I just looked up how much I've spent on reading fees this year. Duotrope tracks this stuff. I've spent about $250 for the year. I've made 116 submissions. There are some contests thrown in with that amount. I think I entered two contests that were $20 to enter. Didn't win those, but I have made enough where I think the submissions fees I've paid overall were worth it. I just simply would not have sold a story to one of my favorite publications if I was flat out against reading fees. I think it's a personal choice. And I think, as always, it's important to be familiar with where you are submitting. For me, it's just sort of become a cost of doing business.
That maybe true for literary focused publishers, i don't know, its not a market i deal with. I have read some articles about publishers who are more scam than publisher, in the way the charge a variety of fees to authors. More and more I am leaning towards the self publishing route. Each author must choose which route is best for themselves, I won't say one route is better than the other. But I would strongly encourage people to do their own research on any company they deal with.
Yes, knowing where you are sending your work is the most important part of the submission process whether there is a reading fee or not.
$10 is not that much. I'm not sure where you paid for this feedback, but thinking about it I might pay $10 to know what The Paris Review or some other of my favorites thought of my story even it is was just to know what they liked. I can see that even being beneficial if it's a place you really want to break in. It also means they read your submission all the way through which is not always the case. Still, I think most places don't offer this because editors have (or should have) better things to do with their time. But when it comes to the feedback you got maybe there wasn't really much if anything wrong with your stories. Maybe they really just weren't what they were looking for at the time or the competition was pretty fierce and that was a big part of it.
I did get feedback from an editor once who said "someone will publish this story." I didn't pay for this feedback, but it was both encouraging and frustrating. I was like, why aren't you going to publish it then? But, of course, I didn't respond saying that or respond at all. I had not sold any fiction at this point and really wanted to know what I was doing wrong. It took years of writing and submitting for me to sell anything even following this little comment. And that particular story never sold. However, it was the story I used as my writing sample that got me into a good MFA program. I think positive feedback can be just as frustrating as negative feedback. But even the best editors are just one person's option. @Woodstock Writer -- I think you should let the positive things they said give you a boost of confidence and keep sending those stories out. Also, keep writing more stories. If you've got some good things in these stories, you'll have good things in future stories.
For me, it has never been just about publishing. Rather it's about publishing in certain publications that I love and admire. And it's also about what those publishing credits mean in the industry. This is my career, and I want my credits to be career builders. When I list my prior publications in a cover letter, I know the places I am submitting have some familiarity with the other places I have published. I don't think that alone will ever sell a piece, but it just might help me get out of the slush or make the editors or readers give it serious thought or read the whole damn story to the end. Most of the time most of what I write is rejected. It's taken me a long time to be okay with that. And I'm not going to lie, it's still very frustrating and rejection sucks. I received over 400 rejections before my first sale. But that first sale was a big one, and all the rejection that came before it was instantly well worth it. And I get a lot of rejections in between the few sales I make, but then it feels all worth it again when I do have a touch of success. I don't think self publishing is really inline with my career goals. Big publications have big readerships. I've been contacted by an agent who read a short story of mine in a well-known publication. I've been invited and paid to speak at universities because of where I have published. And I also received a grant this year (will be paid in 2024). I just know none of those things would have happened if I self published. I don't think self publishing because a writer is frustrated with the market is necessarily a good idea. I mean is it really a backup plan or are there better reasons to self publish when we're talking about short fiction in particular? My backup plan has always been to write better stories and submit those. This is not easy, but it's not supposed to be easy. @w. bogart -- Are you thinking of self publishing short stories? I will admit I have never read anything that's self published. I mean the quality of some stuff might be great, but the reach is definitely limited.
My focus is on novels, not shorts. Though, I have been considering doing more with shorts, based on what I am seeing in "The Wandering Inn" series. The author uses shorts with in the novels to good effect, showing different aspects of the world. I am considering self publishing for my work. I have more polishing to do, and more writing for books 2 and 3 of the trilogy. Which gives me time to continue my research, there is a better profit margin vs trad publishing. But the down side is you have to do all your own marketing. I am not sure I am up for that challenge, so I need to figure that aspect out to see if it is worth it. Like most everything in life it is a trade off.
Just wanted to let some of you submitters know about some upcoming submission deadlines that I follow. If you've got a story ready, these places are worth checking out before the submission season ends. Hope you're all writing great things and wish all of you much success. Closing Dec. 15: Copper Nickle Agni Southern Indiana Review Epiphany Closing Dec. 31: American Short Fiction Five Points Swamp Pink Cincinnati Review Ninth Letter Granta
Thank you! Actually this place hasn’t rejected them yet. They said I would hear back by mid-December. So soon, I guess. It’s a competition, though, so I’m not expecting to win, despite the positive feedback. Although, saying that, last night I had a - I’ve won second place in a Writing Magazine competition with one of my stories, so I win £50 and it will be published online with judges’ comments. Writing Magazine seem to like my writing- they do charge submission fees, but I’ve won second place twice now, plus been shortlisted a bunch of times. And I do subscribe to them so I read the stories every month and have a good idea of what they like.
Weird! I collected a couple more rejections from ancient novel submissions I made in the spring, direct to presses. Two weeks ago I received a possible semi-personal rejection with a "submit again" message from Avon Books after freaking 233 days. Just now I got another rejection, definitely form, from Android Press after 263 days. That's a long-ass time when they're saying 2-3 months, but I guess that's because of all the AI fraud submissions creating a big backlog. Anyway, up to 114 for the year now. I guess, don't completely lose hope on your massively overdue submissions. You just might get rejected a little later than expected.
