Remember how I said I submitted a story the same day I got a rejection on March 17th?
Yup. Another rejection for that story! Another form rejection at that. It’s out on submission again, and as of this writing, I don’t have a response. Maybe at some point I’ll get something to tell me what’s going on.
That said, if I keep getting nothing but form rejections, then I know there’s something a bit more fundamentally at fault with the story itself. And that sucks. I’ve mucked about with this story for so long, that I’m not even sure what else to do with it, and I’m starting to feel very tired of working on it.
At some point, I will need to stick it in a drawer and move on. This is, after all, why I am working on and sending out many different stories.
Another thing I’m doing that I may want to reconsider: exclusive submission. Most of the markets I’m submitting to accept (and some even encourage) simultaneous submission. Rather than waiting for a response before sending it out again, I should at least consider going the simultaneous route. It feels like a lot for me right now as I’m juggling multiple stories on submission, but it’s something for me to think about.
Right now, I am doing my best to identify the markets I feel best suit my story, and obviously I will continue to do that, but it’s a slow process. I am learning markets as I go, so one market at a time feels plenty to me. As I get more familiar with the markets, I am hoping that I will get to the point where I feel confident in simultaneous submission to keep the process moving more efficiently. We’ll see how long it takes me to get there.
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