Aeryn Rudel's Blog

I set a lot of personal submission records in 2018 (year four), and though year five wasn’t nearly as good, I maintained both a solid number of submissions and a respectable number of acceptances. In other words, I was consistent, and that’s not a bad way to be in the grueling and often cruel world of publishing. This is not to say there wasn’t some regression, but it’s the kind I can live with. Anyway, let’s take a look at Rejectomancy year five.

Total stats for 2019. 

After the b...

Today on The Daily NO, we’re going to look at the first rejection I received for a story that would go on to collect a record-setting (for me) 25 rejections before I sold it. This is definitely a case of sticking with a story you believe in, even when the NOs start really piling up.

Okay, let’s take a look.

Rejection #7

Story: “When Stars Fall”Length: Short StoryGenre: Science FictionPublisher: Diabolical PlotsPublisher Tier: ProSubmitted: 8/10/21Further Consideration Letter: 8/15/21Rej...

Welp, another month has come and gone, and it’s time to tally up and see how I did submission-wise for August. Let’s take a look.

August 2025 Short Story StatsSubmissions Sent: 10Rejections: 4No Response: 1Acceptances: 1Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0Withdrawals: 0Pending: 14New Stories: 1

I sent 10 submissions in August, which is not bad, but it does put me behind my goal a bit. I’ve got 83 subs in total for the year, and if I want to hit my goal of 15...

After what seemed an unmitigated submission disaster in 2017, I really turned a corner in 2018 and had one of my best years to date. In fact, 2018 was so good, I’ve yet to equal it in either number of submissions or number of acceptances. That’s quite a rebound, and 2018 gave me a lot of confidence to up my game in terms of where I was sending my work in years to come. Anyway, let’s dive into Rejectomancy year four and see what we can see.

Total stats for 2018. 

When 2018 started, ...

Today on The Daily No, it’s another first. The rejection we’ll be discussing today is my first ever personal rejection with actual feedback from an editor. It was a momentous occasion, and the first time I really felt like I was making actual progress. What’s interesting about this rejection is that it’s the also first time I encountered the following submission truisms. One, even good stories get rejected, and, related to that, two, not every good story is a good fit for every publisher/editor....

Next up on The Daily No, we’re traveling all the way back to the beginning, to the first rejection I received once I started tracking my submissions on Duotrope. Imagine, if you will, a warm spring day in Seattle, circa 2012. A baby writer waits excitedly to hear back about the perfect, wonderful story he’s submitted to a pro market that is sure to be accepted and published (it’s perfect and wonderful, remember?) only to have his hopes and dreams cruelly dashed by the unfeeling juggernaut of the...

Year three of Rejectomancy was a bit of a wake-up call. After three straight years of increasing submissions and acceptances, I kind of fell off a cliff in 2017. It was one of those years that tests you, makes you ask the question: am I good enough to do this? As usual, the answer is not a simple yes or no, it’s always a frustrating maybe? So, let’s look at year three and see what happened.

Total stats for 2017. 

I went into 2017 determined to send more submissions than I ever had, ...

Okay, I’m gonna start a new series. I’m gonna to show you one of my rejections (almost) every day for as long as either of us can stand it. I’ve got hundreds, so we should have material for YEARS. Anyway, I’ll give you all the stats on the story and submission, show you the rejection, and then talk about what we can learn from it. As always, these posts will be for educational purposes, to see what we can learn from rejections. They will absolutely NOT be some kind of childish callout for editor...

My second year as a blogger and serious story submitter gave me legitimate hope that there might actually be a future to this whole writing thing. In addition to short story sales, I also published my first novel with Privateer Press and was doing a lot of freelance writing to boot. Still, this post will focus on the short story stuff, and, well, 2016 was a pretty good year. Let’s take a closer look. 

Here are my total stats (pulled once again straight from Duotrope) for 2016. 

Fift...

I started Rejectomancy in July of 2015, a period of time that coincided with me getting serious about short story submissions. So, in many ways, Rejectomancy is kind of detailed record of my writing journey as I transitioned from game designer/writer to a fiction writer. The first year of Rejectomancy was a pretty eventful one. I sent out more submissions than I ever had, and I started getting some good acceptances, too. The real theme of this year was trying to figure out where my work belonged...