Editorial insight on rejections (for writers)

So, this post's more for other writers. Especially newer ones.

With 138 acceptances for short stories over the last five years, came 150 rejections also. In an ideal world each of those rejections would come with a personalised explanation and a little feedback, but that's not a practical reality for numerous reasons. I've understood this from day one (or at least pieced it together quickly, I guess) never taking it personally, but a lot of other new writers probably don't and I've kind of always wanted to write an article about it, but after having a submitted story recently make it past the first round of rejections to still be considered, I received an email that included a link to a post by the editor, explaining this kind of thing, and I thought it was worth sharing:

https://winniewoohoo.com/why-i-dont-send-personal-rejections/

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100 stories published

So about 7 or 8 stories ago, I passed a benchmark without noticing. The gaps between call, submissions, and publication vary by some dramatically huge margins, so it would require quite the audit to name the precise one that made it over the line (also some of those are flash/micro fiction but many of those are also recorded in groups/batches as just one so hard to pin down). OVER 100 STORIES PUBLISHED First story published in late 2020. So it's been a busy four or five years. I'm not making a living off this yet and maybe I never will. But that's a nice benchmark to cross. I don't update this site often, and I need to populate the timeline/genre page. I will soon, maybe throw up some maps for the fantasy side of things. At least I have the excuse of clearly being very busy. I'll pat myself on the back there.

Shorts for next year

Delayed update... Four more stories of mine have been accepted for publication in anthologies due out early next year: -'Beyond the Ensuite' a short horror piece for 'Manor of Frights' from Horror addicts -'Twin Temptation' a fantasy piece for 'Depths of love: My Enemy' from Cloaked Press and SFWG -'Under a Broken Moon' a fantasy novella for ' Beastly Tales' from Dragon Soul Press -'Blue Monday' a sci-fi short for 'Union' from Dragon Soul Press Pounding the keyboard hard to get more stories out, then hopefully focusing on a couple novels in the later half of this month and most of January.

2022 - Year in Review

A challenging year, but I'm proud of the work I managed to create. On the publishing front I saw my work appear in fifteen published anthologies. That's one more than last year, which is actually more impressive than it sounds because for the last seven months of this year I also took a day job (because, as fun as it's been to write full time, it's not generating a liveable income just yet – I need to get some full books out there). Casual day work (mostly at night), but that's still anywhere between twelve and fifty hours a week not in front of a computer. Instead standing on my feet, destroying my arches, and making it hard to sit at a computer to write, needing days to recover from the pain. So, with limited time, I still got done what I did, and I'm proud of that. I'm still pumping out short stories because it helps flesh out my worlds. With each new short, I discover something new about that world. It's a journey of discovery. With each new stor...

Wyrmblood

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