I am delighted to let you know that I recently had a short story accepted for publication. My story, “Esparia’s Shard,” is currently Story 2 in Swords and Sorcery Magazine‘s May issue. Click here if you would like to read it.
Having a short story published is always exciting. I am especially thrilled about having this one published for two reasons. First, “Esparia’s Shard” is my first fantasy short story to be published. Though I like many genres, fantasy is my favorite, and I hope to write many fantasy books and eventually have them published. Having fantasy short story publishing credits will help with that, especially from speculative fiction (fantasy/sci-fi) magazines.
The second reason I’m so excited about this story being published is that I have been submitting it to magazines for over a year and have received countless rejections. It is incredibly encouraging that it finally found a home.
Before I started submitting short stories to magazines, a published author advised me that I needed to prepare myself for rejection. And I believed her. I mean, if some publishers rejected Harry Potter, I knew I was bound to have stories rejected. Even with that knowledge, I still cried over the first handful of rejections I received. Though I am more used to it now, I sometimes still cry if I let my hopes get too high for a specific magazine publishing one of my stories.
I originally wrote “Esparia’s Shard” in response to a themed call for submissions from a publisher I respect. Though I knew it was foolish, I couldn’t help having high hopes that my story would be accepted and included in their anthology. I was crushed when I received the rejection, but I still loved my story and was determined to have it published elsewhere.
Over the next several months, I submitted it to numerous speculative fiction magazines and received rejections from all of them. I couldn’t help but wonder what was “wrong” with my story and why it didn’t fit what they were looking for. I tried shortening it and doing some minor edits, but it didn’t seem to help. After a while, I thought “Esparia’s Shard” might never be published.
Then, I received similar feedback from two of the magazines that rejected my story. Even though I liked the story the way I wrote it, I decided to revise it based on their advice. When I finished, I started submitting the story again, and eventually, Swords and Sorcery Magazine accepted it for publication.
This experience taught me to never give up on having a story I love published and to be open to revising my stories based on feedback. I have a few stories that have been rejected as many times as “Esparia’s Shard” was, and I will continue to submit them. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to post about them being published, too.
How has submitting stories gone for you? Let me know in the comments.
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