I have a submission out right now. If you’re a writer, you know the type. Average turnaround time for this venue is 27 days and my story is currently rocking a cool 135 days right now.
One can’t help but hope.
The fun thing, however, is that as long as the submission is still out there, still under consideration, it hasn’t been rejected.
* * *
A fellow writer was wondering how to interpret the rejections he was getting, many of which were personal. Here’s a version of what I wrote in reply:
You should absolutely feel good about personal feedback. That is rare and precious gold there, my friend. It means that what you are submitting is publishable, just not by that particular editor and outlet at that particular time. Maybe the fit isn’t perfect or maybe it is, but your story is about a magical stag with a drinking problem and the editor just bought a story about a magical stag with a drinking problem. Or it’s twice as long as the space they have left in the current issue, and they will remember the day they had to send your rejection with despair every time your name and list of awards comes up in future conversation.
It means that your stories are working, and that’s critical. A broken story isn’t ready for primetime, but a publishable story just needs to find the right home.
When I say “market research,” I mean that I’m working to send my material to someone who could reasonably be expected to publish it. Happy magic unicorn stories are not a great fit for a grimdark horror venue;) I try to narrow down the list of possibilities. Submissions tend to take a long time and most places are not cool with simultaneous subs, meaning that every month a story is out at the wrong place is a month that it’s not being evaluated by someone who might actually buy it. So I try to write the best story I can and then work to find a place likely to give it a home. And the Submission Grinder also lets you sort possible venues by turnaround time.
I do try to follow the “write, edit, put it away and then come back to it when you can look at it as if someone else wrote it” advice, if possible. Too much editing can suck the life out of the story.
I may have mentioned that I had a hard time with rejections at the beginning. No longer! One day I realized that I was completely unfazed by my latest rejection. I just opened my submission template and filled in the next possible target.
So, you’re killing it. Keep going!
Because you never know.
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