I love rejection. I sent out 13 more submissions yesterday so I could get 13 more rejections by the summer. Life is good.
I've tried them a few time. One time I got a personal rejection from the editor. It was an almost. Still a rejection. But I think that's a good place to get into and I like the work they put out. I should try them again. The only thing is that I've had some great luck selling similar pieces that could work for Brevity to another place so I like to try them first. I will admit that I called on some of my contacts to get into the other publication. And I absolutely love my editor there. I can't really recommend the place that has published similar pieces that could work for Brevity because they don't take unsolicited submissions. But I would keep trying Brevity if you have other things that can work for them. It's a solid credit if you can get in there, and there aren't too many places like it.
They said ‘we want you to know our readers considered your essay closely’. I expect they consider them all closely!
That sounds like it was something good. There is just a lot of competition everywhere. Not everything is considered closely. Not everything is even read past the first line. I would try them again with something else. Be relentless and you'll make it.
I came across this today and wanted to share it with all you UK writers. It's the BBC National Short Story Award. The deadline is coming up so send something in if you've got it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079gw3
Cripes, I only just scrape into the criteria...on...umm [great pride]. I don't know whether to bother polishing any of the crap of the last five years. They're looking for a 6000. Certainly requires an Algerian setting, dying father, and the quest for the lost donkey. When do I have time for such tedium voyage construct/gentle humour message profundity? I mean however I am currently 'in progress' with CRAFT...though reading the guff I posted...during the golden 'in-progress' moment...I am certain in my thinking it is an honorary 'in-progress' moment.. Loser/work tomorrow ngghhh...
Thanks, yes I had submitted to an anthology that I really wanted to be published in and heard back last night. It’s called ‘Small Loves’ and is published by Hybrid Ink. It’s very short stories for young adults, LGBTQ themed, so ticks all three boxes that I think I specialise in. I tried to give myself the best chance- they said you can submit up to 5 stories and any number of nanofiction pieces, but they’ll only publish maximum 2 pieces from any one writer. They’re including one of my stories and one piece of nanofiction. I’m surprised with the story they went for, I thought it was one of the weakest I submitted! But it features time travel so perhaps that attracted them. I wonder if maybe they just published me as I submitted so much, and maybe they didn’t think my writing was that great, but they say they had 130 entries, so hopefully they were fairly selective? Mind you I don’t know how many they are including in the anthology.
Well, you are published so that's the main thing, and 130 entries is still quite a lot, so give yourself a pat on the back, you deserve it.
Thank you! I’m not sure if I worry about these things too much. Duotrope is reporting a 35% acceptance rate, but with 62.5% of people who submitted having something accepted. But then it reports 23 submissions, and there were over 130, so perhaps there are more rejections from people not using Duotrope.
For what it's worth, more professional writers tend to use Duotrope so it could be that those who have Duotrope accounts are more likely to be serious writers, and therefore more likely to be published, which would make that statistic seem accurate. Congrats.
Of course there were more rejections than reported on duotrope. Duotrope is only a sampling of what's being reported. I think last I looked The Paris Review had only something like 130 submissions in the last year, according to duotrope. And The Paris Review could likely receive that many in a week. And there are quite a few places with a 0 percent acceptance and that's not true. Even solicited stories still get accepted or rejected. Duotrope is good for tracking trends and response times. The searches options are great. One thing I really like is the part that tells you what other market the writers have sent that same story to. It can give you an idea of similar markets that are usually around the same. level. But probably the best thing about it is that it keeps track of all your submissions and tells you which stories you've already sent a publication when you're on their page. I started using duotrope before it was a paid service. I took an online writing course and the instructor told me I had to get on duotrope if I was serious about selling short stories. So, I think a lot of professional and serious aspiring short story writers do use it, especially if they are prolific. But, for sure, all these publications are getting more submissions than are on duotrope. As far as trying to look for deeper meaning in the acceptance rate, let it go. Be happy about your upcoming publication. You said this was a place you wanted to get in with. If that's true, it really doesn't matter. I always believe there is room at the top for everyone. And maybe they got a bunch of really good submissions. That's an editors dream. I don't think it should matter how many people you beat out to get your spot. You got a spot and you're in! And that was the goal when you sent your submission. If you want to try harder markets, do it. In fact, I encourage it. A lot of writers think they could never get in certain places, and that's just not always true. Every time I sell a short story I'm shocked by the acceptance and where it's coming from. However, my acceptance rate for short stories sold in the last 12 months dropped to 0.9 percent. That means I get about 100 rejections or more along my way to sell fiction. But, honestly, I know where I want to publish and who's in the ballpark. They all of low acceptance rates, I'm sure. I pay more attention to the average response time for an acceptance than I do the rate. I try all the hard places and it drives me crazy when they have a 0 acceptance rate, but I have a story that's been with them way longer than where they're rejecting.
That's true too. You probably wouldn't use duotrope if you were only sending a few stories out here and there. Then again, the super big writers have agents sending their stuff out and/or they're being solicited. But duotrope is only a small sampling of the writers trying to publish. It's more important to be more familiar with the publications you're submitting to than their stats on duotrope.
Just received a rejection from ‘Not One of Us’ and I forgot to say that on the same day as my last acceptance, I also got a rejection from an anthology called ‘Little Boy Lost’. I also got rejections from the anthology I was accepted to as it was a maximum of two pieces from one author accepted and I submitted nine pieces.
