In the interest of compiling all my submission records (Submittable and Duotrope) into one, organized location rather than expecting readers to dig through the archives of posts to find out who, when, and where I’ve submitted and what the submission response time was, I present to you a Rejected list. Similar in structure to Court Merrigan’s Failure Page, it’s intended to expose you to lovely literary journals you might never have heard of before and to give you a general idea, as this blog originally intended, of how long you can expect to wait before receiving a rejection or acceptance letter. So instead of sporadically forcing a Slow Sunday blog post upon you, you can check the list whenever the fancy strikes. Also you can check out my published page to learn about other great journals and magazines!
Does this format work for you, or is there valuable missing information you’d like me to include? I’m open to suggestions :]
Hannah Karena Jones 
Hi Hannah, it’s more than generous of you to make your rejections public. I admire what you and Court are doing – I do find it helpful.
I wanted to thank you again for your list of favorite flash journals on my blog… I hadn’t heard of the journals before and it’s always nice to get introduced to new zines through friends (sort of like a blind date!)
I did go ahead and submit to the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts last night, so I’m curious to see if they have anything to say when I get my decision back.
Great work on the rejections page (and you even went the extra mile and provided your readers with the link directly to the journal…)
All the best,
Carol
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Hi Carol! I’ve actually been making my rejections public the whole time–it was actually the inspiration for my blog, because I was always wondering how long the wait was actually going to be before I heard back from a publication–but the information was never in an easy access location, so I’m glad to offer that now too!
Of course! I love the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. They’re pretty new at Rosemont College and I met the founding editor, Randall Brown, at a conference last year–he was a GREAT, truly informative author to listen to during panel sessions, it’s how I learned most of my great submission tips. And I got the quickest, nicest rejection letter from him–it was really helpful, encouraging, and supportive. I knew they had actually all read my story and had seriously debated back and forth whether they’d publish it or not, which was flattering and encouraged me to submit it other places (it went on to appear in Weave magazine in December).
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Oh, it’s nice to know you met Randall Brown. I just my rejection notice from them, the piece I submitted never made it past first round with them, but the rejection notice did have personal feedback (and some form stuff too…). Still, overall I’d say it was a great experience and it was thanks to you (of course I mean that in the best possible way since I hadn’t heard of them before.)
Also, I’ve been meaning to ask you – what is the NYU publishing program you attended last year? Can you talk a bit about that?
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Aw, I’m sorry it wasn’t an acceptance letter, even if it was a good experience!
And actually, I have a post scheduled for Thursday that will discuss the NYU program further! Perfect timing :]
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Wow…great minds think alike! I look forward to hearing more about that program. Thanks Hannah!
And don’t worry about the Journal, rejection letters don’t get me down. I see them as a necessary part of my journey for each piece getting published. The experience was very good, and I can see going back to them at some point in the future and submitting again…
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Hi Hannah,
The good news is that you send so many out! That’s the way to be published, even if some don’t make it. We can’t be writer’s without getting over rejection. Some of mine get published and some don’t, some with editors that normally publish my work. I’ve taken some of the rejects, rewritten them and gotten them published elsewhere. I think of it all as a a warm-up for future publication.
Thanks for the page and journal submission ideas. G.
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I totally agree! I don’t think it’s possible for a writer to get published without also/first experiencing rejection–and lots of it. We writers are a hardy, persistent bunch! I’m glad the rewrites worked out for you–I think a lot of writers have the feeling that they’ve finished the story and either someone publishes it or they don’t and then they give up, on that story at least. So many almost-there stories probably miss out on publication because authors don’t consider rewriting!
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Naturally, I like this. 🙂
I think it’s a good idea to post response times, too. Some mags are certainly better than others in that area.
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True story; I’ve heard back from some within a day, and on the other end of the spectrum I’ve been waiting over 400 days to hear back on submissions for Painted Bride Quarterly. Obviously, it’s well past their average response time, so I politely queried–twice in the past few months–but I haven’t gotten a reply. Submittable is a blessing and a curse; I know they received my stories, have looked at them, and couldn’t possibly have lost them. But “In Progress” just keeps staring at me, with no explanation, day after day…
I’m glad you like the Rejected page, though! And I’m glad you stopped by to check it out!
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Yeah, so I submitted to Painted Bride Quarterly on 11/24/2010 and the piece I submitted to them was accepted elsewhere so I withdrew the piece from them on 6/15/2011. I never submitted to them again.
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What’s really awful is that they have that super long wait time, but they officially don’t allow simultaneous submissions. In theory, your story could sit and rot forever. I’m willing to send out submissions exclusively if it’s at a paying publication, but PBQ isn’t a paying market. [sigh] I really respect the journal and would love to have my writing appear in it, but I’m seriously considering withdrawing the stories and submitting them elsewhere. Or, more likely, withdrawing them and rewriting them–I read over the stories recently and they were “quaint” and reminiscent of my writing abilities over a year ago.
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Obviously you have choices to make when you submit. I carefully observe how I’m treated by the staff of a journal. If I send a query after a reasonable period of time and they don’t answer, or if I send multiple queries and I get no reply, that journal may very well go onto my “do not submit” list.
I don’t have such a list officially, but I document with notations what the response was for every single submission. That means if I wait 6 months and get a form rejection notice, I note that. If I get a personal reply, I note it. If I send an inquiry and get (or don’t get) a timely response – noted. All of these notes then contribute to the decisions I make when I go to submit a new piece.
I’d much prefer to work with a professional editor, or staff, who deal with me in a reasonable and professional way, or who I can develop a more personal rapor, and then go from there. Believe me when I tell you: it DOES work.
Don’t put up with a market treating you poorly. There are too many fish in the sea to do otherwise.
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I always take note of journals who sent great personal rejections and who encouraged me to submit again; I’d be a fool not to! But I’ve never taken note of bad rejections (well, besides some where they add a personal note to mention that didn’t like my writing at all and was not a good fit for them at all. I’d be a fool not to note that too). Definitely food for thought!
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