I collected a couple more rejections the past few weeks but still have 8 pieces out to different journals. Also got some good feedback on one story. The editors liked the piece but not the ending. I have a weakness for happy endings and in this case, I might have got an acceptance if I had "killed my darlings" as the saying goes.
The feedback continued that I should consider submitting the piece to a women's magazine instead of a literary journal, saying "This is no shade...these can be well-paying markets."
I sometimes buy these magazines to see what fiction they are publishing. Sometimes quite good stuff (Redbook, for example.) And sometimes stories like the one I wrote, where the author almost, but not quite, gets it right.
So I can choose to keep the new ending, where the eccentric character gets back on her feet and is given a fluffy kitten, and submit it to Women's World or similar. Or I can revert back to the ambiguous ending and keep trying to place the piece in a journal.
As I think about this, I'm afraid that 2020 may have given me a bias toward fluffy-kitten endings!
The feedback continued that I should consider submitting the piece to a women's magazine instead of a literary journal, saying "This is no shade...these can be well-paying markets."
I sometimes buy these magazines to see what fiction they are publishing. Sometimes quite good stuff (Redbook, for example.) And sometimes stories like the one I wrote, where the author almost, but not quite, gets it right.
So I can choose to keep the new ending, where the eccentric character gets back on her feet and is given a fluffy kitten, and submit it to Women's World or similar. Or I can revert back to the ambiguous ending and keep trying to place the piece in a journal.
As I think about this, I'm afraid that 2020 may have given me a bias toward fluffy-kitten endings!
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