Winter 2019 Rejections: One Story, McSweeney’s, Electric Literature, and More Literary Journals

Welcome to The Rejection Quarterly, Winter 2019 edition.

Sharing rejections shares the effort behind submissions and makes celebrating acceptances even sweeter. What kind of literary journal rejections are you seeing? On the road to publication, why not “publish” the rejections themselves?

Here are the various rejections I collected from December 2018 – February 2019.

Encouraging Rejection from Paper Darts

13-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you so much for submitting “Counting” to the Paper Darts Short Fiction Award. We are grateful for the time you spent writing your story. 

Our finalists have been selected and sent off to our judge for her consideration. Unfortunately, yours was not among them. Look out for our future fiction contests, and we hope you’ll consider sending work to us for our regular submissions process. 

Thank you, 

The Paper Darts staff

Encouraging Rejection from Puerto del Sol

46-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you very much for submitting to Puerto del Sol’s Absence Issue. While we enjoyed this work, we have not found a suitable place for it. We do hope that you will continue to send us your writing in future reading periods. 

Best regards, 

The Editors of Puerto del Sol

Encouraging Rejection from LUMINA

92-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you so much for submitting to LUMINA XVIII. We truly enjoyed reading your work, but after much consideration, we decided it wasn’t right for our journal at this time. We wish you the best of luck in finding a home for your writing elsewhere.

We appreciate your time and your interest in LUMINA Journal, and encourage you to submit to LUMINA again in the future.

Warmest Regards,
The LUMINA Team

Rejection from Longleaf Review

35-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting to Longleaf Review. We appreciate the chance to read your work. Unfortunately, this piece isn’t for us, though we sincerely hope you have luck submitting it elsewhere. 

Sincerely, 
Kate Finegan 
Longleaf Review

Rejection from Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

36-day response time

Arthur,
Thank you for offering your story to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.  We’re sorry to tell you that we will not be using it; you are free to submit it elsewhere.

Sincerely,
Sara Ellis
Assistant Editor

I appreciate the reminder that this was an exclusive submission and the nod toward the story’s continued journey.

Rejection from Fiction

265-day response time

Dear Contributor:

Thank you very much for submitting your work. After careful consideration, the editors were not able to accept it for publication.

We would like to offer personalized letters or feedback but limitations of time and staff have made that impossible at the present. We wish you the best of luck in finding a journal to publish your writing. The editorial staff, including the editor-in-chief, Mark Jay Mirsky, welcomes critical response to past issues of the magazine if you wish to include any in future submissions or letters. If you identify yourself as a writer who submitted to Fiction, you may order back issues at a fifty percent discount.

With best regards,

The Editors

Encouraging Rejection from Clarkesworld

3-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for the opportunity to read “Nevernight.” Unfortunately, your story isn’t quite what we’re looking for right now. 

In the past, we’ve provided detailed feedback on our rejections, but I’m afraid that due to time considerations, we’re no longer able to offer that service. I appreciate your interest in Clarkesworld Magazine and hope that you’ll keep us in mind in the future.

Take care,

Neil Clarke
Publisher/Editor
Clarkesworld Magazine
www.clarkesworldmagazine.com

Rejection from Ruminate

141-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for submitting and giving us a chance to consider “within & without.” 

After close review, this submission wasn’t the right fit for Ruminate. We appreciate that you think enough of our magazine to have shared it with us, and we wish you all the best with your work. 

Sincerely, 
Ruminate Magazine 

Encouraging Rejection from CRAFT

66-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read “Glimmering Sidewalks” for consideration in CRAFT. Though we enjoyed reading your work, it isn’t the right fit for us right now. 

We’re grateful you chose to share your writing with us. We wish you the best of luck with it, and hope that you will keep us in mind for future submissions. 

Sincerely, 
Editors, CRAFT

Encouraging Rejection from One Story

69-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov:

Thank you for sending us “within & without”. We really enjoyed this piece, but we didn’t feel it was right for One Story.

We hope that you will continue to send us your work.

Sincerely,

The Editors of One Story

Rejection from Museum of Words

431-day response time

Dear Arthur,

After the deliberation of the Jury, that analyzed 43,182 stories from 172 countries in Spanish, English, Arabic and Hebrew, we are happy to inform you of the decision of the V International Flash Fiction Competition of the César Egido Serrano Foundation.

The figure has far exceeded previous editions, and reaffirms us in the work of disseminating dialogue between different cultures, ideas, religions and sensibilities with the word as protagonist.

