Rejected — Now what?
What to do if your submission is rejected
Damn, that’s a tough one. It ain’t easy. We’ve all been there, though.
If we don’t accept your story, we’ll tell you why. It’s probably one of:
- Content: It’s too hard core for our preferred demographic, or it violates our content guidelines.
- Format: Please follow our formatting guidelines to the letter.
- Editing: We will reject unedited stories. As a guideline, we consider more than one typo per printed page as unedited.
- Structure: Especially in erotica, it’s easy to confuse ‘scene’ and ‘story’. A scene has fucking. A story has real, believable characters; it has a plot with tension and conflict; a story arc with a beginning, a middle and an end; and last but not least, if it’s erotica, it has scenes with fucking.
- Quality: This is an awful situation, but you can get all of the above right and still miss the mark. We just didn’t enjoy the story.
If we love your story but reject it on Format or Editing, we might invite you to fix it and resubmit.
If we reject on Structure or Quality, we’re really sorry, we know it sucks. If this happens to you, please don’t take it personally. You’re welcome to practice, practice, practice and try again after six months.
Especially if this is your first experiment with erotica, you probably just need feedback and practice. We’re looking for great authors. You can regale us with all the Mary Shelly anecdotes you like, but first-timers, regardless of their potential, always have room for improvement. We want to hear from the improved you.
If you’re not a first-timer (and sorry, this is going to be hard to hear), it’s possible you’re writing like one because you’ve never received solid, constructive feedback. We can’t recommend this enough: join the StoryTime mailing list at ERWA (see Get Feedback above). This is easily the best, fastest way we know to up your erotica game.
The important thing is to keep writing, keep seeking feedback, and when you receive it, keep an open mind. That’s how you get better.
