It's been a while since I've done one of these, mostly because I just haven't been as active with short story submissions as I used to be. Well, that's changed in recent months, so it's time to return to my monthly updates and share the trials, tribulations, and occasional triumphs of throwing yourself to the mercy of the publishing industry. 🙂
August 2024 Short Story Submissions
- Submissions Sent: 10
- Rejections: 8
- No Response: 0
- Acceptances: 1
- Further Consideration/Shortlist: 1
- Withdrawals: 0
Ten submissions last month is the most I've sent in quite a while. Those ten bring my submissions for the year up to 45, which is well off my traditional target pace of 100 per year, but I'm okay with that. At my current pace, I should get somewhere around 65 to 70. That's pretty solid.
Rejections
Eight rejections in February.
- Form Rejections: 3
- Personal Rejections: 2
- Close-But-No-Cigar Rejections: 3
Kind of a heartbreaker of a month, to be honest. Three CBNC rejections is tough, though somewhat encouraging (I'll share a couple of these with you below). The personal rejections are from markets that always give you some level of feedback, some of which is useful and some of which is, uh, not. The form rejections were, well, typical and uninteresting.
Okay, as promised here are two of the CBNC rejections.
Dear Aeryn,
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read [story]. Unfortunately, it does not meet our needs at this time. This submission did, however, reach our final round of review and was close to an acceptance. We are huge fans of your writing and this story featured a lot of what we love most with your stories, with the opening really grabbing us. Ultimately, we found that we wanted a bit more from the ending.
We're sorry it's not the right fit for us, but we wish you luck placing it elsewhere. We also appreciate your interest in [market] and very much hope you'll keep us in mind in the future.
Regards,
Obviously, this market has published me before and tends to like my work (bless them). The feedback here is minimal (hey, they mostly liked the story), but it's worth taking a look and seeing if I can't add more impact to the ending and stay under 1,000 words. I think I'll end up selling this piece eventually.
Dear Aeryn,
Thank you for your latest submission and continued interest in [market]. Our editors are always honored to read and discuss your submissions. Unfortunately, we have decided not to publish this particular piece.
Please know it was a difficult decision, and your story reached the very final discussion.
We note that you remain a master of flash fiction which possesses devastating (in a good way) pathos and emotionally dark endings that linger with a reader.
This draft of the story we felt had slight pacing issues in the middle which brought down your excellent opening and ending. While Kevin dismantles and rebuilds his home the story movement feels slow, with one of the few excitments of this section the main character running someone over with their Humvee. The middle section reminded some of us of a sequence from The Walking Dead/Fallout as we watched the characters complete a task.
Your story's title and ending remain a creative highlight in our readings, and we are truly happy to have read your story. We are glad to have a submission from you at any time.
Best regards,
Another market that has published me a fair amount and who also tends to like what I send them (seriously, bless these folks). One of my favorite things about this market is the excellent feedback they tend to give on rejections. Now, in this case, I was actually going for a Walking Dead/Fallout kind of thing in the middle, as I tend to enjoy those task-oriented sequences in postapocalyptic shows and games. That said, I might have gotten a little self-indulgent and let the scene drag on too long, which, as the editors astutely pointed out, hurt the pacing of the story. I'll definitely see if I can't shorten or summarize more of that middle section and maybe add another event with more emotional resonance.
Also, I should point out, it's hard to get too mad at a rejection that calls you a master at anything (even if I humbly disagree). 🙂
Acceptances
One acceptance in August, which ended a four month drought. I'm really pleased to see this one get picked up, as it might have my favorite title for one of my short stories ever. Here's the acceptance letter.
Hi Aeryn,
Thank you for submitting "The Last Labor of Larry Lizard" for consideration. We are happy to let you know that your story has been accepted, and will be tentatively scheduled on [date].
Please complete the contributor agreement located here:
Please also forward a short 3rd person bio and photo to accompany your story if you have not published with Shotgun Honey or you wish to update this information.
Thank you for your contribution and we hope to work with you again soon.
All the best.
This'll be my second publication with Shotgun Honey. I'd submit more often to them (they're a great market for crime fiction), but they have a hard 700-word limit, and I struggle to write flash under about 900 words. Both stories I've sold to them started out at over 900 words, which I then cut down to 700, so it's certainly possible for me to produce saleable flash fiction at that length, but whoo boy, is it hard.
Anyway, I'm thrilled to have placed another story with Shotgun Honey, and I'll be sure to share the piece with you when it publishes in a month or so.
And that was August. My goals for September are to send at least six submissions, finish up a bunch of freelance work, and keep plugging away at the revisions on a novel (which, god willing, I'll be done with by the end of the month).
How was your month of submitting/writing?
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