Write with Other Markets in Mind: a Backup Plan for Rejected Stories

[dannye_chase]

 

Write with Other Markets in Mind: a Backup Plan for Rejected Stories

As writers, we sometimes create a story for a specific call for submissions—winter stories or small-town sci-fi—something that really sparks our muse. It’s wonderful when those stories are accepted, but of course, that’s not always the case. And if the story is rejected, you’ve got to try to sell it elsewhere.

I wrote a piece for SFWA about how to rewrite a story for a different call, but you can get ahead of the game by writing with that possible rejection in mind. If you make the story match common submission guidelines, you’ve got a built-in plan B. Here are three things to consider.

Word count

Many, many publications ask for a story less than 5,000 words, or a flash story of less than 1,000, so those are good targets to aim for. In fact, those word counts are so common that there’s a good chance your call will have them already. But if your call has a longer limit, you’ve got two options: either keep it under 5,000 or have a plan to cut down the story if it’s rejected.

Genre greats

Genres have favorites. You’ll have to research your own genre to figure out what publications are looking for, but as an example, I write a lot of horror. So I know there are quite a few places (especially podcasts) that will take a scary, suspenseful horror piece with common tropes readers love—haunted house, lake monster, ghost train, etc. And I know there are a lot of publications looking for horror with a female main character, and not many want vampires or werewolves. So if I see a call for horror stories with a winter setting, I can write about a woman discovering something monstrous frozen at the bottom of a lake. And that will fit quite a few publications.

Watch out for super-specific calls

A podcast or magazine will run out of stories if they choose to publish only summertime urban horror about clocks. But a one-time anthology or themed magazine issue can be as specific as they like. There’s no problem with writing such a story—those are great markets! The problem comes when lots of writers produce clock stories, and then most get rejected at the same time. This means other publications will be inundated with rejected clock stories, and they’re certainly not going to take very many of them.

One solution is to simply hold onto your rejected story for a while, until the flood of clocks has dried up. Another is to put something else specific in your story that will make it right for other publications, in a way many other clock stories won’t be. Go back to your genre greats. Make it scary, suspenseful horror with a monster, and you’ve opened up more markets for yourself.

 

Of course, if you’ve got a great idea for a story that won’t fit anywhere else, absolutely write that. If you don’t feel like writing to common word counts or genre greats, then don’t. But if you’re sitting in front of a blank page with no plot bunny hopping about, it can make sense to plot and write with rejection in mind. It never hurts to have a backup plan.

Here’s where to find those calls for submissions.

This article was first published on my writing blog          

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