Multiple Choice: Why Your Submission Was Rejected

This list is by no means comprehensive or prescriptive.

1. The writing simply wasn’t good, where good quantifies a subjective combination of the ability to garner the reader’s interest and the ability to tell some kind of story in a way we have not yet seen. It is okay to tell a story that has been told before, but if it isn’t being done in a way that is interesting, your submission likely won’t work for us.

2. There were an excessive amount of typographical errors. We are human, we will overlook one or two but when we can’t get through a sentence without tripping over mechanical flaws, there will be trouble.

3. Some element of your writing touched upon some personal quirk we might have. For me, it is cats. Weird, I know, but excessive literary treatments of cats are simply too much for me. All four of us have little quirks so it’s not really your fault if you step into this minefield. Just try again.

4. Your story was good, but not good enough. In a conversation with another writer over the weekend, he said to know the difference between your major and minor works. I think that is excellent advice for all writers. We want your major works.

5. Writing overly informed by current events. We’re in a recession. We know. We got the memo and everything. We’re also aware of the war in Iraq, the recent election, etc etc etc.

6. Writing that clearly demonstrates a lack of familiarity with the work we publish. Sometimes we get really wonderful writing that would be more appropriate for a more traditional market. While we enjoy and publish all manner of writing, there are some styles we prefer over others.

7. Form-based writing where the form is just there to be there, but doesn’t significantly contribute to the narrative. In other words, if the story (or poem or whatever) can exist without the form, then there’s no need to have the form (ie. a list or   similar conceit).

8. Writing about dreams where the creative work is clearly more about the writer letting the world know about his or her dream than anything else. A personal blog is a more appropriate venue for that sort of thing.

9. We really enjoy experimental work but there’s a difference between experimental writing and nonsense. Your writing has to have a purpose. We may not see it at first but we would like you to get us to a place where it somehow comes together.   You can’t just string some words together in a nonsensical manner and think that you’re part of the literary avant garde. Experimental writing is, in many ways, an art. Be an artist.

10. Stories about marriages are tricky because there are so many out there. If you’re going to choose this trope, tread carefully. Stories where the husband is dissatisfied or the housewife is desperate, we’ve read those. We’ve also read divorce stories. Your characters feel trapped. Their lives are over. They hate their children. They love their children. They want children. They had children. That’s all well and good, but show us something we don’t already know about these couples.

11. Excessive gore. We don’t have any guidelines about content because we never want to close ourselves to potential but if you’re going to use gore, as with form, it needs to have a purpose and it needs to propel the creative work toward something grander. If you want to write about a serial killer, fine, but the bar is set at the level of say, Showtime’s Dexter. He’s a pretty interesting serial killer.

12. An overdependence on song lyrics. When there are more lyrics than prose or poetics, you’re letting someone else do your work for you.

13. You have a great story but we can’t find it because your writing isn’t well-organized. Know where your story begins and where it ends.

14. Your poetry is overly maudlin or self-indulgent. That’s not enjoyable to read.

15. Sometimes, we read poetry where it seems that the writer has taken a paragraph of prose and arbitrarily created line breaks and stanzas. Poetic form is a complicated thing and can’t be taken on haphazardly.

16. Thinly veiled political rants. There are more appropriate venues for political essays. We respect your leanings but again, that type of writing is not what we’re likely to publish.

17. Trying too hard. Sometimes we get submissions where the writer has perhaps read our published works a bit too closely and then tries to imitate a given style or writer in the hopes that their work will catch our attention. We can generally see through that sort of thing. Imitation is the highest form of flattery but we prefer originality and are more interested in your voice than your imitation of another writer’s voice.

18. Discourteous behavior. You said something we didn’t appreciate in your cover letter and by that I mean something really rude and/or obnoxious. This happens rarely, but we’re pretty polite and we appreciate when that politesse is reciprocated.

19. Writing where the writer has yet to meet an adjective and/or adverb they don’t like. Description is nice but there such a thing as too much a good thing.

20. A lack of authenticity. We don’t believe in that   write what you know commandment that is constantly making the creative writing workshop rounds but we do believe that you should write what is real and if you don’t know what it will take to make your poem or story or whatever authentic, then write something else. Having said that, real doesn’t mean we’re only interested realism. We enjoy magical realism, surrealism, etc.

21. Something we can’t quite put our finger on. Sometimes, we get submissions that are competent but for whatever reason, they don’t sit well with us. There’s no rhyme nor reason to this. It is unfortunate but it happens.

22. The basics–no plot, silly plot, unrealistic plot, poorly drawn characters, over reliance on dialogue, insufficient dialogue, and so on.

23. And this goes without saying—your submission, in some egregious way, doesn’t adhere to our guidelines.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, submit!