submitting writing – Ink-Stained Wretches

The End of a Dream?

My first published story appeared in Analog: Science Fiction and Fact in 2012. Since about 2020, I’ve been making a concerted effort to land a story in that magazine’s sister mystery magazines, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (EQMM) and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (AHMM). This has been my dream, my professional goal for years now. Thanks to changes in the industry, I may need to find a new goal.

Those who don’t follow the short fiction world may not be aware that a handful of the top paying professional mystery and science fiction magazines were sold to new owners in the last six months. Analog: Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, EQMM, and AHMM were operated by Dell Magazines which was owned by Penny Press since 1996. The magazines were purchased earlier this year by Must Read Magazines, a division of Must Read Publishing, which is owned by Paragraph 1, Inc. Paragraph 1 also purchased The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction which had been owned by Gordon Van Gelder since 2001.

What does that mean for readers?

So far, not much, other than a delay in the release of the latest magazine. My July/August issue of AHMM arrived this week, late under the previous publication timeline. The editors at the mystery magazines remain the same, which suggests that kinds of stories chosen for publication will remain the same.

What does this mean for authors?

Contract changes galore! UGLY ONES! The new owners have disposed of the old contracts, which were industry-standard short fiction contracts, and replaced them with new contracts that do not reflect the industry standard in any way.

The changes to the contracts are so extreme that authors are protesting loudly. Some, like Kristine Kathryn Rusch, have publicly announced that they will not be submitting to the magazines anymore and have pulled all pending stories because of failed contract negotiations. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and Mystery Writers of America have both reviewed the contracts and entered negotiations on behalf of authors in hopes of improving the contract terms. Writer Beware has issued a warning statement on the contract terms, which included a waiver of moral rights and clauses covering production, merchandising, reprint, anthology, and other rights. The Submission Grinder formally delisted all of the magazines because of these “non-standard” contract terms.

In response, the owners of Must Read Magazines state that they are revising the contracts, supposedly replacing the moral rights waiver with other language. But even if that waiver is removed, the intellectual property rights grab involving production, merchandising, reprints, anthology, and other rights may remain.

This leaves me questioning what I should do. My last story in the queue at EQMM was recently rejected, but I have two stories submitted to AHMM right now. Do I leave them in the queue and see how negotiations play out? Do I pull them, as other authors have done, and submit them elsewhere?

If the top authors are pulling out, the quality of the magazines may decrease. Admittedly, my chances of getting a story published increase if others choose not to submit. But do I want to be in a magazine only because others decided the terms of the contract were too unfair? Does that make me a scab, willing to accept harmful terms out of desperation? Do authors stand a better chance of getting better terms if we all reject onerous contracts? We are all free-lancers with loose affiliations through memberships in writing organizations, not members of a union.

For now, this is all just a thought exercise about a dream, a goal I’d set for myself, a goal I may have to reset.

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N. M. Cedeño is a short story writer and novelist living in Texas. She is active in Sisters in Crime- Heart of Texas Chapter and is a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Find out more at nmcedeno.com.

Submissions and Rejections

By N.M. Cedeño

No one likes rejection. Being rejected certainly doesn’t feel good, but anyone who wants to write (and who isn’t self-publishing their work) has to become inured to receiving rejections. While some of my stories have been accepted on their first submission, the vast majority of my traditionally published work was rejected at least once before it was accepted for publication. If I believed that the rejections were commentaries on the quality of the stories, I might have thrown the stories in a drawer after the first rejection and given up. This post is for everyone out there whose fellow writers and beta readers have told them their work is ready for publication, but who are afraid of rejection or think a single rejection is the end of the line.

Sometimes stories (even phenomenal stories that go on to win awards, so I’ve heard) take multiple submissions to find a publication home. These stories, through no fault of the story or the author, simply have trouble landing at the right market with the right editor at the right moment.

If I was the type of person to give up on a story and forget it after one rejection or even after five rejections, several of my stories would never have been published in magazines or anthologies.