In this Edition the winner is New Yorker Devlin Elliott, for his short story “Reflections”. The remaining finalists have also been awarded runners-up in the other languages, the Mexican Tere de las Casas Mariaca; for his story in Spanish “El Paso”; the Moroccan Mohamed Hadash, for his story “Vara de Olivo” in Arabic language; and the Israeli Noam Shalit, for his Hebrew account “Tacto”.

The rest of the finalist stories will be included in an Anthology that will be published soon; we will keep you updated regarding that matter.

From the César Egido Serrano Foundation, we would like to thank you for being part of this international family with literary sensitivity.

Encouraging Rejection from Monkeybicycle

156-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for sending us “Interviewing nightmares; can’t afford more dreams”. We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, it’s not quite right for Monkeybicycle so we’re going to pass. Do feel free to send us more of your work though. 

Thanks again, and best of luck finding a home for this piece. 

Sincerely, 

Monkeybicycle Staff 

Encouraging Rejection from Nanoism

5-day response time

Thanks for submitting. I’m going to pass on this one, but please do try me again.

Best,
Ben 

Encouraging Rejection from Vestal Review

84-day response time

Very poetic. Sorry to say no, and sorry it took so long.

Mark

Rejection from Ninth Letter

71-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov,

Thanks for submitting your work to Ninth Letter. We’re sorry this submission wasn’t right for us. We appreciate your interest in our magazine, and wish you the best of luck placing your work elsewhere.

Sincerely,

The Editors

Ninth Letter

Encouraging Rejection from The Masters Review

38-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for sending us “The Price of Chivalry” for consideration in The Masters Review. While our editors enjoyed reading your work, I’m sorry to say it isn’t a good fit for us at this time. 

As writers ourselves, our editors know that the process of sending out work can be a long one. We are grateful that you chose to share your writing with us. We want you to know that your piece was read with great admiration and care. We wish you the best of luck with it, and we hope that you will keep us in mind for future submissions. 

Warmly, 
Cole Meyer 
The Masters Review 
http://www.mastersreview.com 

Rejection from McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern

612-day response time (over 1 year and 8 months)

Dear Arthur, 

Thanks for your submission, Terminus—and our apologies it’s taken us so long to respond. We rely on submissions like yours, since a good portion of what we publish comes to us unsolicited, but we’ve gotten way behind on our reading, after a few special projects. Unfortunately, we can’t find a place for this piece in our next few issues—but thanks again for giving us the chance to read your work. 

Sincerely, 

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern 

Encouraging Rejection from F&SF

3-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for giving me a chance to read “Terminus.” Unfortunately, this story didn’t quite work for me and I’m going to pass on it for Fantasy & Science Fiction. But I wish you best of luck finding the right market for it and hope that you’ll keep us in mind in the future.
Thanks also for letting us know which stories you liked in the Sept/Oct issue — it’s always good to find out which stories and which writers are connecting with readers. I appreciate that. 

Best regards,

Charlie
—
C.C. Finlay, Editor
Fantasy & Science Fiction
fandsf.com | @fandsf

Encouraging Rejection from Outlook Springs

188-day response time

Hi Art –

Thank you for your patience, and our apologies for how long this response took. (We received about 1,000 submissions more last reading period than we ever have before, and our readers have been diligently working through them.) 

In the end, “Duskwing” wasn’t quite right for us, though we hope you’ll consider submitting again in the future. Our next reading period is going to be moved from March 15 to April 15 while we catch up.

Thanks, Art.
~OS

Encouraging Rejection from Clarkesworld

8-day response time

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for the opportunity to read “Terminus.” Unfortunately, your story isn’t quite what we’re looking for right now. 

In the past, we’ve provided detailed feedback on our rejections, but I’m afraid that due to time considerations, we’re no longer able to offer that service. I appreciate your interest in Clarkesworld Magazine and hope that you’ll keep us in mind in the future.

Take care,

Neil Clarke
Publisher/Editor
Clarkesworld Magazine
www.clarkesworldmagazine.com

Rejection from Electric Literature

20-day response time

Dear Arthur, 

Thank you for sending us your work; while it was not a fit for Electric Literature, we appreciate the chance to consider it. 

Sincerely, 

Editors, 
Electric Literature

Rejection from The Common

90-day response time

Dear Arthur Klepchukov, 

Thank you for sending us “WINC-FM.” We have read it carefully and decided that, unfortunately, this piece does not fit our current editorial needs. 

Thanks again for submitting. We wish you the best. 

Sincerely, 
The Common 

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