Two 19-day form rejections from Writer’s Advice Micro Contest. Interesting timing as the same day I heard from another publication that one of those stories had advanced to their second round of reviews. They also said not to submit it elsewhere until I hear back from them, and that if it’s submitted anywhere else, to give them first refusal or withdraw it from them. Apparently their guidelines had not been clear originally that they didn’t want simultaneous submissions. Luckily it’s not out anywhere else. I really want to make this one as I get $100 if they publish it (and it’s very short, so that’s a really good rate), but I don’t hold out much hope!
I confess I kinda fell out of love with the counting business about 5 rejections ago, which I haven't even logged here. Temporary thing, just finding it hard to give much of a shit about anything much and looking forward to parting company with 2023. Roll on 2024, gotta be better. I thought I'd mention today's rejection for a story submitted 8th December, status changed to In Progress today at 6.51 pm and declined at 6.57pm. Now that's how to make an impression!!
How many places do you submit a single story to at one time? (just curious). I originally had 1.... and I've since brought the places I want to submit this story to 5. How many is excessive?? on the plus side, I'm getting a jump on the rejections for 2024 (since i'd be submitting for the 2024 publishing year). I lost count of what I ended up with for this year, but I can tell you, @deadrats and @Set2Stun have beaten me
How many stories I submit to different places all depends. Sometimes it's one place. Sometimes it's ten places. My best story that's pretty new is out at at least ten places right now. I basically sent it to all the places I really want to publish it while their submission windows were open during the tail end of the fall submission season. I also sent it to The New Yorker and some other big places while I was at it. I also gave a few of my other stories another pass and got them in better shape and sent those to a few places I hadn't tried that are on my list. I've currently got 44 submissions out in total that I likely won't hear back from until next year. @J.T. Woody -- I don't think you can be excessive about submitting. If you've got a good story, why not send it to all the places you want to publish? Just make sure you're sending it to places you would be excited to have it accepted. Send it out to your top tier places. And I think it's perfectly fine to cast a wide net. I mean that's sort of the idea behind the 100 rejections thing. If I'm sending one story to my top maybe 20 publications, either I'll make a big sale or I'll get a lot of rejections out of it. So, if I'm aiming for rejections anyway, well, it's then all sort of a win. My acceptance rate for the year is 1%. And I'm pretty stoked about that. It was from a submission I made, expecting a rejection. And that story was out at quite a few other places. It's easy enough to withdraw a story from the other places if it gets accepted somewhere.
I had to go to Duotrope and find out immediately! Looks like I submitted my oldest stories about 8-12 times before leaving 'em be. The high mark is 13 different places. I'm not abandoning any that have received personal rejections. For now, anyway. I should probably try going back to them and touching them up, because one acceptance was rejected 11 times first. Speaking of which, it's been like 2 months since they contacted me to say that they'd be sending along the contract and information re: editing. Is it high time that I give them a nudge? I did reply with a quick "thank you, look forward to hearing from you" email within a few days, but haven't heard back. For the newer stories that I think are pretty good, I've only sent out 2-5 submissions. I'll be changing that in the new year - I am going to review and revise all of them and go on a bit of a spree in January.
I think I'm about ready to call it. I only managed to get 98 out of the 100 rejections I have spent the last year trying to collect. The thing is that I would have made it, only I sold a story. To me, that made it worth it. But I now know how much effort and planning I need to collect those rejections. Like I know I can count on two rejections from The New Yorker a year so I can't forget about submitting to The New Yorker. Or wherever. The idea, I think this sort of shift in mindset, can really make a writer try harder in terms of both producing and submitting work. At least that's how it worked for me. Like writing new stories for The First Line. And then reworking that story after The First Line rejected it. New story to try with my favorite places that have rejected me consistently for years. But then sometimes they don't or maybe they won't this time. It might take me more stories and more tries than other writers. So, I'm going to try harder in 2024 to reach 100 rejections within the calendar year of 2024. For me, I think a lot of it is going to be having another story ready to send shortly after one is rejected if I can. I need to write more so that these publications have new things to reject from me. I also read a lot because I want to know what today's literary landscape looks like and see what my competition is doing. Off topic (sort of), the new Pushcart Prize is out for 2024. Here's a link to the essay behind this idea trying to get 100 rejections in a calendar year for anyone who wants to give it a shot, or it's worth reading anyway just if you're curious. https://lithub.com/why-you-should-aim-for-100-rejections-a-year/
I consider 98 rejections to be a huge success! The rejection collection was an excellent initiative., and I am happy that you shared the concept with the forum. As the article mentions, aiming for 100 rejections kinda changes the mindset of the submitter. It switches the fear and disappointment of receiving rejections to appreciating and celebrating the efforts of a writer seeking publication. And we need that to keep going when the odds of being published are so, so low. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. My plans are to begin 2024 with a big ole round of submissions, knowing that probably all of them will be rejected. I say, make 100 rejections your New Year's Resolution !
As I've mentioned before, the counting business lost its allure some time ago, though more to do with real life than writing-based stuff. The exercise has been useful, forced a bit more cohesion in the submission process, leading to more time spent looking at different journals, reading what they've published and only sending where it looks like my piece might be a fit. No more will I send out surreal dreamlike to an outfit that wants joyful with bunnies! On that note, I got this morning about an hour after sending. It's a flash piece and non-paying, but I knew that when sending it and it strikes me as a cool project that I'm glad to be a contributor.
