First of this year, nicely worded with invitation for future submission, but still form rejection after 57 days from époque ezine.
43 day form rejection (though it must be said they have the most encouraging form rejections) from Northern Gravy
It appeared today. It counts. Not your fault the publisher is delinquent, unappreciative, short-sighted, and due to deeply regret rejecting your story.
It totally counts. It's about getting 100 rejections in the year. It doesn't matter when they were sent. I mean some places just take forever. I have two submissions that have been out over a year. I'll be able to count those when they come in. Congratulations for getting the first one of the year out of the way!
Hey fellow submitters -- I just wanted to make sure you guys were aware of some places that will be closing their submission windows soon. Ploughshares closes on 1/15. This publication in probably one of the best, IMO. I've been a reader of this journal for a long time. I would say they are highly focused on language and everything they publish is just kind of beautiful. If you've got a way with words that is lyrical, effortless, and quite stunning, they are definitely worth a try. I also recommend them from a reader's standpoint. I don't know what the pay is, but I do know it's competitive. Flash Fiction Online closes on 1/21. I think they pay something like $50-$100 for a piece of flash. They are also probably the most well know flash fiction publication so not the easiest to break into. But with no submission fee it's definitely worth a shot if you've got something short that's ready for submission. The Paris Review closes for poetry on 1/31. I think everyone is probably familiar with The Paris Review. They are currently only open to poetry submissions. There are also some contests ending this month. I know these contests come with a submission fee. But every now and then I like to take a chance on myself. I have only entered one of these contests listed, but if money wasn't a factor, I would try all of them. Craft contest closes 1/14. The Masters Review Short Story Award for New Writers closes 1/28. The Kenyon Review contest closes 1/30. The Iowa Review contest closes 1/31. Swamp Pink contest closes 1/31. American Short Fiction shorter fiction contest closes 2/1.
I got an email about a submission I sent to Fterota Logia, saying they are on hiatus this year. Do I count that as a rejection? I see two other people have recorded rejections from them yesterday, so I guess so…
Sigh. The more I read this thread, the more dejected I become. The best advice I can give about this is something I tried for myself: create a spreadsheet and keep track of all your submissions, i.e. what you submitted, to whom, when, and how (e.g which email). Then wait. It may be an exercise in frustration, or it may simply be a way to distract yourself, but at least you're keeping track of who you submitted your work to, and how long it's been. If so-and-so says explicitly, in writing, "We'll get back to you in 3 months" ... hold them to it. When the 3-month limit arrives, maybe give them a week's grace. But when that week is up, and if there's no word ... follow up. You know the form: a nice little email to say "Just following up. I haven't heard from you. Is there anything else you need?" Something like that. (Of course, the worst thing you can do is bang on the table and send an email that says "You @*&%@ers!!!" etc. That won't help at all. But to relieve frustration, may I suggest, maybe ... a punching bag? A walk around the block at dusk? Maybe a nice cup of tea or hot chocolate, that always helps me).
My initial reaction wasn't dissimilar to yours but have found there is a collegiate support on offer here, as well as a stubborn refusal to yield. There's also occasions of more specific responses and tips that can be helpful, plus sometimes identifying markets of which you might otherwise be unaware. Sharing a load can lighten everyone's burden.
I think, as the community of the rejection thread, we have created a wealth of knowledge for current and future submitters. Here we log real-time rejections to the places we submit, including how long it took to get those rejections and where they came from. It's also a look into where our group here is sending our work. I started this thread when publishing short fiction seemed impossible regardless of how hard I was trying. That somehow organically led to logging my rejections which others started to do as well. And, here, we celebrate these rejections. This is hard, but, also, it's not supposed to be easy. There's a lot of competition. But with every submission we make we our putting our best efforts out there. And I also think, at least for me, that this makes us write more stories, giving us more to submit. And in the end writing more stories is just going to help us improve as writer. It took me years and over 400 rejections to sell a short story. Then it happened at a publication I never thought in my life would be my first publication. And I would say the rejection leading up to that was all worth it and also something I think I needed to go through as a writer. I needed to try harder. I needed to write better stories. I needed all that rejection to help me evaluate my work and improve along the way. I'm also comfortable with the idea that this isn't easy and that I do still need to keep pushing myself as a writer and trying harder. Just so you know a is our indicator that we've had a piece accepted. They might not appear all that often, but it does happen. I don't think those would show up at all without all the rejections. You might want to look into Duotrope. It's a way to log everything with some extras like expected response times, actual response times, rejection-acceptance ratios, and how popular a place is amongst submitters. You can also see where else people have submitted the same story and where else people who have been accepted have also sold their work. It's also a searchable database of markets and includes some editor interview. There are even more features. I have been using Duotrope since 2012, and I highly recommend it. It does cost $50 a year, but it makes life a lot easier, IMO. I've changed my opinion back and forth on this many times, but the truth is I am more against following up than just waiting. When work is being seriously considered it takes longer, sometimes much longer. I know, for sure, this can be very frustrating, but are we really in a hurry to get rejected? Publications are going to let you know when they want your story. And sometimes they can like a piece, but they're not sure. A query isn't going to speed up their process. But I do feel like, in my experience, following up after a good amount of time has passed might actually have hurt me more than helped me. The most I've ever gotten was the story was still under consideration. And maybe my nudge, if anything, resulted in a quicker rejection. Most publications use some type of online submission manager where it is easy enough to logon and see the status of your submission whether that's "in-progress" or "received"or whatever. No place is going to rush their process for you other than maybe a quicker rejection if they are annoyed by you. I've got one submission that's been out for well over a year. Sounds crazy, right? But if I check this publisher's stats on Duotrope, the less than 0.5% of acceptances have come close to the two-year mark. And if I check their submission manager, my story is "in-progress." There really isn't a benefit to me sending any sort of followup, even if I have to fight those urges of wanting to.
Ah, OK. I am still a beginner when it comes to the submission process, so I haven't heard of Duotrope before. (I work in accountancy, in the healthcare industry). I was simply basing my reply on what I did when I was unemployed, i.e. use a spreadsheet to keep track of where I applied for jobs etc. Since it helped me then, I thought it might also help me now. Thanks for correcting me
Random question ahead: I submitted to a journal that recommended using 1.5-inch margins on submitted manuscripts. I've always used standard 1-inch margins for my submissions (although I used the journal's suggestion for my submission to them). It's nothing I've thought about before, but it makes sense an editor would want wider margins for their annotations. I was wondering if y'all regularly use 1 or 1.5-inch margins for your submissions.
I doubt anyone is printing out submissions to write notes in the margins. The publications I've worked with use Word with track changes and notes off to the side or Google Docs (same setup basically. I've don't think I've ever come across a formatting request like you've just encountered. Can't really guess what their reason is behind it. Honestly, I have no idea what my margins are set to. I guess they're just whatever the default is for these programs. Sure, best to give that publication what they're looking for, but I wouldn't go changing it for all your submissions. Good luck with your recent submission.
Right? I check Duotrope and Submittable several times a day. I just can't help myself. And then sometimes I'll even log onto my account with places that use a different submission manager to check those ones out, too. I know they say a watched pot never boils, but I feel like I just have to know if anything is starting to simmer. My morning checks show nothing new to report. In my experience, an acceptance has always taken longer than a rejection. So, I say, keep those in-progress submissions for as long as you want, you amazing editors. When something just shows up as received fo a long time, it's a lot more frustrating to me.
I've seen that request on some submissions guidelines and sometimes a standardised format is requested. If I know what it is, I'll try to comply but mostly close my eyes, cross my fingers and click Submit.