Why do some stories take multiple submissions to be accepted if the story is well-written and ready for publication? Mostly, the story has to land in the right niche.

For example, one of my stories, “The Wrong Side of History,” ended up finding a home after ten submissions in After Dinner Conversation, which publishes stories that examine particular ethical questions. The story contains difficult subject matter that some editors won’t touch. I knew the story would be a hard one to place when I wrote it, so I wasn’t surprised when it wasn’t accepted until its tenth submission. Since the story was partially inspired by a paragraph in an article I read in a bioethics textbook, a magazine devoted to advancing ethical discussions was definitely the best place for it. The story can be found in After Dinner Conversation: Season Five.

Another hard-to-place story, “It Came Upon a Midnight Ice Storm,” was a cozy Christmas mystery. It was accepted on its ninth submission. I can find far more markets right now for dark crime fiction than for cozies, let alone Christmas cozies. Trying to figure out the right time to submit a seasonal story for a particular market is also difficult. Happily, I spotted an open call for cozy mysteries from Black Cat Mystery Magazine and found this story a home in issue #12 Cozies.

Other stories just linger on submission. Who knows why.

Recently another story with a long submission history was published. I wrote the first version of “The Ghostly Lady’s Curse” in about 2013, then left it in a file for a while. As near as I can tell, I rewrote a second version of it in 2017 and reviewed the story almost every time I submitted it after that. This was one of those stories that I kept tweaking– a word here, a sentence there, a paragraph added, a paragraph removed– between submissions, as opposed to one that I simply turned around and resubmitted without any changes. While the heart of the story never changed, the details did. On its tenth submission, it finally found a home in the Inkd Publishing anthology Detectives, Sleuths, and Nosy Neighbors.

My ghost story, “A Lonely Death,” which was published in Noncorporeal II from Inkd Publishing, was accepted on its eleventh submission. Among all my stories, this story has the dubious distinction of having the most submissions before being accepted. I changed a word here and there, but after about the third submission, simply resubmitted it. I had a reader tell me recently that they thought this is one of my best stories ever, which is nice to hear!

A glance through my submission records spreadsheet shows I have two other stories with lengthy submission histories. One story that I particularly like and want to see in publication is on its tenth submission. I’m hopeful that it will be accepted soon. But I know it might take some time to find the right market. The story in question contains difficult material, making it doubly hard to place. If it’s not accepted this time around, then maybe it will tie or set a new “number of submissions before publication” record.

If you want to see one of your stories published in a magazine or anthology, and you receive a rejection, DON’T GIVE UP! Don’t dwell on the rejection. Resubmit. Consider rejections as stepping stones to eventual publication.

A New Story Coming Soon and Updates

By N.M. Cedeño

I have a couple stories pending publication right now. One of the publishers revealed an author list and book cover this month.

My story “The Ghostly Lady’s Curse” is scheduled to be published in an anthology entitled Detectives, Sleuths, and Nosy Neighbors from Inkd Publishing. The publisher announced the author line-up for the anthology this month. You can see the announcement here.

I am pleased to see “The Ghostly Lady’s Curse” published. It’s one of those pieces that languished on the computer, ignored for years, after I first wrote it in 2013. I rewrote a second version of it in 2017, and I’ve updated it a few times since. This story is an example of how publishing a short story can be a matter of persistence in the search for the right market with the right editor at the right moment. “The Ghostly Lady’s Curse” was submitted to ten other markets before editor A. Balsamo selected it for inclusion in this upcoming anthology. I’ll write more about this story, and it’s inspiration when the publication date approaches. In the meantime, here’s what the cover is going to look like.

