I Got Rejected

LAST WEEK, I WENT DOWN my list that I got off of Ralan and emailed my first short story to The Dark, a magazine that publishes short stories about horror and dark fantasy. This was my first time sending anything off to a magazine. Originally, I wanted to send my stories to a literary agent that publishes short stories, but I didn’t know if my query letter should be about each individual story, or just let the literary agent know what I was doing. None of the literary agents had submission guidelines for short stories, so I thought the least I could do was ask. 

None of them responded. 

I thought at least one would respond and say, “here’s how you send us short stories.”

I finally said, “fuck it,” and put the entire list of literary agents aside, and went to my list of magazines. I understand that literary agents have a rough job and are limited on time; many even work part time jobs because they have to sell the book to a publisher before they can get paid, and the time to get a book published traditionally can take up to 2 years. 

I started at the top of my magazine list and sent a short story, Late Night Love with KD to them. Late Night Love with KD starts out like a romance story, but in reality, it’s about toxic masculinity that goes dark. Men can be such entitled cunts sometimes. 

I got the idea years ago when I would listen to Delilah on Lite 98. At night, people would call in with their sappy love stories, stories about heartbreak, and some were just calling to celebrate the love of their life. Sometimes I wondered, whatever happened to that dude who called in and said he had met his forever? Did they make it? I’m sure many of them did make it and are probably still together; or at least I hope they are.

Most of my stories do not have a happy ending, and this one is no different.

What does all this have to do with submitting to The Dark? Not a damn thing; I just wanted to tell you about the story. After submitting to the magazine, I hoped to be accepted by their editors. But they didn’t. 

They sent me a professional response letting me know that it wasn’t what they were looking for but they hoped I’d consider them in the future. I sent them a strongly worded email that they can go fuck themselves.

Just kidding. In reality, I actually smiled. Why? Even though I didn’t get accepted, the fact that they emailed me back and let me know they’d read it was somewhat fulfilling. I was so nervous about submitting my story, but I’m glad I did. 

So what now?

Well … I submit the story to another magazine, finish up another short story, and go from there. At some point, a story that I submit will be accepted and that keeps me going