#178: The Downsides Of Getting Your Work Accepted For Publication

·40 min·4 clips

Caleb got his gay werewolf story accepted by Hellbound Books but rejected by the New Yorker after two years.

Good news, then immediate doubt. The host says Hellbound Books accepted his werewolf story for Splatterpunk Volume 2, then jokes that putting him in it might curse the whole thing. The acceptance counts. The irritation shows up right behind it, because some publications let writers talk and others make them stay quiet until release day. No Sleep is the example here. A story can sit accepted for a year and a half or two years, long enough for the victory to feel weirdly stale by the time anyone else can hear about it. Then The New Yorker finally answers. A submission from October 2022 comes back as a rejection, which at least lets the host claim someone there had to encounter his poems. Grim, but funny. After that, the episode gets into the grubby math of publication. Some short work pays well. A No Sleep story gave the host his highest payment even though it was only three or four thousand words and not especially brutal to write. Other pieces eat far more time and give back almost nothing besides the byline. Word count becomes a trap. If only one or two outlets want a piece, the choice can shrink to unpaid publication, self-publishing, or leaving it buried. Withdrawal makes the whole thing nastier. One acceptance can make a writer pull work from paid submissions, only for the accepting outlet to go out of business before publication. Even contributor copies are not a sure thing. The closing rant lands on poetry collections that do not pay, charge around thirty dollars, and still tempt writers into buying the book for one tiny appearance.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Drunken Pen Writing Podcast