Got some more. 50-day form letter for a Parsec anthology, 2-day from 34 Orchard, and three agent rejections. Already up to 10 for this month and year. Can't win if you don't try.
Hello all, I've been writing for several years but over the past three or so gotten more serious about fiction writing. I've got one fiction publication and tons of rejections. Started out the year strong with them: Think I'm on rejection 10 for the month
First (personal) rejection of 2025, from A Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy: Volume Four. The editor said it was really close, and they received double the number of submissions they were expecting, so they just couldn’t accept everything they wanted. Judging by the chart over on the Submission Grinder, mine must’ve been literally one of the last submissions left. Doesn’t sting as much as it could, because this one’s a reprint, but it still sucks to come so close only to miss out.
I just got my own personal for that one, too. Damn. We both made the final 50. So so so close. Oh well, it's still very encouraging to make it that far. They said my story was "wonderful," which softened the blow. Last week I got a couple more; 13-day forms from 3LBE and Shoreline of Infinity. Up to 13 on the year so far.
Three-day revise & resubmit from Bothered Stories. I doubt I even can revise this one in the way they seem to want—at least not without massive changes to the story—so it might as well be a personal rejection. So for 2025… Rejections: 1 R&R: 1 Acceptances: 1
I don’t know, the editor got back to me with some more specific feedback, and it might be doable. The max word count would be the biggest issue. I think I’ll dust off the workshop thread for this one and see if anyone has suggestions. At least it’s a standing invitation to resubmit, so there’s no deadline.
Not sure how much this counts as it’s just a three-sentence story, but an acceptance is an acceptance, I guess!
Got a few more this week. Augur rejected two pieces after 92 days, Short Edition turned me down again after 47 days, and I received a negative personal rejection from On Spec after 27 days. Ouch. I'm also crossing off three agent submissions (non-Query Tracker) who never got back to me after 160 days. That's 19 for the year so far.
Rejection from Spark Flash Fiction (they don’t send rejection emails but I see the issue is online without my story!).
Got some more this week. A quick agent rejection, a 50-day form from Notch Magazine, and a wonderful, thoughtful personal rejection from James Gunn's Ad Astra after 170 days. It's the longest personal rejection I've ever received, and they even provided some suggestions on how to improve the story. Up to 22 rejections for the year now.
QR 13 plus a CNR. I cant remember if I was keeping track of short stories... but I got a short story rejection today
Standard 14-day no-response rejection from Lascivity My 2025 so far… Rejections: 3 Revise & Resubmit: 1 Acceptances: 1
A bunch of rejections came in since my last post. Okay, here we go: A quick 2-day form from Black Cat Weekly, 14-day from Humour Me, 122-day from Toronto Journal, three indie pub rejections, and one agent rejection. That makes it 29 for the year so far.
