Aeryn Rudel's Blog, page 63

6 Rejection Records and other Dubious Achievements

When you’ve submitted your work long enough, you start to notice certain “firsts” and “bests” in the meandering pattern of rejections and acceptances that define the freelance writer’s career. I certainly don’t have as many data points as some, but I’ve got enough to compile the following list of record holders and whatnot. So here’s my “all-star” rejection roster.

1) Fastest Rejection: 2.5 hours

This is a recent record, beating my old time of four hours. The market in question isn’t known fo...

Guest Post: Simon Berman and Problem Glyphs

When last I blogged on this hallowed page, Aeryn had invited me to promote my then-current project The Book of Starry Wisdom. I know for a fact a number of Rejectomancy readers backed the Kickstarter, so let me first say thank you! Aeryn and I go way back at Privateer Press where we worked together on a number of projects, and it’s a pleasure to see he’s gaining a loyal and adoring audience—even if they seem to be tuned in mostly to see his rejections—but I digress!

Since last I blogged here,...

May 2016 Submission Statement

May is over, and it wasa good month, if not an overly productive one. I spent much of May working on the final edits of my novel Flashpoint, so there wasn’t as much time to submit short stories as I would have liked. In fact, I managed only a single submission. That said, a few of the submissions I sent out in months previous bore some fruit.

March Report Card

Submissions Sent: 1 Rejections: 3 Acceptances: 2 Other: 1 Publications: 1 Rejections

Let’s eat our rejection vegetables before we ge...

Real-Time Rejection: The Final Rejection of “Story X”

This morning I received the tenth and final rejection for “Story X,” thus ending itschances forfame and fortune. As promised, I will reveal the story in its entirety in this post, but first, here’s the letter that done for poor ol’ “Story X.”

Thank you for sending us “Story X.” We appreciated the chance to read it. Unfortunately, this piece is not a good fit for us. Best of luck with this in other markets.

A short, to-the-point form letter. At least they didn’t let “Story X” suffer.

Okay, th...

An Excerpt from FLASHPOINT, My Iron Kingdoms Novel

As some of you may know, I wrote a book, and it’s going to be released upon the world in the very near future. It’s called Acts of War: Flashpoint , and it’s set in Privateer Press’s steam-powered fantasy setting of the Iron Kingdoms. So, if you like steampunk, magic, robots, swashbuckling fantasy action, and, well, my writing, then there’s a decent chance you’ll dig this book. Anyway, the folks over at Privateer Press have posted aan excerpt from the book on their website, so go have a look....

New Kids on the Block: Evaluating Fledgling Genre Markets

In my search for genre markets, I often come across brand-spanking new magazines and webzines eagerly accepting submissions for their inaugural issue or issues. Duotrope has a handy way of identifying such markets, noting them as fledgling, which means, “This project is new and has been listed with us for less than six months.” So, with how quickly genre markets appear and disappear, should you send work to a fledgling market? Sure you should, but there are some things you might consider firs...

Read My Stuff: The Molotov Cocktail Flash Felon Results

Hey, look, it’s another of those self-aggrandizing posts where I urge you to go and read something I wrote. This time, it’s a story I placed with The Molotov Cocktail in their Flash Felon contest. I landed an honorable mention and a sixth-place finish with my story “The Sitting Room.” The top ten stories have all been published in the Flash Felon mega-issue, and you can and shouldread all of themby clicking the link below. There are some damn fine stories in the mix, and Jan Kaneen’s “The Lon...

Proofing Hit List Part Two: Over-Filtration

SinceI’ve been in the middle of a big fat novel revision, I thought it might be time to talk about more items on my proofing hit list. These are the little (and biggish) things I try to fix and/or eliminate from my drafts before calling them done/final/ready for editing. If you’d like to see part one of this list, you can find it right here.

Let’s get to it:

1) Filter words. I overuse them, especially when I’m writing in third-person limited, which I do a lot. What’s a filter word? I think Mi...

My Meandering Path to Writerly “Fame and Fortune”

One of things people ask me on a fairly regular basis, more so lately, is how did you get started with writing and editing,and how did it end up being your “job?” Well, my career trajectory has been kind of all over the damn place, and there really isn’t a straight line between Point A (non-writer) to Point B (writer). So, I’ll try and sum it up here. Despite the title of this post (which is most definitelytongue firmly lodged in cheek), I am NOTtrying to tell you I’m some kind of hit-shit fa...

April 2016 Submission Statement

April has come and gone, and it was a pretty decent month as far as the ol’ writing gig goes. I wasn’t as productive as I would have liked, andI sent out only five submissions, but since I was working on some big writing projects like this one, I don’t feel too bad about it.

March Report Card

Submissions Sent: 5 Rejections: 5 Acceptances: 1 Other: 0 Publications: 2 The Rejections

First, the usual slew of rejections.Five this month.

Rejection 1: 4/2/16

Thank you for submitting your story “XX...