WARNING: The
following story may contain some mixed messages.
I begin today’s
lesson with an announcement. The great sci-fi forum known as Daily Science Fiction has agreed to
publish another of my short stories! Those of you with scary good memories may
remember “Cognito, Ergo Sum”, my first story with them—actually my first professional
publication ever—that came out in September of 2016 (P.S. it is a short story, so if you finish it
quickly and want to read more there’s always my Published Works page). Anyway, I liked the publication
and its community so much that I thought I’d try to put another of my stars
into the DSF galaxy. Which leads me to the first warning I’d like to give you
all.
1)
Do
not over-submit to one publication.
DSF had rejected
me once before they took “Cognito, Ergo Sum.” Between that story and the one
they’ve currently accepted, I made…(checks records)…yes, seven more attempts, and they weren’t shabby attempts if I do say
so myself. For me, that is a lot of tries, and I’m certain that some writers
have produced a bulk of flash-fictions for a machine-gun-style submission
process; as soon as one story gets rejected, they fire right back with another
one. Even though I’ve used a similar process a time or two, I’m not really a
fan of such a method—I don’t know how attentive editors are to authors’ names,
but I don’t want to run the risk of becoming “That One Writer” who makes the
staff roll their eyes at your latest shenanigan in their inbox. Seven
rejections is probably pretty mild, but it still felt like a lot. I decided to
take a different angle with Number Eight—which leads to caution Number Two.
2)
Do
not base your story on the publication’s rejection letter.
They say to write
what you know. I knew a lot about the DSF rejection form letter. Therefore, my
latest 500-ish-word effort, “The DSF Rejection Ceremony”, was a brief
probably-fictional account of what happens every time a short story is
rejected. It wasn’t anything bitter or vindictive; in fact, it was dramatic to
the point of comical, not blaming the editors for the disappointing form letter
that the writers receive and acknowledging how difficult it must be to reject
so much work so frequently. At any rate, it was fun to write, and I kind of
figured that the poor DSF editorial staff would get a kick out of it. Heck,
rejecting the story would be rather appropriate.
Then, in
mid-November of last year, I got an email from DSF. As was my custom, I
flinched when I saw it in my inbox.
Contrary to my
expectations, it was a brief letter personally written (I assume) by the
editors Jonathan and Michele themselves. This was the entire missive:
Benjamin,
I love this. I doubt we'll publish it, will have to
ponder, but it does feed my narcissism quite nicely! Well done.
- Jonathan &
Michele, Daily Science Fiction
After—yes, I keep
bringing this up—seven straight rejections, this new communication seemed to be
a fresh chance at salvation, even though they said they doubted its chances.
But a chance was a chance, so I did the third thing that you really shouldn’t
do when submitting:
3)
Do
not reply to rejection letters.
A lot of
publications make it clear that they do not want anyone complaining back to
them if one of their stories is not accepted. As a rule, it is a good idea to
not address an editor unless they ask for it. But in this case, I judged that
A) this wasn’t really a rejection letter, as they implied there was still a
chance, and B) this was a personal letter—so there was a better probability
that they’d actually read a reply. So I replied. It was basically a list of
reasons why it would be a great idea
to publish “The DSF Rejection Ceremony.” I kept it polite (if sometimes
humorous—I believe it does people good to laugh at emails), tried to keep
everything short, and made it clear that—accepted or rejected—I appreciated
their time and the opportunity they presented.
I don’t know
whether or not it was read. All I know is that, a few days after Christmas, I
got another email from DSF. After my customary flinch, I read it.
I have the good
fortune of knowing what their form acceptance letter looks like, so this new
message appeared to me like an old friend. Well…it wasn’t completely a form letter. At the bottom there was an added
postscript:
“We understand
that we are being mocked, and yet we are amused.”
That is one of
the highest compliments to my writing that I have ever received.
In conclusion,
keep an eye out for “The DSF Rejection Ceremony” in the relatively near
future—if it’s not on my Published Works page already—and please please please
don’t do anything I did when submitting your own short stories. In my humble
opinion, the story above is evidence that divine intervention has a sense of
humor.
P.S. After I
wrote the first draft of this post, the new publication Sonder Midwest replied to one of my
queries—they’ve accepted another sci-fi/comedy short story of mine! It’s been a
pretty good month here.
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