The following is a record of the rejection letters for my prose and poetry that I received in 2018. This is a total account; my embarrassing 2-3 rejections per month are a living, working reality. I’ve cut greetings (hello, dear writer, etc.), story titles, and editor names for some mixture of brevity and privacy.
12/26/2018
Thank you for sending us [Omitted]. Unfortunately we will not be able to use this work for Vestal Review. We receive many well-written, compelling stories, but can only take a very limited number due to constraints of space and style. We wish you the best of luck in placing your story elsewhere.
12/15/2018
Thank you for your interest in Gehenna & Hinnom and this project, and for submitting [Omitted]. Once again, we had an amazing response to our submissions call, and the difficult but amazing process of reading and selecting stories has consumed most of our time these past several weeks. The final decisions were based on a number of factors, such as the themes in which we envisioned, the story length, editing, and the desire to capture and retain a specific, distinctive theme for each project. Unfortunately, your story didn’t quite make the final cut this time.
We hope you’re able to find a deserving home for it, and we really look forward to seeing more of your work in future projects. We have many more anthologies and releases planned for 2019. We hope you will be interested in these projects as well.
P.S. Though it didn’t make the final cut, this was a very well-written and interesting piece. I sincerely hope you will submit again come January!
12/13/2018
Thank you for submitting [Omitted] to Strange Horizons, but we’ve decided not to accept it for publication. We appreciate your interest in our magazine.
12/3/2018
We won’t be accepting [Omitted] for publication, but invite you to consider sending us other work in the future.
12/2/2018
Thank you for submitting [Omitted] to Apparition Literary
Magazine. Your work made it to the second round of consideration. Our
editors closely reviewed your story, but ultimately decided not to
accept it for publication.
11/27/2018
We’ve been discussing your recent submission and I’m afraid that we’ve decided not to purchase it for our upcoming issue. We no longer comment on submissions because we believe that writers should follow their own instincts. Having said that, I wish you the best of luck in placing it elsewhere.
11/19/2018
Thanks for submitting [Omitted] to Asymmetry Fiction. Unfortunately, we are going to pass on this one, but best of luck placing it elsewhere.
11/9/2018
Thank you for sending your story to Three-lobed Burning Eye magazine. Unfortunately, we have decided not to accept it for publication. We regret that we cannot offer more feedback and wish you the best in finding a home for this piece.
10/22/2018
Thank you for sending us [Omitted]. We appreciate the chance to consider it, and thank you for taking the time to submit to us. Unfortunately, we are unable to find a place for this work at this time, but wish you luck in placing it elsewhere.
10/15/2018
Thank you for submitting [Omitted] to Apex Magazine. We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, we don’t feel it is a good fit for us and we’re going to have to pass on it at this time.
10/2/2018
Thank you for sharing [Omitted] with us. We appreciate having had the chance to read your work, and we’re sorry to write with disappointing news—we’ve decided that the piece is not a good fit for our site at this time. We wish you the best of luck finding a home for this work, and hope that you will keep us in mind for future projects.
9/18/2018
Thank you for sending us [Omitted]. We appreciate the opportunity to read your work. Unfortunately, the piece is not for us at this time. All of us at Pacifica Literary Review wish you the best of luck in finding a home for this piece. Thank you for your submission,
8/28/2018
Thank you for sending us [Omitted.] After careful consideration, we’ve decided this submission wasn’t quite right for us. This piece is well-observed and well-measured; we felt like perhaps [edit suggestions omitted]. We would be pleased to see more of your work.
8/16/2018
Thank you very much for submitting to 805. Unfortunately, we did not feel this piece was a good fit for our upcoming issues. Please note, our submissions are closed at the moment, but we hope your will continue to submit to other journals.
8/13/2018
Thanks for giving us the chance to read [Omitted]. After careful consideration, we are unfortunately going to pass at this time. If you have other works that you think might be a good fit for The Arcanist, we encourage you to submit them through our Google form. We look forward to reading more of your work in the future and hope that this piece finds a home as well.
8/9/2018
Thank you for sending us [Omitted]. We’ve read your pieces carefully but are going to pass on them at this time. Although we are not accepting your work, we wish you luck in placing it elsewhere. Thank you for your support of Third Point Press.
8/6/2018
Thank you for submitting [Omitted] to Strange Horizons, but we’ve decided not to accept it for publication.
8/3/2018
Thank you for submitting to Futures. However, I regret to tell you that I cannot offer to publish your piece on this occasion. Futures attracts a very high number of submissions — around ten times the number of stories that we can actually publish — so I am obliged to make difficult decisions. I know that this will be disappointing but I hope that it will not discourage you from submitting to Futures again.
7/27/2018
Thank you for sending us [Omitted]. We appreciated the chance to look over it. However, the piece(s) is/are not for us. Don’t feel bad, though; this is a reflection of our aesthetic, not your quality.
7/24/2018
Thank you for taking an interest in Gathering Storm Magazine and for sending us [Omitted]. We appreciate the opportunity to review your work. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the right fit for us, BUT PLEASE KEEP TRYING! We just didn’t feel that this submission was what we are looking for at this time.
7/9/2018
Thank you for the opportunity to read [Omitted]. Unfortunately, your story isn’t quite what we’re looking for right now.
7/7/2018
We’ve been discussing your recent submission [Omitted] and I’m afraid that we’ve decided not to purchase it for our upcoming issue. We no longer comment on submissions because we believe that writers should follow their own instincts. Having said that, I wish you the best of luck in placing it elsewhere.
6/22/2018
Regarding your submission, unfortunately it hasn’t made it on the short list. The most common reasons for rejection were a mismatch with our vision of the theme and science fiction elements too heavy for our target audience. We regret that we can’t go into further details due to the number of submissions we’ve received, but we will strive to do better for our next issue. We’re very thankful that you took the time to submit your story to Visions and you hope you will consider us again.
5/9/2018
Thank you for participating in the 2018 Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest. I regret to inform you that your entry was not selected as a winner or finalist. The judges have informed us that the competition was fierce, and that there were many high-quality manuscripts that didn’t make the cut. We applaud you for taking your craft seriously enough to enter this contest and seek feedback on your work.
5/9/2018
Thank you for sending us your poetry. We appreciate the chance to read your work. Unfortunately, your pieces have not been selected at this time.
4/13/2018
Thanks for letting us read your work. Unfortunately, we’ve decided this batch is not quite right for us. We wish you the best of luck in your continued writing.
3/25/2018
Thank you for sending your short story [Omitted] to Literally Stories. Unfortunately we have decided not to publish your work on this occasion.
3/10/2018
Thank you for submitting your story, [Omitted], to Daily Science Fiction. Unfortunately, we have decided not to publish it. To date, we have reviewed many strong stories that we did not take. Either the fit was wrong or we’d just taken tales with a similar theme or any of a half dozen other reasons. Best success selling this story elsewhere.
2/27/2018
Thank you for submitting to FLARE: The Flagler Review. We regret that we are unable to accept your submission for publication in this issue, but we hope you will consider submitting again.
See Also
Desmond, Write 