I’ve edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies at this point, and have had to send out lots of rejection letters. You should never take those personally. It’s just all part of the process. (I’ve received plenty of my own as well).
Sometimes the rejection is because the story isn’t good enough. You can’t deny that’s the case. But sometimes it’s for other reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the story.
Such as:
It doesn’t fit with the theme. This one happens a lot. I have an anthology about dragons and you send me a perfectly fine story that does not have even one dragon in it. Great story, but doesn’t belong in this anthology. Plus, you’ve just made me mad at having to spend time reading a story that you sent in without reading the guidelines for submission. Which leads to the next point:
It doesn’t follow the guidelines. This makes editors the most frustrated. If we say we want stories under 5000 words, don’t go sending us a 7500 word story. Follow the guidelines!
It doesn’t fit with the other stories. Doing an anthology is like arranging a mix tape. You want a good variety of serious and funny and short and long, and you want to start and end strong, and if you have too many of one thing, you just have to cut something to make it all work well together. Or, alternatively, you have a whole bunch of really scary stories and then someone sends in a hilarious story that is otherwise great but would stick out terribly surrounded by all the other ones. All good anthology editors have to consider not just which stories they like best but which ones fit together to make the best collection.
It repeats a theme from another story. If I get two stories about court jesters wanting to marry the princess, I’m not going to pick both no matter how good they are. This is nothing you can prevent, of course, but it has happened. (The example about the court jesters is absolutely true and happened with one my anthologies.)
There’s no more room. My publisher won’t take an anthology over a certain number of words because then the book becomes too expensive to print without raising the cost to the point where it will hurt sales. I hate having to cut stories I love but I often have to do that because I only have so much room. I can’t take them all.
Personal taste. Hopefully, if you’ve read the anthologies I’ve edited or my own books, you know my tastes in stories. If you agree, then hopefully you’ll also like my next anthology. But obviously, I’m going to pick stories I like. A different editor could pick completely different ones. It doesn’t mean that your rejected story was bad–it just means I didn’t like it as much as other ones. When I edit an anthology with another editor, this point becomes very clear. There are stories I love that I want in the anthology that the other editor doesn’t want in, and vice versa.
The writer. I have to be honest here–writing is an art, but publishing is a business. If I have two stories I like but I only have room for one, I’m going to pick the writer who can better sell the book. If you’re a prominent author whose name on the cover will help sell the book, well, can you blame me for wanting that story? But even if you are not a Big Famous Author, if you have a great social media presence and I see that you’ll go out of your way to promote the book, I’m more likely to choose your story over the reclusive writer who never leaves their room.
(A caveat to that last bit: If you’ve never been published before, let the editor know that. We can use that in our publicity. We all want to discover the next great new talent. If your story is good enough, no one will care that you have never been published before.)
So if and when you get a rejection of your story, never take it personally. It doesn’t mean your story is bad. The rejection may have had nothing to do with the quality of your story.
Filed under: writing | Tagged: Editorial choices, What editors look for, Why your story was rejected | Leave a comment »
Michael A. Ventrella 