I recently received a few rejections for some of my short stories. OK, fine; a lot of them, and they all came more or less at the same time. In fact, one of them has amassed more rejections than all the others put together. If you’re like me and are trying to get a short story out there, perhaps this article will be of some use. It’s a long read, but it gives an insight on how magazines work and think. As for me, I’ve accepted the fact that this year I will publish nothing.
🙁
I know how you feel…but you have to remember that offers outweight the demands…Each mag accepts tons of submissions daily. It would be nice however if the rejection letters provided explanations so that the writer would know what went wrong (and that doesn’t happen often).
There are many things you can do.
1) Keep reading short fiction so that you can improve your craft.
2) Subscribe to as many literary mags as possible to get a feel for the material they look for
3) Participate in short story competitions
4) Publish your short stories on Amazon! Give your stories a home yourself!
At our site, The Short Story and Flash Fiction Society http://www.shortstoryflashfictionsociety.com/ we do our best to promote short fiction authors and their work through competitions, interviews, guest posts and writer’s shop. Browse through the website and see what we do.
Oh, absolutely, I totally understand that magazines receive tons of submissions and it makes sense they get to be picky. As you said though, a bit of feedback on the reasons why a story was rejected would go a long way. Personally, I respect those editors that do that, even though they have so much work to do. At the same time, I understand those magazines and editors that don’t due to time constraints.
Know the feeling but you have to remember, each mag accepts tons of submissions every day. It would be nice if rejection letters came with some explanations so that the writer would know what went wrong (and that doesn’t happen often).
There are several things you can do
1) Keep reading short fiction to improve your craft
2) Participate in competitions
3) Subscribe to as many literary mags as possible to get a feel for the kind of material they look for
4) Publish your stories on Amazon! Give your stories a home yourself!
At our site, The Short Story and Flash Fiction Society we do our best to promote specifically short fiction authors through competitions, guest posts, interviews and a writer’s shop. Browse through the site to see what we can do…http://www.shortstoryflashfictionsociety.com/
Yes, I spent a lot of time sending out work this fall, and the rejections are now trickling in. Many have gotten the “we loved your work but (insert what wasn’t working here)” response. I once had the patience to keep submitting until a relationship was created and something hit, but I just don’t know. Having been out of the rejection business while I worked on my novels, it’s disheartening to get back in.
I know exactly what you mean. I too have been working on my novels and have sort of neglected my short stories. The ones I’m talking about, I wrote them last year. Haven’t written any short pieces since then. All I can say (to both of us and other writers) is keep it up until you find a home for them. Petience and perseverance are vital I guess.