From the File of Nice Rejection Letters

I received a nice rejection letter last week by email. Contents below:

Dear Renee,

We thank you for submitting your story, "Her Own Private Idaho," to Electric Literature, though it was not chosen for publication in our journal.

We are committed to publishing short stories by both new and more established writers, and hope that you will consider sending us your best work in the future.

Sincerely,

Editors,
Electric Literature

www.electricliterature.com

Renee,

Just wanted to let you know that a reader said there was "something really nice about this writing" and described it as "fluid, easy to read."
Thank you for sharing your work with us.

Ben

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 12:54 AM, renee simms wrote:

Attached please find my story "Her Own Private Idaho". Thanks for reading my work.

Renee Simms

*****

Something about that personal note at the end, made it easier to accept and sent me back to my rejection letter folder to find the "nice" letters I've received through the years:


Some were just short handwritten notes:



And some were a bit longer:


But each was a nice surprise in a process that can wear on the nerves. Look for pics of more letters in a following post....

Summertime Story Looking for Good Home

I've been reading, writing, revising. I've surprised myself with how focused I've become. I have a story that needs a home, but this is not the easiest time to find journals that are looking for new work to publish. I've found a few that are still accepting submissions during this vacation season. The Boston Review, Fence, Oregon Literary Review, Crazyhorse, and Denver Syntax are all still open to submissions. There are many more, I'm sure, especially if you include snail-mail submissions or journals like Glimmertrain that require a reading or contest fee. But the going is tough.

I write the most in June and July, but I will probably be waiting until fall to send out what I write.

Toward 21st Century Rules for Short Story Submissions

I met with a group of fiction writers this weekend and the topic of conversation eventually turned to the task of submitting short stories for publication. No one I know either a) still does this or b) does it and likes it. And it has nothing to do with the fear of rejection. The problem is that the system is woefully outdated. Who in the world has time to fill out a SASE? Who wants to buy postage stamps for godssake? There have been articles written about the death of the SASE and how all literary journals will eventually be online or at least take online submissions. Still, progress in this area is moving slowly.

So here are my lists, based on recent personal experience, of who takes online submissions and who doesn't. I did not include journals that require a mandatory fee. And these lists are for short story subs only:

Journals that have an Online Submission Manager:
42 Opus
AGNI
Blatimore Review
Boston Review
Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Arts
Fence
Glimmertrain
One Story
The Kenyon Review
Ninth Letter
Our Stories
The Virginia Quarterly Review
Witness
Quarterly West
Tin House

Journals that take Email Submissions:
Blackbird
Columbia Review
Colorado Review
Denver Syntax
Literary Mama
Monkeybicycle
Pindeldyboz
The Summerset Review
The New Yorker
Oklahoma Review
Oregon Literary Review
The St. Ann's Review
McSweeny's Quarterly
Fantasy Magazine
Superstition Review
Storyglossia

Journals that Only Do Snail Mail (Boo!):
Alaska Quarterly Review
Antioch Review
Arts & Letters
Atlantic Monthly
Brooklyn Review
The Gettysburg Review
Granta
Harper's
Hawai'i Review
The Ledge
Louisiana Review
Nimrod
Southwestern American Literature
Wisconsin review
North American Review
The Sun
Indiana Review
Cimarron Review

Please correct me where I'm wrong and feel free to add to the list. For a more comprehensive list of publications that take electronic submissions go to www.duotrope.com