submitting again...collecting rejections :-)

topic posted Sat, October 20, 2007 - 6:58 PM by  Free
Aaaarrrghhh.....I got my first rejection letter in a really long time.

I haven't actually SUBMITTED fiction in years...been too busy with college, and writing and publishing essays...but I did it...I sent off two stories a while back. Got the first one back today. Rejected...but the editor included a few brief comments, which was nice.

*whine, snivel*

ok, I'm done now, hee hee. Added it to the old pile. There's still the other one. And the one after that, and the one after that... Just had to share. :-D
posted by:
Free
Tucson
  • Re: submitting again...collecting rejections :-)

    Tue, October 23, 2007 - 4:21 PM
    And remember you may have written the right thing, just sent it to the wrong editor. But if I get personal comments from an editor I do take them to heart and relook at my work. But I also take them with a grain of salt. I might not always agree with an editor.
    • Re: submitting again...collecting rejections :-)

      Tue, October 23, 2007 - 7:04 PM
      Yes, yes, and yes! :-D

      My biggest problem with submitting is ... I just don't write that many short stories. I've been primarily a novelist since I started writing; unfortunately, I don't have the time to commit to writing novels right now, and I DO have these short stories laying around ... few and far between ... but either I'm just NOT cut out to be a short story writer (possibility) or I have yet to find an editor who likes my writing style (hoping).

      I have the novelist's problem, which is trying to tell too big a story in too few pages. The characters don't come across as "fully rounded" as they could be. Which is odd, because in my longer works, I've been given full marks by readers for characterization ... better at building it over a large space, I guess. In my own defense, hee hee, I favor a writing style which is a little mythic and "fairy tale" like, so I'm thinking a lot of it is style. Which is not to say there isn't plenty of room for improvement.

      Funny thing is, I took to writing nonfiction and flash fiction, and seem to have found a comfortable niche for my own expression ... but if there's anything harder to publish than short f/sf, it could very well be flash fiction ...

      *sigh* I just do what I do, and hope someone will buy it eventually!
      • Re: submitting again...collecting rejections :-)

        Wed, October 24, 2007 - 8:31 AM
        Funny -- I think there are more flash fiction markets out there than I'd ever seen before, but the last time I was active before now was about 20 years ago. Last week I submitted two short pieces -- one flash (to a market wanting 750 or fewer wds), the other not much larger than flash (under 2,000 wds). Both of those were horror pieces, which I rarely write.

        At the end of September I submitted a 100-word piece to a contest looking for stories of exactly 100 words. That contest came out of Aoife's Kiss (Sam's Dot Publishing), which has no minimum word requirement and seems more open to flash fiction than Sam's Dot's zine The Fifth Dimension, which will look at flash but is not partial to it. Both accept fantasy.
        www.samsdotpublishing.com/

        And for a market for *really short* pieces -- it looks like Smith Magazine is still accepting submissions for its Six-Word Memoir anthology:
        www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

        In case you don't already have these on file:

        www.duotrope.com/
        (market engine -- can be searched by length)

        www.hipiers.com/publishing.html
        (mainly for book-length works)

        www.ralan.com/

        www.speculations.com/
        (includes forum "The Rumor Mill," where people might know more about flash fiction markets)

        www.storypilot.com/
        (similar in format to Duotrope, but focused mainly on sff. I just learned about this one.)

        www.spicygreeniguana.com/

        The SFWA Bulletin's Market Report is available online (no need to be a member) at
        www.sfwa.org/bulletin/

        Clockwork Phoenix, an anthology of mythic fantasy, doesn't seem to have a minimum word length requirement, and is open until February 1, 2008. (I'm about halfway through a story I'm drafting with this market in mind.)
        www.clockworkphoenix.com/

        Raven Electrick might also be a good market to try -- sff/eclectic -- and is now paying pro rates for stories up to 750 wds.
        www.ravenelectrick.com/

        Strange Horizons also considers flash and fantasy:
        www.strangehorizons.com/guidel...n.shtml

        On Spec considers flash/fantasy etc. submissions:
        www.onspec.ca/guidelines.php

        Shimmer also looks at short pieces and is interested in (among other things) urban fantasy, magical realism, and fairy tale retellings:
        www.shimmerzine.com/submissi...idelines/

        Aberrant Dreams looks at fantasy and has no minimum word requirement:
        www.hd-image.com/submissions.htm

        Earth's Daughters might also be a good market (it's probably not in the sff lists but it published a mythic poem of mine way back in the 80s):
        www.earthsdaughters.org/

        The We'Moon Calendar considers short mythic/feminist pieces and has particular themes for each year (I have material in the 2004 and 2005 calendars). The reading period for 2009 has passed but they'll consider submissions for 2010 around next summer:
        www.wemoon.ws/

        That's all I can think of for now! I'm sure there's more out there.

        I hear you on the "novelist's problem" -- feedback on the short story I wrote, workshopped, and tried to sell 20+ years ago was that I needed to provide more information. That story is now a series (the first volume has just been published) and I'm working on Book #6. Guess I took *that* critique to heart! :-)

        Keep on keepin' on, and good luck!
        • Re: submitting again...collecting rejections :-)

          Wed, October 24, 2007 - 8:35 AM
          Escapepod.org and Pseudopod.org also do flash.
          • Re: submitting again...collecting rejections :-)

            Thu, November 1, 2007 - 10:59 AM
            Yay! I've been meaning to say thanks for all that info...fantastic! I have a subscription to writer's market, but I think there was more information in your post, Elissa, than i've ever seen on writer's market, at least for the sf/f market. But the usefulness of writer's market is, perhaps, its own topic entirely...

            And WeMoon is a fantastic resource, not just as a place to publish. It's a wonderful book to have in your pocket.

            Care to divulge your sources for locating publishing information? (wink wink, nudge nudge)
            • Re: submitting again...collecting rejections :-)

              Thu, November 1, 2007 - 7:27 PM
              My sources are varied. I've gotten some from posts on the Poets & Writers Speakeasy (a free forum at www.pw.org ), some from my workshop buddies, and some from the Science Fiction Poetry Association listserv (SFPA is at www.sfpoetry.com/ and has a forum on Yahoo. The SFPA site also has a Markets section -- and the current issue of its journal, Star*Line, shows my cover illo, one of three that they're using). I learned about We'Moon when my partner Mary's sister sent us a calendar about 10 years ago. I'd first subscribed to Poets & Writers when it was called Coda back in the 70s -- I think Coda was where I'd found Earth's Daughters and most of the small magazines I was published in during the 80s. I found Smith Magazine's Six-Word Memoir site when I did a Web search on "memoir" in response to a student's question.

              I was completely unaware of most of those websites five years ago -- and I'm still learning... :-)

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