A glance through my submission records spreadsheet shows I have two other stories with at least ten previous submissions, still looking for homes. One story has two strikes against it– a word count that is higher than most markets prefer and difficult subject matter– making it very difficult to place. The other is a niche story: part western, part ghost story. I’m keeping my eyes open for markets for them. I could always self-publish them in collections, if I had enough similarly-themed stories to make collections. That can be a future project if the right markets don’t appear…

As I mentioned in previous blogs, my house was bombarded by baseball to softball sized hail last September. The damage was substantial. I had hoped that all the repairs would be completed before the new year started. Of course, we aren’t finished yet. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though. The final repairs have been scheduled.

I’ve been down the research rabbit hole this week, diving into background material for a new story, so I only wrote a few thousand words. However, I did write the first draft of a 7000 word short story last week. That story needs editing and trimming before I ship it off somewhere.

I hope your January went well.

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Year End Assessments 2023- A Review

By N. M. Cedeño

December again. Time to assess this year’s writing. I’ll start off by saying, the year didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but not as badly as I’d thought either. A number of issues combined to throw me off my schedule and destroy my focus, but I have learned some new things.

For instance, I learned that x-rays and sonograms successfully diagnose kidney stones about eighty percent of the time. If that path to diagnosis fails, doctors search for other causes. It may take six or eight months of tests to explore other possible diagnoses before the problem can be correctly diagnosed. This second path to diagnosis by eliminating other options is not one that I recommend. It prolongs pain, destroys work productivity, and ruins peace of mind.

I also learned in September that baseball-sized hail falling like rain can strike with no warning. We were extremely lucky no one was outside when the assault from the sky began or someone might have been killed. Repairs are ongoing (roof, deck, gutters, garden shed, light fixtures, A/C, windows, screens, cars, etc.). As of this writing, I am awaiting yet another contractor to complete yet another repair. Dealing with three separate insurance adjustors, talking to contractors, and scheduling repairs consumed all my time for October, then half of my time for November. Trying to get active teenagers to extracurricular events with cars out of commission was another challenge.

But without some strife we wouldn’t appreciate when things are actually going smoothly. Over the years, I’ve learned to take notice and enjoy the times when everything is running like a well-oiled machine. The easy times don’t last, but neither does the strife.

Now that I’ve covered the excuses, I’ll get to the writing numbers:

Stories submitted as of late November: thirty-five.

I plan to reach thirty-six or more before the end of December. I had hoped to submit four stories per month on average, but that was not to be this year. However, submitting an average of three stories per month in a difficult year is a victory in my book.

Acceptances were low this year, too– so far only two. I have twelve submissions still pending, so maybe I’ll see more acceptances in the new year.

Publications of stories: four.

Three of my stories appeared in Black Cat Weekly courtesy of editor Michael Bracken. One appeared in an anthology-“Danger at Death’s Door” in Crimeucopia: One More Thing To Worry About from editor John Connor.

For the moment, I have one publication pending, a short story for an anthology coming out in the spring of 2024.

I did receive two invitations to contribute stories to projects this year. One I had to turn down thanks to a short deadline and the ongoing strife. The other offered a deadline far enough in the future that I could easily say yes. Also, a new editor asked me to contribute a story to a project, which I really appreciate. I had intended to reach out to new editors this year, but with the strife, that plan was postponed.

For 2024, I’m looking forward to setting new writing goals and working with more editors. I plan to watch my middle child graduate from high school in the spring and start college (!) in the fall, and see my youngest through driver’s license testing, the end of junior year, and the start of senior year (!) of high school. Also, someone else (Hooray, Pat Kelly!) will be taking over the duties of president for my Sisters in Crime Chapter, leaving me more time for writing. I’ve been on the board in various capacities since 2016 or 2017, and it’s time to bring in fresh blood. Here’s looking forward to a busy, productive 2024!

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When Submitting Short Stories to Markets, Patience is Required

By N.M. Cedeño

How long does it take to hear back from editors with acceptances or rejections of short stories? That depends on a number of variables, but in most cases in the world of short mystery fiction, patience is required.

How much patience?

I currently have stories that have been pending for 387 days, 200 days, and 190 days, respectively.

