Rejection, rejection, rejection...

[wearywanderer64]

Received an acceptance today from AntipodeanSF. It's not a paying market, but the reach will be good for me. They were established in 1998 (so they should have a solid reader base) and in addition to the magazine, they will feature the story on their weekly podcast and public radio show. I've been asked to narrate the story for that, which I've never done before. But I'm determined to give it a go.

Well done. Radio and a podcast? That's quite a reach.

 

[X Equestris]

My last submission went out yesterday, and I doubt an answer is coming in the next few hours, so my numbers for the year should be finalized:

• 26 total submissions
• 15 Rejections (3 Personal, 1 Rewrite Request)
• 10 Acceptances (3 short stories, 6 drabbles, 1 poem)

Five of the drabbles were for the same anthology as part of a multi-submission, so the acceptances aren’t as impressive as they look at first glance, but it was still a good year for me.

What did your totals for 2025 look like?

 

[Naomasa298]

26 submissions
26 rejections (3 personal, 1 rewrite request) - not including personals from BCS since they send them to everyone

10 outstanding (submitted and live, but no answers so far)

My first year doing this seriously. All short stories, though one of them is short enough to almost qualify for flash, it's only 1200 words.

 

[Set2Stun]

Haha, yeah I was also tallying up my numbers tonight.

This week I received a 6-day form letter from Brilliant Flash Fiction, and an agent rejection. Going through my lists, I've closed off an additional 7 magazine submissions, 3 indie pub, and one more agent query as No Response.

That brings me to 152 rejections for the year. Phew.

I made ~120 magazine and indie pub submissions and 51 agent queries.

3 acceptances.

2 new publications - Nature Magazine's Futures and Sci Phi Journal (accepted this year)
2 future publications for Spring 2026

9 personalized rejections, including 3 spectacular ones.

1 full manuscript request from an indie pub, which unfortunately resulted in a rejection.

 

[Naomasa298]

6-day form rejection from Interzone to kick off the new year.

 

[Dante Dases]

6-day form rejection from Interzone to kick off the new year.

I completely sympathise with you on the rejection, but the news that Interzone is still running is very welcome. After the financial problems and ownership issues I had feared for it.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

My total is kinda skewed. The final form of Book II was accepted this spring. Article for Wyoming Wildlife was accepted and printed in last month's issue. Two more book proposals were accepted by the same publisher who did the first two books. Contract is signed, but I haven't written those books yet so I'm not sure they count. After a nine month wait, I got an acceptance tonight from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers for the annual anthology; contract to arrive within the week. That pleased me. I don't write or sell many short stories and I particularly like this one.

 

[Naomasa298]

31-day form rejection from PodCastle.

 

[Set2Stun]

Beginning 2026 with a solid start - a 2-day form rejection from 34 Orchard, plus three agent rejections. That's 4 already, not bad !