147-day personal rejection on a full request for a novella, complete with notes and an assurance there wasn’t anything wrong with the writing. Those are a real double-edged sword. On one hand, they’re about the best rejections to receive. On the other, it’s agonizing to come so close without success.
9-day form rejection from Discretionary Love. I’m a bit gutted as I thought this story was the best thing I’d written in a while and fitted the theme perfectly, plus Duotrope says they accept over 50% of submissions! But maybe I can get it published somewhere better.
Like many of you, I've had no success with my fiction. So, after finally finishing my very lengthy home remodeling projects, I decided to give my non-fiction writing a chance at publication. I found a publisher for two of my craft essays, and just last week got an acceptance of an article on why I like to do things with words. The really good news is that the editor is going to send me $!
Well, here's my last few rejections for the year of 2024. 92-day form from carte blanche, 52-day from Trollbreath, 65-day from foofaraw, and a 2-day from SmokeLong (they are always so quick). I also received two more agent rejections, including one with the nicest form letter I have ever seen. That makes it 241 rejections for the year. My goodness. Well, at least I tried, and though I didn't have much success, I did receive many encouraging personalized and higher-tier rejections. And I landed my highest-profile publication yet (though I've been waiting 2 months now since I signed the contract). Goals for next year are to continue writing and refining shorts, and submitting them to magazines. Because of course. And if I don't get some good news from an indie publisher for the latest novel soon, well, it's self-publishing time. Happy New Year to my fellow submitters. Best of luck to us all in 2025 !
Good question. I'd say... yes? If you were accepted the check date would be 2025 so the opposite should apply, too.
Already got a few rolling in for the new year. All form rejections. 26-day from The Cosmic Background, 40-day from khōréō magazine, and a 25-day from Chestnut Review. Toss in a pair of agent rejections, and we're off and running in 2025 with 5 rejections. Some better news though - I did get a notification that I've made it to the final 50 out of 765 submissions for a science fiction and fantasy anthology. Fingers crossed that I can get picked out of the shortlist as well.
I guess I have a but it’s a bit of a strange one. I submitted two stories to an anthology call, heard nothing but over the weekend I got an email saying it’s out soon and I can order a contributor copy! So I guess I got accepted, but no idea if it was just one story or both. I’ll have to email them. I wonder if it’s one of those places that just publishes everything they receive… the email says the anthology will feature 50 stories…
Okay they have replied and said they ‘try to be as inclusive as possible’ by accepting all the submissions they are sent . If I’d known that I wouldn’t have submitted, but it’s too late now as they seem to be already at the stage of publishing the anthology.
Hello, Fellow writer here and fellow multi-rejected author. I've really enjoyed this thread, so hope I can join in. It's been about 70 rejections since my last publication, and I'm already on rejection roll to start out the year...Just got my 8th rejection for the year. Sometimes I feel like Dori from Finding Nemo...Just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing. Can't wait to hit the lottery again and get a YES...In the meantime, tough to not get discouraged. Thanks for this thread.
The first publishing credit I received was for a place that was running a similar racket. They did offer either $25 or a contributor copy as compensation for being featured in their annual anthology. I chose the contributor copy and was shocked to see that there were something like 200 flash pieces included. It's over 400 pages. There's nothing obviously shady or unethical about this particular example, on the surface. You get paid, or you get a nice print anthology. Cool. But it didn't take me long to figure out their business model. They want to publish a bunch of people with the intention of having them freak out about being a "published writer," and ordering multiple print copies for their family & friends. I remember telling my dad, and he's like, oh, where can I buy a copy? I told him not to, and explained why.
Yeah I’d just rather my work was assessed on merit. But nothing I can do about this one now. There’s another publisher that publishes lots of anthologies and I’ve had every single story I’ve submitted to them accepted. I’m starting to worry that they might be the same. How would I know? They do pay royalties although I’ve not seen much from them yet! I don’t know if I should stop submitting to them. They give me a lot of opportunities, but if everything is accepted then I’m not sure I want to keep being published by them. They do accept my stories very quickly after each call ends… but I do at least get acceptance emails from them. And a contract. I didn’t from this other one.
