I keep having to go back and see where I last left off. Actually, getting 100 rejections within a calendar year is quite a bit more challenging than I thought it would be. I'm close, but I still need 7, and, according to Duotrope, there aren't 7 places I'm likely to get responses from by the end of the year, but sometimes it's hard to tell with these things. You're probably right around where I am. I know you were really putting yourself out there. Is this the same query you were working on when I read it? If you want me to take a look or even if it's a different query, I'm happy to do so. Just let me know. I know how frustrating this process can be, but you only need 1 yes to change everything. @Set2Stun is definitely the winner of the 100-rejections-in-a-year challenge. And then going past that and pulling out with a few publication there at the end. The year is not over yet. my friends. But I feel like it has been a little slower around here. I could be wrong about that, though. Isn't it just crazy how much rejection writers really go through? My acceptance rate is at 0.9% for the year. That really does mean that I probably need to make more than 100 submissions to even have a shot. I don't buy into the stats too much, but I'm also aware the odds are not in my favor. For some reason, I seem to have a lot of perseverance, as do many of you. What's wrong with us? LOL.
An almost exactly six-month rejection from Calliope Interactive kinda teetering on the line between high-tier form and personal.
I haven't submitted anything since Sept. 5, but I got a couple more that trickled in over the past couple weeks. Just form letters, though. Boo hiss ! A 62-day rejection from Factor Four and a 127-day rejection from FreeFall Magazine. That's 112 for the year. I should do some more submissions soon.
Apropos of nothing, have I mentioned that I recently started my own literary journal? It's highly exclusive - there's a 100% rejection rate. And with a guaranteed turnaround time of only a day or two (soon to be faster once I automate it!), it's perfect for those end-of-year submissions. Just PM me your work and a perfectly reasonable, industry-standard $3 submission fee, and I'll take care of the rest!
I'm really trying. It's kind of a gamble at this point. I made 33 submissions in just the month of November, but most of those I'm not likely to get a responses from by the end of the year. I do have some older submissions out as well, but it's kind of hard to tell what's going on with those. Year to date I've made 115 submission. I will say that all this rejection is worth it. It's worth it for the one story I sold this year to one of my dream publications. If I need to get 100 rejections to get into places like that, I'll keep racking up those rejections anytime.
Form rejection from Inscape a month post deadline. Not sure how many that is. Not 100. Edit: Duotrope did the math for me. 108 days post-submission.
Every time I say it's been a little quiet it seems to bring some rejection my way. I've got some older submission out that I could hear about any day now. One of them is well over a year at this point. I've thought about querying this one, but that never seems to work out for me. And, of course, I would much rather have my story accepted than have it just add to my rejection count. So, we shall see if posting about not getting response generates some responses.
I entered a competition with an entry fee the other day as I had two pieces that fit the brief (you were allowed to submit two) and decided to pay extra for feedback since I really want to get these stories published and they’ve already been rejected from a few places. The feedback really wasn’t very helpful though, just a few lines on the bits they liked and the only suggestion to improve was to not underline my title! What a waste of money.
That sucks, but it's kind of what I would expect from paying a publication for feedback. I think it's a bad practice. And I don't really see this as beneficial for a writer. I've never paid for feedback, but I have received a number of personal rejections that have included feedback from the editor. I don't believe any of it has been all that helpful. The publications that reject me simply have stories the editors think are better than mine. I accept that's their call, but I try not to put too much weight into that. I know we all want to know why are stories get rejected and exactly what we need to do to see them in print. Again, I truly believe this goes back to their other options. But it wouldn't really work for the editors to say that to writers paying for feedback. In general, I've sort of given up on thinking feedback is all that useful to me in general. When I did my MFA I got so much feedback on my stories and I did learn from that. But that sort of feedback is pretty extensive. And I think value in feedback is directly linked to where it is coming from. Post MFA I've traded stories and such. Sometimes it can be helpful, but I trust myself more as a writer now than I did in the past. And I tend to trust my gut as to when something is working and when it's not. I also know now how important revision is to my process and I've learned to be quite critical of my own work. I can say for certain that the reason your stories were rejected had nothing to do with an underlined title. That seems like a major copout on their part, and I would be pretty upset if that was what the editor's suggestion was for improving my story if I had paid them for feedback. I mean that's just ridiculous and not really feedback. I'm curious how much you paid for this service if you're willing to share.
Yeah I don’t think I’ll pay for feedback again. It was $10 for feedback for the two stories (together, not each).
A publusher charging to read your work? That sounds like a serious scam. I could see paying a professional editor for their time, or a beta reader from a gig work site. But that is more a business investment. Any publisher that wants to charge me a reading fee, is a publisher that I won't deal with, and will recommend others to avoid.
Well, they are professional editor at a publication, and ideally they would have more insight into the current literary journal scene than someone you would find of a gig work site. Personally, I wouldn't pay for either of those things. As for reading fees, I would say the majority of literary journals do now charge a submission fee. It's usually around $3. I spend quite a bit on these fees, but selling one story can cover this and then some. When I first started submitting many years ago not many places had this fee. But that's changed. However, now most places use submittable or something similar sort of making the whole submission process much easier. I don't think reading fees are a big deal. But I certainly wouldn't pay a reading fee to a place I wasn't familiar with or didn't really want to publish my work. This is more of a literary journal thing. It's not all of them, but I would say it's most of them when it comes to where I submit. You don't really see this with genre mags. But either way, paying a small fee to submit is not a scam. It's more of an industry norm.
