Today, my submissions journey reaches the next step! I started submitting stories to contests and literary journals over two years ago, founded a critique group, curated a submissions calendar, and wrote contest roundups for Writer Unboxed. But this week and with this email, I achieved my next goal:
Dear Arthur Klepchukov,
Thank you for sending us “fresh scar”. We love “Fresh Scar” and would like to publish it in our Winter issue.
Look for your small payment along with a free copy of the issue in the mail.
Thanks again.
Sincerely,
David Jibson, Co-Editor
Third Wednesday – A Literary & Arts Journal
This will be my first ever fiction publication.
Third Wednesday is a lovely journal out of Ann Arbor, Michigan that I found through The Writer magazine, as part of my work for Writer Unboxed. They publish thoughtful flash fiction like “Knife Incident” by Laurence W. Thomas and poetry such as “Screenplay” by Ronnie Sirmans and “The Moon” by Lucie Putnam, all in Vol. X, No. 2 (Spring 2017). I submitted to their first flash fiction contest this summer. Though the judge passed on “fresh scar” he found “considerable merit in your story and [wanted] to ask permission to submit your work to our regular fiction editor for possible consideration for our winter issue.”
And look where that encouraging rejection got me.
It only took 128 submissions and 93 rejections.
I’ve been submitting 4 different flash and 7 short stories during this time. I submitted “fresh scar” only 8 times. So consider what happens when you’re submitting many different pieces. The story that could get accepted sooner may get lost in the shuffle. Should I be weary of having so many different pieces in play? Or did the sheer volume of drafts, critiques, and attempts push me to my goal of publication?
Thank you David Jibson and Third Wednesday! I’m profoundly grateful to have my work accepted by readers I don’t know. What’s next? Update my cover letters and query letters with this accomplishment. I can’t wait to hold the next issue of Third Wednesday in my hands!
Whatever you take away from this, remember to keep trying for whatever you want creatively. It can happen.
Submit and share your victories
Learn to submit with my free submission resources:
Arsenal of Words 
Reblogged this on Lonely Power Poles and commented:
Awesome!
Thanks for sharing!
I’m so proud of you! :)
Reblogged this on adaratrosclair and commented:
REBLOGGED! It’s wonderful and uplifting to see moments like this for fellow wordsmiths!
Thank you! Happy writing :)
Congratulations!
Congrats on the acceptance! I got you beat on rejections, currently at 139 :P But I happen to be one of those people who submits (way too) many pieces at once. I’ve also been sending to a variety of venues, not just literary journals, which has greatly helped my acceptance rate. I think you’ll find that once the first one comes, the rest should follow in step. Don’t slow your efforts with the other pieces that still need homes!
Well done! Getting an acceptance definitely encourages me to keep submitting. I’m more motivated than ever to find homes for my stories.
Booyah, motherfuckers!
[…] to write by myself. Structure and company helps me write. Plus, it was at SUAW that I heard from Art Klepchukov about the zine and got encouragement to submit. Even better, he’s in the zine with me! […]
[…] didn’t expect to get another acceptance for publication so soon after my very first acceptance, but now I have two to be thankful for this […]
[…] a. earn my first acceptance for publication in flash fiction […]
[…] to SmokeLong Quarterly’s 2018 Kathy Fish Fellowship, because one of my other entries, “fresh scar,” was accepted by Third Wednesday. I reapplied to SmokeLong with a replacement for that story, and again, “Rivet […]
[…] to the Kathy Fish Fellowship along with “fresh scar,” which went on to be accepted and published in Third Wednesday. so my original entry had to be withdrawn. I resubmitted again and got this 40-day encouraging […]