I received the official ‘Dear Kyle’ letter from Kathleen Warnock concerning my Best Lesbian Erotica 2013 submission today. The rejection was sweetened by her saying that my story was definitely publishable, just not selected by this year’s guest editor. I told Roxy about it and do you know what she did? After expressing condolences and the opinion that they must be stupid heads, she issued this challenge:
“Earn 100 rejection letters.”
Yes, in her combined role as my best friend, writing partner and Sir, she gave me a submission challenge: submit enough pieces to earn 100 rejections. Each time I get accepted, it puts me behind on my challenge. I can’t be choosy and pick just a few cherry anthologies each year, I have to put myself out there in a big way. I have to be a literary submission slut.
Once she had me hooked, she upped the anty a bit. She told me to put a counter on my blog, to track rejections. I’m going to do one better, I’ll track submissions vs. rejections, so my fat is held to the fire a bit. So far I’ve submitted to 7 publications since last year, and received 5 rejections. If I want to keep the pace lively, I’d better shoot for at least 10 rejections by the end of the year. To do that, I probably have to send out at least a dozen submissions, because who knows, I might get accepted. Man… this is gonna be work. I have a feeling I’m gonna get to know Lambda Literary and other submission sites pretty well before this year is out.
Rejections so far: BLE 2012, Say Please, the quicky lesbian sex one, the Salacious Work issue and now, BLE 2013…
Soooo… anyone want to join me on this challenge? Maybe 100 is a lot, wanna go for 10?
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