One of my new year’s resolutions was to get my first rejection letter, and of course the only way to get a rejection letter is to submit a story.
If you’re not aware, I’m 0-for-2. Yep, in the past I’ve submitted two short stories and have gotten absolutely no correspondence back.
Thanks to some encouragement from my new writing partner in crime, Brian, I brushed up my short story manuscripts and went hunting.
Using the ever-popular Duotrope’s Digest, I pulled up their search engine.
The genre? Fantasy. That’s easy.
The pay-scale? Well, that’s not so easy (I’ll come back to this later).
Acceptance Rates:
Duotrope lets me sort the results in many ways.
One of the coolest options is that it lets me sort by acceptance rate (Highest to lowest, Lowest to highest).
I don’t think I want to submit one of my stories to an online magazine that accepts 90% of all entries (yes, these exist) and they pay less than a cent per word (perhaps nothing). Maybe it’s better to aim my sights a little higher?
Pay-Scale:
There are different schools of thought on pay-scale. Some people say it’s better to submit to a professional magazine with pro-rates right off the bat, because if you submit to a smaller publication, you might forever wonder if your story could’ve gone further.
On the other hand, if you’re like me and have never been published, it might be a good idea to start building up a resume in the ‘proving-grounds’ before going for the big-leagues.
To test this, Brian is in the process of submitting one of his short stories at the same time as I am. He is submitting to professional grade national publications. And since I don’t care how much money I get paid as much as building a resume (and seeing my work printed somewhere other than here), I decided to go the route of courting the semi-pro market.
I’ll keep you updated.
Good luck, and remember to keep those manuscripts on the market until they sell.
Thanks for the help,
Brian
[Reply]
Comment by Brian — May 2, 2011 @ 10:41 am
When submitting the best rule is to start at the top and work your way down. Once you’ve eliminated those magazines that don’t fit, pick the most professional one and start there. Also, in Duotrope, you can rank your search by response times, which is always helpful – I usually go for the fast response times first, not only because of the turnaround, but also because they are usually the ones who have their shit together :)
[Reply]
Nick Enlowe Reply:
May 2nd, 2011 at 6:04 pm
I submitted a work to Dark Valentine. It said to allow up to six weeks. *bites lip*
The waiting phase is extra bad for me since I’ve historically received no responses at all. That’s a lot of days checking the mail met with a lot of disappointment.
[Reply]
Merrilee Reply:
May 3rd, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Good luck!
[Reply]
Nick Enlowe Reply:
May 6th, 2011 at 8:14 am
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Comment by Merrilee — May 2, 2011 @ 4:00 pm
Good luck on any and all of your endeavours! I’ll be reading, as always.
[Reply]
Nick Enlowe Reply:
May 15th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
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Ryan G. Sanders Reply:
May 17th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I’ll write it, polish it, and see what I can do with it. Hopefully you’ll get a winning reply from someone before I start submitting.
[Reply]
Comment by Ryan G. Sanders — May 14, 2011 @ 5:49 pm