For the story pending the longest, I heard from the editor about several issues that have delayed responses. He made it clear that those who submitted are free to submit elsewhere, and, if the story is picked up by another market, to simply withdraw it from him. However, the story was written for a very specific call for submissions. I would have to re-edit the manuscript and change details to make it submittable elsewhere. So for the moment, I’ve decided to wait and see what happens rather than submit the story to another market.

The manuscript currently at 200 days post submission will probably not receive a response until a full year has passed. I know this because it’s submitted to one of the most prestigious markets in short mystery fiction, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The statistics on how long AHMM takes to respond to submissions are available online at The Submission Grinder. The average response time is currently 371 days. I know of authors who won’t submit to the magazine because of the extreme length of response time and low odds of acceptance. My current thinking, which may change at some point, is that if I don’t submit, I’ll have no chance of getting published by the magazine. The wait is the price I have to pay for that opportunity.

The next story, submitted 190 days ago, is a bit more perplexing. I submitted it early, well before the call deadline. So although the editor has had it for six months, the deadline for submissions was three months ago. From what I can see online and from asking other authors, no one has had a response from the editor yet. Since the call for submissions didn’t give a timeline for responses, only the planned publication date, which is just a few months away at this point, I sent an email inquiring if my story was still being considered. Sadly, I haven’t received a response to my query. Unless I want to withdraw the submission and try to submit the piece elsewhere, all I can do is have patience and wait to see if anyone else receives a response or if the editor responds to my query.

These three stories submissions represent the longest wait times for responses that I usually experience from markets that actually bother to send responses. (Some markets never respond unless they want the story. And, yes, that’s REALLY ANNOYING.)

Many markets respond much faster to submissions than the above examples. Data on response times for various magazines can be found on The Submission Grinder and other places online. Waiting a few weeks to receive a response is common, as is waiting a few months. But the need for patience doesn’t end with the submission process.

And then, wait some more…

Once a story is accepted, the wait to publication begins. The longest I’ve had a short story pending publication after acceptance is currently at 16 months and counting. I’ve heard from authors who’ve waited as long as two years between acceptance and publication of a short story in a magazine. In this case, the story will be published shortly because I received the proof pages from the editor a few weeks ago. It’s coming … eventually.

To reiterate: In writing and submitting short mystery fiction for publication, patience isn’t merely a virtue, it’s a necessity.

*****

Facing a Writing Challenge

by N. M. Cedeño

Many writers find motivation in challenging themselves in various ways. Some attempt to write a novel length manuscript each November as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Some writers set daily, weekly, or monthly word count targets as challenges to meet. Most do this because they know that when they challenge themselves, they find out what they are capable of accomplishing and learn to push themselves to accomplish more.

Sometimes we writers set these goals for ourselves, other times someone, like an editor in need of a story, provides the challenge for us.

Opportunity Knocks:

In the last week of May 2022, I received an unexpected writing challenge. It arrived in the form of an email from an editor, inviting me to submit a short crime fiction story for an anthology. The catch was that the original deadline, which the editor was willing to extend for me, was only about a week away.

I read the submission criteria, considered my options, and reviewed what was already on my schedule. Then I asked for a month, June, to submit the story, not knowing if that would work for the editor’s timeline.

Could I have said no? Sure. But I recognized that the challenge was also an opportunity to show myself and the editor what I was capable of doing. I was afraid the editor might need the story sooner than my suggested deadline and that he might say no.

The editor replied to my email, agreeing to give me until the end of June to submit the story.

Hooray! And Yikes! I had a deadline to meet.

Meeting the Deadline:

The short story had to fit the specifications for the anthology in question which meant that it had to be set during a particular time period and incorporate some historical event. The time in question happens to be the decade in which I was born, so I have no personal memories of historical events from then. I had to do research. Normally, I research until I get a good grasp for an era before writing. I’ve been known to fall down research rabbit holes and find far more material than I need. My research process had to be curtailed to cover only what was essential: the time and place where I was going to set the story.

