When my last short story submission was rejected, I thought to take it in stride and see what to do with the document. It had a good premise and could have been part of a collection. I’d even hoped to write up a full-length novel that would incorporate several storylines.
The American Tall Tales are too much fun to focus on just one, after all.
But this story needed to be rewritten. It was old; it had several problems and dialogue issues and felt way too fast-paced. So, I took notes from beta readers and tried again.
It’s turning out to be a good story! But there’s a problem:
Magazines don’t accept short stories over 20,000 words, and this one is currently over 13,000. I have a sinking suspicion that when finished, it’ll be around the 25K-30K range…
That’s a novella. Novellas don’t really sell and are rarely even given a read-through before rejection.
What to do?
For the moment, I’m just going to finish the rewrite and see how it looks. If I can pare it down to submission requirements, I’ll be golden. If not, I’ll have to think of something else.
While I am complaining, I’m complaining about a good thing, folks. Something to keep in mind.
We’ll see how it turns out! Stay safe out there.
-JB Swift
Swift's Corner 