This month, I set a goal to submit more often, something a writer must do to be published. Face it, Rita, you are slacking on this front. Are you writing? Yes. Submitting? No.
You Aren’t Submitting?
Why, you ask? Is submitting harder than writing? In a way, yes. After writing, re-writing, editing, re-writing, and so on, you put your writing out there for publishers to read, judge, and then accept or reject. Rejections are more common, and regardless of how nicely the publisher responds, they hurt. A writer might even question her ability to write a decent story. If I submit, am I a glutton for punishment? Yes… or maybe no, as evidenced by the fact that I avoid submitting, and avoidance doesn’t help my work get published.
The 100-Rejections Challenge
If you are a writer, have you heard about the 100-Rejections Challenge? If you do a search, you will find many writers who discuss it. The object is to submit your work so often that you acquire 100 rejections within one year. That’s approximately nine rejections per month. I decided to participate, but by the end of January, I only submitted two stories. A publisher accepted one story. Yay! The other publisher didn’t respond. Per their guidelines, responses are only sent to “winners” (it’s a monthly contest). If you’re counting, that means one rejection for the month, putting me at negative eight rejections for the month. Not a good start for a 2025 challenge.
During the next five months, in spite of writing and editing at least 50 micros and longer flash fiction stories, I only submitted eleven times. I received two acceptances. Another Yay! That gives me a rejection count of ten. Far less than the 50 one would expect of someone participating in a 100-Rejections Challenge.
July to December
This brings us to July and the second half of the year. My new challenge is to submit more than I did during the first half. Not difficult to beat that score. In fact, I pledged to myself to submit daily. It can be a dribble (50 words), a drabble (100 words), or any length flash fiction (less than 1,000 words). It could be a short story (1,000 to 10,000 words), if I managed to write one.
Here are the current stats. As of today, I am pleased to report that I submitted at least one flash story (micro or longer) every day in July so far. That’s more than the first six months combined! It’s too soon for acceptances and rejections to come rolling in, so I’ll share that information later. Most publishers respond (or not) within a month or two, although some may take longer. Read my weekly email, Friday Micro, for updates.
Friday Micro
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