My goal this Australian Financial year is to achieve 100 rejections. This means I have to send out stuff on a weekly basis, at least two submissions a week on average. Over a month, I lean towards submitting ten items or more. Over twelve months, that is 120 submissions, but that doesn’t mean 120 rejections.
Often, I never hear back from the smaller anthologies and magazines.
However, in the past month, I have received two very encouraging rejections for one story. One of the rejections pointed out that they thought the story was more suited to a younger audience than their target audience, even though they loved it. I found that comment exceedingly helpful, and I have now submitted that story to a children’s magazine.
As well, one of my stories is on the shortlist for acceptance into the Andromeda Spaceways magazine, having passed their three reading levels. If they have a space for it, it will be accepted. They informed me that only one in twenty stories get to this level, so I am pleased and excited.
These aren’t the only wins I’ve had over the past year.
With this in mind, I am already planning for next year, even though it is over two months away. I will still aim for 100 rejections, but I will also aim for a minimum of six acceptances over the space of a year – one acceptance every two months. And I hope to start sending out novels as well as short stories. I think a novel being accepted will count as three acceptances; what do you think?