Next, I selected a previously created character to make a second appearance in my new story. That character, a private detective named Jerry Milam, appeared in a story called “Nice Girls Don’t” which I wrote for the anthology Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties. Already having a protagonist saved me from having to create a main character from scratch.

After researching the decade and selecting a protagonist, writing the first draft took about three days, resulting in a manuscript that was missing some details. Then, I left on a previously scheduled, nine-day, family vacation, taking my laptop, but knowing I wouldn’t have time to do much work. As it turned out, I only opened the laptop twice during my trip, both times late in the evening.

Once I returned home, I went to work in earnest adding the details I knew were missing. The middle of the story felt muddled, so I reworked it in another draft the following day. Satisfied that the manuscript was complete, I emailed the story to two of the world’s best beta readers, two analytical and detail-oriented people who know that I WANT them to point out every possible error. They know I can take criticism. (I’d rather hear about errors from them than have the story rejected for those same errors!) Both returned notes on the story within a few days, for which I am extremely grateful. (Thanks, Mike and Deb!) After reviewing what errors my beta readers noticed, I corrected and completed the final draft of the story.

In the next few days, I reviewed word choices and line edited the entire document. I made MSWord read the story to me, so I could proofread by listening for errors. Finally, I submitted the story to the editor on June 18, almost exactly four weeks after I received the initial invitation to submit.

Did I hesitate before hitting “send” to submit the manuscript, wondering if I needed to review it one more time?

Yes.

Did I send it anyway?

Yes.

Results:

A week later, I heard back from the editor. The story was accepted for the anthology. I’ll provide more details on the story closer to publication.

I met the challenge and learned something. I could have done it in even less time. I’m glad that when an opportunity dropped in my lap, I was able to rise to the occasion. I’m grateful that the editor gave me the opportunity to meet this challenge.

Leave me a comment on writing challenges you’ve met!

*****

Submitting Short Stories: It’s Like Baseball

By N. M. Cedeño

Many of the stories I write aren’t accepted the first time I submit them for publication. The majority have to be submitted over and over again to find a publication home. The process made me think of a batter stepping up to the plate in baseball because I may strike out repeatedly before scoring a run.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Most of the time, I write stories with no specific publisher in mind. I write the story because I want to or because the only way to get it out of my head- and make it stop bothering me- is to put it down on paper. Then, after the story is written, I begin the process of looking for a place to submit it. “It Came Upon a Midnight Ice Storm” is one of these stories. I wrote it for myself because I like light-hearted mysteries stories set at Christmas.

I first submitted this Christmas story for publication in mid-2018. It was rejected, struck out, eventually a total of eight times. I put it through workouts, strengthening it several times between ‘at bats’. Then, I saw a call for submissions that I thought it might fit, a call for cozy mysteries. On my ninth submission, the story was accepted. It will appear in Black Cat Mystery Magazine in a couple months.

Sometimes, I’ll write a story based on requirements for a specific call for submissions, and it’s not accepted. I strike out. If the call was general enough, I can turn around and resubmit the story elsewhere with no changes. It’s ready for its next ‘at bat.’ That was the case for my story, “Reaching for the Moon.” After being initially rejected, and then rejected again, I submitted it to Murderous Ink Press, where editor John Connor accepted it for inclusion in the Crimeucopia: Say What Now? Anthology.

In other cases, the call for submissions may be in such a specific niche that I need to change the story in order to submit it elsewhere. Continuing the baseball analogy, I prepped the story to face a specific pitcher and have to make changes to face a new pitcher for the next ‘at bat.’

For example, my story “Serenity, Courage, Wisdom” was written for a very specific call for submissions for stories inspired by the music of a particular group and was rejected. In order to resubmit it elsewhere, I changed the title, which was originally a song title, and stripped out the details related to the song. Stripping those details left a hole, so instead of referencing a song, I settled on referencing a prayer that hung in my parents’ kitchen my entire childhood and that I have a copy of in my own kitchen.

