Submission Sunday - August 2023

putting it out there

Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

It’s Submission Sunday!

Today, I submitted 3 flash pieces to 5 markets! Fist-bump anyone?

How about you? Leave a comment below if you were able to submit your writing today. We will celebrate together!

Wondering where to submit? Check out these open calls for submissions:

• The Forge Literary Magazine – Flash Fiction Competition: Submissions are open until September 1^st.

• New Flash Fiction Review is accepting Flash Fiction Submissions until September 15^th.

• October Hill Magazine is accepting Short Stories until September 15th

Or, if those don’t appeal, check out these writing contest opportunities in September:

• Big List Writing Contests (September)

I’ve been thinking a lot about submissions lately. Or maybe, more accurately, I’ve been thinking a lot about rejections. Most rejections I’ve received have been generic form letters. They go something like this: “We’re passing on this piece, but thanks for thinking of us, and we wish you luck.” Sometimes the letter includes a “please send us more” and sometimes not. But the notes are usually short, to the point and cordial. Par for the course.

There are a few magazines that I don’t submit to anymore because they don’t even acknowledge submissions with an auto-response email, nor do they send any response if the work is rejected (which, with the available technology, setting up auto-response correspondence requires little time or effort, and unless we are talking about The New Yorker or The Paris Review or a few other Mags at that level if the magazine can’t be bothered even to acknowledge a writer, why bother to submit to them (or to read them for that matter… but maybe that’s just me.)

I have occasionally received more personalized rejection letters letting me know I made it to the final rounds or the editorial table, and those letters are like a drop of rain in the desert… not as good as an acceptance - but sustaining. And when those letters also contain a bit of feedback that I didn’t pay for? Well, that is like catching a glimpse of a unicorn - magical.

And I get it, magazines are inundated with thousands of unsolicited submissions, and most magazines are a labor of love, not profit, so anything more than a form letter rejection is not possible – there are only so many hours in the day after all.

But last week, I received a rejection letter from a magazine that was outright rude. That’s right folks, Rude (and I am not an overly sensitive person!) What made this letter worse was that it was a form letter. I mean, come on. Why bother creating a harsh form letter? Why not just be cordial - as 99% of all magazines are? Since I have received hundreds of rejections, I know that this is not the norm. And so, I scratched this magazine from my submission list, and I’ll move on. But it got me thinking:

First – THIS IS NOT THE NORM. For those of you who are new to the submission game, if you are unfortunate enough to receive this type of letter out of the gate, you can just ignore it! It is not typical, and I guarantee that the magazine that sent it either won’t last long or is not where you would want your work to appear.

Second – Rejection Sucks. I find it interesting that even while following my own advice, as well as having been the recipient of a few of those elusive acceptance letters… this one rejection just stuck with me all week, like a kernel of popcorn between my teeth. Which brings me to my third and final thought…

Third – I Need to FLIP IT! (No, I don’t mean ‘give it the bird’, although I am tempted.) Brain research tells us that our brains are a magnet for negativity. Neural connections are made nearly instantaneously at the first sign of “danger”. Although I am hardly facing down actual wolves in my day-to-day, my brain perceives the rude rejection as a danger, and so “boom”… instant neural connection, deregulation of my nervous system and a week of self-doubt, anxiety and angst. But here is the kicker…it takes 10-20 seconds for something positive to “stick” in our brains. Think about that… count it out in your head… one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand, you get it. The moral of the story is – we need to find ways to flip those negatives to positives and then we need to celebrate them, letting them sink in for at least 20 seconds.

So, do this with me…

If you’ve received a rejection letter this month:

• Open up the letter, read it and then say this (yes, say it out-loud, even if you feel silly): “Wow. X magazine read my work!”

• Straighten your spine, place your hands on your hips (yes Superman pose, especially if you feel silly) and say this slowly: “I am awesome [big breath]. I am powerful [big breath]. I got this [big breath].”

• Now, breathe and actively celebrate that you did it. You sent your work out into the world and total strangers read it and now you are part of a bright and vibrant community of writers. Congratulations! (And “BAM” a NEW POSITIVE neural connection has been made!)

Whatever your writing practice looked like this month – Celebrate It! That is how we build a positive writing practice. If you didn’t have anything ready to submit today, no worries… we’ll submit again together on Sunday, September 23^rd.

Happy Writing!

*******Post Update!***** right before I clicked “Publish” on this post, I received an ACCEPTANCE letter for one of my pieces. Proof positive that the aforementioned affirmation works! Keep going… you got this!