Aeryn Rudel's Blog, page 2

Ten Years of Rejectomancy: Year One – To Pro or Not to Pro

I started Rejectomancy in July of 2015, a period of time that coincided with me getting serious about short story submissions. So, in many ways, Rejectomancy is kind of detailed record of my writing journey as I transitioned from game designer/writer to a fiction writer. The first year of Rejectomancy was a pretty eventful one. I sent out more submissions than I ever had, and I started getting some good acceptances, too. The real theme of this year was trying to figure out where my work belonged...

Ten Years of Rejectomancy: The Pre-Blog Years

A few months ago, Rejectomancy turned ten years old, and I celebrated that momentous occasion with a guest post from the supremely talented and supernaturally prolific Ai Jiang. (Check out that post here.) This series, however, will focus on my own submission efforts over the decade I’ve been inflicting them on y’all through this blog. We’ll do one year at a time, and I’ll give you all the crusty details on subs, rejections, and acceptances. That said, to kick things off, we need to talk about w...

Submission Statement: July 2025

I’ve missed the last few submissions statements, but I’m back on the beam for July, and ready to share all the glory and pain of the last few months. This’ll be a three-fer, and I’ll give you stats for May, June, and July. So let’s jump in.

May – July 2025 Short Story StatsSubmissions Sent: 20Rejections: 21No Response: 2Acceptances: 4Further Consideration/Shortlist: 5Withdrawals: 2Pending: 11New Stories: 6

The number of submissions I sent over the last th...

27 Submissions: My Most-Rejected Story SOLD!

No, this is not a new rom-com starring Katherine Heigl; it is a tale of literary woe and eventual triumph. You see, last weekend, I set a new rejectomancer record. I sold my most rejected story. That’s right; “Time Has No Memory” finally sold after twenty-seven submissions and twenty-five rejections. I thought I’d celebrate this momentous occasion by looking back on the five-year journey of this poor, beleaguered story as a reminder to myself (and hopefully to you) not to give up, and that accep...

Guest Post – A Numbers Game by Ai Jiang

Hey, folks, today is a momentous day on the blog, and we’re celebrating two pretty awesome events. First, this day and this post marks TEN YEARS of Rejectomancy. That’s a lot of no’s, not for us’s, and we’re gonna pass’s, somewhere around 800 if my math is right. But those numbers are a drop in the bucket, a measly fraction of the awe-inspiring numbers of one extremely talented and nigh supernaturally prolific Ai Jiang. Her submission, acceptance, and rejection numbers are simply off-the-charts,...

900 Submissions: An Analysis

I recently hit another big story submission milestone. I sent my 900th submission since I started tracking them on Duotrope back in 2012. Like I usually do with this big round numbers, I’ll break down my overall stats, but this time, since 800 subs was almost exactly one year ago, we’ll do a little side-by-side comparison, too. 

First, the basic numbers.

 800 Subs900 Subs*Rejections642718Acceptances104112Withdrawals2629Lost/Never Responded2222Pending621

So, I’ve definitely been more active i...

Submission Statement: April 2025

April was a slightly better month than March, but though I made decent headway on a number of writing goals, it was still largely a disappointing month.

April 2025 Short Story StatsSubmissions Sent: 12Rejections: 11No Response: 0Acceptances: 1Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0Withdrawals: 0Pending: 20New Stories: 2

I sent twelve submissions in April, which gave me a total of fifty-two for the year. That works out to an average of thirteen submissions a mon...

Submission Statement: March 2025

To put it bluntly, March was a brutal month, but I did make some positive yardage. All of my trials, tribulations, and so, so many rejections below.

March 2025 Short Story StatsSubmissions Sent: 14Rejections: 11No Response: 0Acceptances: 0Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0Withdrawals: 0Pending: 19New Stories: 4

I sent fourteen submissions last month, which gives me a total of forty for the year. I sent out another two this morning, so I’m technically up t...

Path to Publication: The Downer

Time for another path to publication, wherein I recount the long and painful journey of a story from creation to that vaunted state of publication. This time, we’ll be looking at “The Downer”, a spec-fic piece that I thought was an absolute slam dunk when I finished it and turned out to be a two-year, sixteen-submission death march that had me questioning my talent, my submissions targeting skills, and even my sanity by the end. Before we get into all the rejections and whatnot, let me tell you ...

Surviving 700 Rejections

Last week, I hit another significant submission milestone. I received my 700th rejection since I started tracking them on Duotrope back in 2012. If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know that when I hit a big round number like this, I like to take a deep dive into the stats and see what they can tell me. So, let’s do that.

First and Last

First up, let’s establish exactly how long I’ve been tracking all these no’s, not for us’s, and we’re gonna pass’s.

The first rejection...