Things to Avoid

Please consider the following with your submission:
  • We can't use erotica. Authors could include sex, but it's not "the point"...
  • We don't enjoy gore. Tales might be violent, but not "slasher"...
  • We don't deal well with cruelty or indecent acts, especially against children
  • No writing exercises or workshop leftovers
  • Relationship breakups are over-used
  • Don't send work we've already declined, unless we specifically ask for revisions
  • Watch your word count and submit accordingly, no exceptions on limits
  • Your flash fiction should not have more than one point of view
  • We value the elevation from anecdote to narrative (this means your work is not an extended joke, a story fun to tell at a party/bar, and it's not conversational)
  • Character sketches are insufficient to carry a plot through to resolution
  • Fiction formatted as a letter of correspondence usually doesn't allow the reader to see past the narrative voice
  • We've never published a 2nd person narrative

Execution

Here are some concepts that attract rejection letters: 
  • previously published; previously rejected; tone not a good fit for us;
  • cliché; trite; shallow; sentimental; idyllic; supercilious; 
  • didactic; preachy; polemic; epistolary; topical; fable; melodramatic;
  • vignette; anecdote; reminiscent; familiar; bar-tale; pretentious;
  • unoriginal; unskilled; improbable; predictable; unfocused; shapeless;
  • uninsightful; unappealing; long; disappointing;
  • repetitive; clunky; disjoint; unpolished; undeveloped; plotless;
  • stilted; nonsensical; unclear;
  • overwritten; exposition-heavy; reflective;
  • proofread; dialogue; characterization; point-of-view;

A staggering list, if you think about it. You can avoid a lot of this if you just develop your material sufficiently. Check out the graphic provided by Bartleby Snopes this month for an analysis of over 160 rejection letters they mailed:


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