I should be so lucky to have to withdraw this story to all other places I send it. I would be very lucky to sell one story in a year to the places I'm thinking of. It's also not like I don't have a bunch of other stories out on submission already. I'm going to do it. It's sort of like an experiment. Am I more likely to sell this story or sell it quicker offering it to all my top picks at once? I do know these journals so I'm not sending my story out blindly. I'll aim for 30 submission and report back. I hope the new submission season brings new opportunities for us all. Happy writing and subbing, my friends.
I would be afraid of losing the option of tweaking my story. Even years after I think I've finished a story, I'll get an idea for an improvement.
I always try to do all my tweaks and improvements before submitting. Sure, there's always going to be things I think about after the fact. But when I submit it's the best I can do at that time. At some point you've got to say it's good enough or you might never end up submitting anything. And I'm not likely to rework a story after a few rejections or even after several rejections. There have been a few exceptions, but most of my effort goes into writing new stories, better stories. I do feel like my latest story is some of my strongest work. So, I am going to test this out and send it to 30 or so of my top places and see what happens. Normally, I seem to just shuffle around what I am sending where. Sending the same story to these 30 different publications might take years if I sent it in batches. These are the top places I want to publish so we'll see how this little experiment goes. Also, once a story is accepted there is often some intense editing that goes on with you and the editor prior to publication. The version you submit is not likely to be printed as is. I'll be working with an editor soon on a story I just sold. I thought that story was pretty damn near perfect, but I'm willing to do whatever the editor wants, though, I can't imagine too much editing is needed there. We'll see. I will still be sending out different genre stories to different genre publications. My main focus are the literary journals and magazines. There might be a few themed issues I will send different stories to or write new stories to submit to them.
It makes sense to me, I’ve only ever sent to a small handful at a time but very few places give feedback these days that there’s little chance of something coming back that makes you want to revise it and send it out again, I would imagine.
After years of querying and failing to get an agent I’ve just had an offer from a small press for my first book! A few hurdles yet to jump but perhaps finally I’m starting this writing career I want.
A bit of advice from a Master. Writing Advice from Neil Gaiman, on how he turned rejections into acceptance.
A 5-day form rejection from Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors Anthology. 2023 rejection count: 83
2-day form from Flash Frog and a 20-day personal from Bullet Points. Guess my dialogue stories aren't for everyone. "Great (alternate) history tale, but it was too dialog-heavy for my taste" Welp. That makes it 99 baby. I went on a spree a couple days ago, so it won't be long now
Hey rejection friends -- Gotham is doing free write-ins over zoom this weekend. I've done some before and I think they're pretty cool. The instructor gives a prompt and then everyone writes for about an hour and then if people want to, they can read what they wrote. So, if you want to try writing a cool story in an hour, this might be something fun to try. Gotham classes are not cheap, but IMO they are worth it. These write-ins aren't classes, but I think it's great that they offers these from time to time. And the prompts have been always been interesting when I've done them. You do have to sign up ahead of time, and you can only sign up for one time slot. I just wanted to share this with you guys since a lot of us here love the short form. And maybe this prompt could be just what you need to give you that push into writing a really awesome story. I also think these are fun.
A 164-day personal rejection from The Molotov Cocktail. #24 for the year (and #22 for that story overall).
71 "I thought there was a lot to like about it [lists characters and pace as examples], but I'm afraid I didn't love it enough to take it on"
Well, I did it. Knew it was coming soon. 3-day form letter rejections from Smokelong Quarterly and Cast of Wonders. Each rejection was for my very favourite flash fiction piece, which no one seems to want to buy. It's been rejected 8 times now, but I do have 4 more live ones out there (for now). I have received 101 rejections in the year 2023 thus far. Still got another quarter to go. Will anyone say yes?
I know it's not really a contest, but... we have a winner! Seriously, though, good on you for putting in all the work needed to get here. It's going to pay off! And now I need to put some more submissions in this weekend, because I am waaaaay behind. Can't lose (or win!) if you don't play.
And just to bump my numbers up... a few weeks ago, I auditioned for a new improv show at a local theater but didn't even get a callback, just a form email. Oh well. But tonight I ran into the casting director at another show, and she gushed over how good I had been and how hard it is to make those decisions based on what they need for a particular show, etc. Yay! That made me feel a lot better. Gotta love a good, encouraging personal rejection.
