Why is my story being rejected?

Why is my story being rejected?

We notice certain trends with manuscript submissions. We thought we’d take a moment to share our thoughts on why a story doesn’t get accepted with Science Fiction Trails. The number one reason: Lack of Science Fiction Content. We’re simply astonished at how many stories we get that have no science fiction content, whatsoever. This is symptomatic of writers who just spew out stories anywhere without making much effort to find out what a publication is about. We have detailed guidelines on our website, try reading them. Better yet, read an issue. If you don’t know the difference between fantasy and science fiction or horror and science fiction, learn it.

Then there’s the riddled with typos syndrome. Simply put, a spell checker is not adequate. Proofread your work. We’ve actually gotten stories where the writer misspelled her own name.

If you don’t know anything about the Old West era, try a different magazine. That’s blunt, but our experience is you can’t fake it with generic sheriffs and Indians and create a compelling story. We are one of the most specialized fiction markets in the country.

Science isn’t that hard. We see way too many professor/inventor stories. There are tons of scientific disciplines. The "ologies" from geology to biology to palenotology abound. Try something besides inventions or aliens from outer space and you’ll have a lot better chance.

Do you know how to format a manuscript? Apparently not, from what we’re seeing. There are books out there at you local bookstore or library that give guidance on manuscript format, cover letters and the like. Writers Market has tons of these publications for sale. Try reading a few of them.

These are just a few of the reasons we don’t accept a story, but they are the most common ones and the most easily fixed, if only writers would make a little effort to prepare their submissions instead of spewing out "Dear editor" stories by the bus load.