After making these changes, I submitted the story to Black Cat Weekly, where the editor said the story needed a little work before he’d publish it and gave me some suggestions. In this case, I made a base hit, which requires more work on my part to make it to home plate. To get to home plate, I have to listen to the coach, aka the editor. I have to review the editor’s suggestions and work on the story with those suggestions in mind. If I don’t do the work, I get left on base and never make it home. If I do the work and send the story back to the editor, and he’s pleased and accepts the story, then I’ve rounded the bases to home plate and scored a run.

In this case, I did the work to earn the run. “Serenity, Courage, Wisdom” will be published in Black Cat Weekly #37 coming out in May 2022.

Only one of my stories so far has been accepted on its first submission, which is the equivalent of hitting a home run. That story, “Nice Girls Don’t,” was written specifically for the anthology, Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties edited by Michael Bracken. I saw the call for submissions months ahead of the deadline and went to work researching material and writing the story. The anthology was published last week, debuting on April 11, 2022.

I have yet to retire any stories from the line-up. Eventually, I may have to set one aside, waiting to come out for the right call for submissions.

A Note: I’ll be participating in a panel discussion on mysteries, talking about my short mysteries, on Friday, May 13, at Hearth & Soul in Austin. Check the “Gather” tab on their website for time and location. Additional information will be posted soon.

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End of Year Assessments and Thanksgiving

by N. M. Cedeño

For writers, setting and meeting goals can be done in a variety of ways. Some people count words produced in a given year. Others count finished manuscripts. This year I have been focused on my short stories, specifically on getting stories published, so I set goals for submitting my work to markets.

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal of submitting a minimum of two stories per month to publishing markets. This meant I had to write, edit, and proofread the stories, locate the markets, format each manuscript to each market’s specifications, and submit the stories via whatever process the publisher indicated. I met this goal, submitting 27 manuscripts to 19 publishing markets by mid-November.

As a result of this focus on sending my stories to markets and not just leaving them sitting on the computer, I have licensed four stories for publication this year. Another six are still under review.

Of the four accepted for publication, one was published in the October 2021 issue of After Dinner Conversation: Philosophy and Ethics Short Story Magazine. One will appear in a Crimeucopia anthology from Mysterious Ink Press called Say What Now? in March 2022. The other two are also slated to appear in 2022: one in Black Cat Mystery Magazine and one in an anthology called Groovy Gumshoes, although I don’t have publication dates for either yet.

Of these four stories, two are private detective stories. One is an amateur detective cozy mystery. One is a science fiction crime story. One story was accepted on its fifth submission. One story was accepted on its ninth submission. One story was accepted after ten submissions. And one was written for a specific call for submissions and accepted on the first try.

The shortest time it took for an editor to reject a story was six hours. The shortest wait for a story to be accepted was 40 days. The longest response time from a market on a submitted story for either an acceptance or rejection is currently at 404 days and counting. (Yep– that story was submitted in October 2020, and I still don’t have a response on it.)

Another writing goal I’d set for myself was to be invited to submit stories to closed submission calls. To meet this goal an editor would have to know and like my work well enough to reach out to me and ask me to submit a story directly to them. I expected it might take years to meet this goal which could only happen at some point after I started having stories accepted from open calls for submissions. To my surprise, I met this goal this year. I am thankful for that editor who liked my work enough to invite me to submit work directly to him.

And on the topic of thankfulness: I accomplished editing and proofreading for my stories with the help of critique partners, beta readers, and at least one sibling with an eye for plot and an unflinching willingness to point out flaws. Without people willing to read early drafts, I’d have to rely entirely on my own eye. And once I’ve read a story a hundred times, I can’t see the forest for the trees. Thanks to all the people willing to critique my work to help me improve my writing!

