27 day form rejection from Bourbon Penn.
Rejection, rejection, rejection...
- Thread starter Naomasa298
- Start date
I totally thought that said Bourbon Penis. Much more poetic than Whiskey Dick.
Hell, right now, I'd settle for a Tequila Willie.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I can rivet steel I-beams on tequila.
DoctoreX
New Member
Well - my first rejection of the book:
"Dear L.,
thank you for your offer, but Brokilon Publishing is not currently accepting manuscripts for review. My publishing schedule is full for several years ahead, and honestly, I am barely keeping up with reading manuscripts from authors I already publish. Therefore, please do not be upset that I am rejecting your offer outright. I wish you the best of luck and keep my fingers crossed for you in your search for "the right" publisher."
Of course - message was translated.
"Dear L.,
thank you for your offer, but Brokilon Publishing is not currently accepting manuscripts for review. My publishing schedule is full for several years ahead, and honestly, I am barely keeping up with reading manuscripts from authors I already publish. Therefore, please do not be upset that I am rejecting your offer outright. I wish you the best of luck and keep my fingers crossed for you in your search for "the right" publisher."
Of course - message was translated.
A few more have come in. The worst was the full request that was rejected last week by an indie publisher. Got a 4-day form letter from a new magazine Night Shades, and two agent rejections. One of them was a bit unusual; said they still had 1000 queries in their inbox from 2024, and they were dumping them, welcoming those who queried to query again.
I don't think that's a bad thing. These days the majority of agents are just gonna ghost you, so I do appreciate their honesty.
Anyway, up to 121 rejections now.
I don't think that's a bad thing. These days the majority of agents are just gonna ghost you, so I do appreciate their honesty.
Anyway, up to 121 rejections now.
I looked up Night Shades - how are you managing to write stories under 500 words, that's crazy to me. I'm super wordy. Congrats on 121 rejections along with your successes this year. Aren't you trying to get to 150?
The Nightmare on Story Street horror contest announced their winners without sending out rejections, so there’s a 33-day no response rejection from them for “The Goatskin Codex”
I believe this leaves me at twelve in all for 2025.
I believe this leaves me at twelve in all for 2025.
Basically, they need to be snapshots. Small, decisive moments with a narrow scope and limited cast of characters. My experience with drabbles has made this really clear. Those are even trickier: a hundred words exactly.
I've currently got one story on 3 simultaneous submissions, so I'll either end up with two withdrawals, or more likely, three rejections.
I still have a 500-word horror piece that I submitted as a flash contest entry on our old site that I think deserves a home. I've gotten pretty good at packing in a lot of story into few words from our flash contest, as well as a 650-word contest over on .com. It was definitely challenging at first - I often started with a 800-900 word story, and then had to cut cut cut. But nowadays it's second nature to write to length.
Thank you! I think I should be able to hit 150 despite the holiday season creeping up on us quickly. I've got plenty of (likely) no response queries that I can write off by the end of the year. I'd love to get one more sale to wrap up what's been a pretty solid year, marked by quality rather than quantity in acceptances (despite my quantity-focused submission practices
).
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Glad I found this thread again. I'm on, I believe rejection 58 for the year to two publications.
I did have a question: Anyone ever send anything to The Other Stories? I've submitted two pieces to them over the past couple of years and never heard anything back--even though the claim the WILL send a response back, either yeah or nay.
I did have a question: Anyone ever send anything to The Other Stories? I've submitted two pieces to them over the past couple of years and never heard anything back--even though the claim the WILL send a response back, either yeah or nay.
Noticed on their site that they haven't posted anything on "upcoming themes" beyond June 2025. According to Duotrope, they are "on hiatus."
I hope you continue to post here, it can get lonely with just 3-4 of us posting reguarly.
How about this: The obligatory rejection from Clarkesworld this morning. They said the story wasn't quite right for them. I was not surprised.
Funny, they said that about the last two stories I sent them too.
Back in the 90s the agents/mags/publishers used to say, "This is terrible. Don't quit your day job."
I sometimes wish they would say that. I saw one guy submit to Clarkesworld, and the piece he submitted wouldn't have even made it onto their toilet paper, it was that bad. I doubt it would have made it into anything. I tried to explain that to him, and how far he was off and what he needed to improve, but he wasn't having any of it - he said he'd had a "professional editor" look at it and they'd improved it a lot. It's like - yeah, no. If this is the improved version, then it was utter garbage in the first place.
It's nice to have confidence, hopes and dreams and all that, but there are limits to how far that can bend reality.
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