the story was rejected. So, it's hard even when we make it pretty far. I would love to have you read something if you have time. I don't share links to my published stuff on the forum, but I just had something published if you want to give it a read. I'll message you. Of course, life takes over and writing and publishing aren't always important or something center in our lives. I get that. You've got to focus on what's important at the time. I did post a short list with links to a few of the places that reopened their submissions this month. It's not a full list, but it's places I planned to submit to and I think I hit most of them. It's in this thread a few pages back. But I'm always happy to help you find places to submit whenever you have time. Okay, I'm going to message you. Again, glad to have you back.
If you read it, I would love to hear what you think of it. Message me after you read it and we can discuss. I think something like this is so much better than any book on writing. This is learning in a different way and on a different level. Everyone here should read it and then we could have a group discussion on it. I think it would be interesting to hear each of your takeaways. I found the book to be more of a learning experience than any other book on writing. I think I'm going to read it again now, especially if any of you are up for a discussion on it.
Posted the snowball in hell to N Yorker...now I shall relax a moment and post it a second time - to 'InternetStorie' or 'NewReadingInternationall,' oh The Bangalore Review, again.
Hmm, I haven't got so much in the 'pipe.' ... - I sent the 'sexy one' away to two obscure US colleges...really, I think they are? I read the story again today, furtively - and it is okay, I am confident. Anticipating 'bidding war.' -Dog story - I was waiting on Granta - so, so I did that trick where you ask them, and umm, yes, no. BUT subsequently I did a lot of work on it, and sent it to NYer, umm, kneejerk-jerk -BUT THEN did some more work on it, and sent it to the big mag number 2, and then disguised as an 'essay' to big mag 3 - didn't tick the 'simultaneous' box - technically a criminal move. -Sulking away from blog, and starting a new job in the morning for new material, obvs. ... 'Bangalore' is all over Submittable...I sent them 'Nazi story.' Thinking Nazis possibly still relevant in their literary circles, y'know not old hogwash/a here we go again...
Ha, I thought the Bangalore Review was a joke on your part, Mat; I suppose, considering the obscurity of some of the names they use I should have know it was a real magazine.
Well I thought it might be ravver shrewd tapping the sub-continent considering my reach presently is akin to Cold War ‘numbers station’
Youth Imagination magazine. In their November issue. Please don’t tell me they are rubbish or they accept everything they receive! I think I would cry.
Well I wouldn't anyway but since I've never heard of them I have nothing to say about them. Mind you I don't know so much about the literary magazine business so my opinion isn't worth much in this area. DR and Mat are the ones to ask here about that.
It’s a YA online magazine. I write mostly YA and there’s not that many places that cater to it, it seems.
Do you write YA short stories? YA in general, as in novel form, has been popular for a long time now but I don't hear much about the short format.