To all the wonderful people who support the work of writers everywhere, I want to say ‘THANK YOU!’ To the board members and volunteers who organize and plan meetings for the Heart of Texas Chapter of Sisters in Crime, to the people at national Sisters in Crime who create webinars and newsletters, to those who organize write-ins and meet-ups, to those who monitor listserv groups and organize monthly Zoom ‘watercooler’ discussions for the Short Mystery Fiction Society, thank you very much. Your work is much appreciated.

To the family members who cheer me on, to my husband and kids, to my parents and siblings, thanks for your support!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

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N. M. Cedeño is a short story writer and novelist living in Texas. She is active in Sisters in Crime- Heart of Texas Chapter and is a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Find out more at nmcedeno.com.

Don’t Delete “Unsuccessful” Manuscripts

By N.M. Cedeño

A number of the stories sitting in files on my computer were written years ago, some over ten years ago, and have never been published. At times, when cleaning up my laptop, I’ve been tempted to delete some of these old stories, but I restrain myself.

Most of these old manuscripts fall into three categories. The first category consists of early writing efforts that reflect my learning process. These stories are not publication-worthy, but the ideas aren’t all bad and may warrant revisiting. The second category contains stories that could be publishable, but still need work. These stories need revision to be ready for submission or publication, but aren’t finished because I haven’t found a solution to whatever needs fixing. The last category consists of stories that are finished, but that haven’t been published even after being submitted multiple times. These manuscripts tend to be stand-alone short stories because I usually self-publish the ones in my Bad Vibes Removal Services paranormal mystery series.

Instead of deleting these unsuccessful works, I hold onto them because I know someday I may determine how to fix the unfinished ones or I may see a call for submissions or a new market that fits the finished pieces.

For example, earlier this year I discovered a call for cozy mysteries was coming, and I knew I had an old story that might fit the guidelines. The piece was a Christmas mystery set during an ice storm with all the suspects trapped together. The first draft was written in 2011 or earlier. Around 2018, I reviewed the story, updated it, and tweaked the characters, giving them more depth than they’d had in the first draft. I also changed the ending several times before I declared the manuscript done and started submitting it to markets. It was rejected eight times.

As I reread the story while considering whether it fit the new call for submissions, I changed one or two lines and double-checked the editing. Then, I submitted the story, and it was accepted for publication by Black Cat Mystery Magazine. The story will come out next year, but I don’t have a date yet. More details will be coming on this one later.

Another one of my stories, a science fiction crime piece entitled “The Wrong Side of History” that features a 130-year-old politician being blackmailed over the political stances he held in his youth, was first written in 2015 or 2016. This story was finished long ago and ready for publication. I held off submitting it anywhere, at first, because it didn’t quite fit any of the publication niches I could find. The story was set in a future, post-apocalyptic society that handled a number of problematic social issues differently than we do today. Those issues include topics that are politically divisive. For a brief time, the thought of being “canceled” also held me back from submitting the story.

Eventually, I decided not submitting the story out of fear of offending someone was cowardly and exactly matched the form of self-censorship described by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451. I began submitting the story to magazines. Nine times the story was rejected. The rejections weren’t surprising since the story didn’t completely fit the niches available and because some magazines will shy away from difficult issues in stories.

*After Dinner Conversation October 2021*

Then, I found another market for the story, a magazine called After Dinner Conversation that specifically features short fiction that includes ethical and philosophical issues. After nine rejections, having the tenth response call the story a wonderful piece that the editor would love to publish was reason to get up and dance. It was nice to know that I was right. The story was ready for publication. I simply needed to find the right niche for it. And so the “Wrong Side of History” is now available for pre-order in the October issue of After Dinner Conversation.

And that is why I don’t delete “unsuccessful” old manuscripts. Sometimes they only need a few changes to be successful. Other times, they just need to find the right editor at the right magazine.

*****

N. M. Cedeño is a short story writer and novelist living in Texas. She is currently working on a paranormal mystery series called Bad Vibes Removal Services. Ms. Cedeño is active in Sisters in Crime- Heart of Texas Chapter. Find out more at nmcedeno.com.