Arcadia is established, have distribution, and have published a number of critically acclaimed authors. You can see their catalog here to get a better idea of what they have previously published. Please note that even though memoir and books belonging to other genres are listed in their catalog they are only open to unagented submissions of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. They are open to nonfiction in these genres, but only nonfiction that directly relates to the genre in some way. For example a book of nonfiction focused on movie monsters.

Their website is well organized. The focus is on selling books, not on recruiting new authors.

All submissions must be made via email. Send either the first 10,000 words of your novel or the first three chapters. They have formatting guidelines you must follow in order for your work to be considered.

You can read editor Anne Perry’s manuscript wishlist here. She implies in it that the submission guidelines directly on the website will be updated further, but I’m not sure when.

Include a cover letter and a one-page synopsis as a separate document. If you have not heard from them six months after submitting, assume rejection. They do not respond to submissions unless they are interested. Submit one book at a time only.

To learn more, read their full submission guidelines here.

So far, The Dawn Review has published four downloadable digital issues, each with writing from around 20 contributors. All of the writing published in The Dawn Review is unsolicited, and each issue also includes artwork.

The editors at The Dawn Review provide detailed feedback on the first 150 submissions they receive during each submission period. Authors wishing to receive feedback should note this in their submission. They also work with authors who are accepted for publication to polish their writing.

The Dawn Review publishes all forms and styles of writing. They are mainly looking for writing that surprises, “whether through new language, new ideas, or new forms.” They also love writing that’s memorably honest, “that creates truth by refracting it.”

The Dawn Review is open to submissions for their fifth issue, now through July 5^th. Authors may submit up to 10 pages of writing. Though The Dawn Review doesn’t require authors to categorize their writing, they accept what would traditionally by classified as poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as all writing that doesn’t fit within genre classifications. They nominate authors published in the journal for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

The Dawn Review also holds an annual poetry contest, “the Dawn Prize for Poetry,” which was created to showcase emerging authors. Although submissions for the contest are currently closed, you can find out more about it here.

The Dawn Review accepts most of their submissions online, but they do also accept email submissions when the online submissions form doesn’t work. They do not accept submissions by post. They accept simultaneous submissions but ask that authors notify them when submitting writing is accepted elsewhere. They prefer writing this has not been previously published.

The Dawn Review only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to The Dawn Review, please visit their website here.  

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

Many writers have their unique rejection stories to tell. Some rejections can be so demoralising that they make a writer stop submitting to a particular magazine, and there are those – the encouraging ones – that push writers to move out of their comfort zones. Meanwhile, some writers enjoy celebrating milestones of the rejection cap they’ve reached like cutting a cake for their 100th rejection. Weird? To be fair, I’ll say I now belong to this group of writers. But I didn’t start out being that way.

In my early days as a writer, I used to be distraught getting rejections. Then, I moved to the stage of condoning them, so I dubbed the moniker “love letters” to describe the many rejections that flowed into my inbox intermittently. It was not until I joined a literary magazine first as an Editorial Intern, and then as an Assistant Editor, that I began to appreciate rejections. 

Having tested the editorial waters for nine months now, I have better understanding of what factors could lead to getting a rejection. From a writer’s perspective, my editing experience has also increased my respect for editors and I have forgiven that one magazine that keeps rejecting my work. Donning the shoes of an editor has enabled me to see things differently, and I want every writer to understand that a NO could mean different things at different times. 

A rejection does not always mean the writing is bad.

Most writers treat their works like babies and submitting these works to literary magazines is like sharing their vulnerability with the world. Perhaps, they were up all night beautifying a story the other day, or it took them one month to finally finish the first draft of another idea. These babies are precious to them. So how dare ABC Magazine say their work “is not the best fit at this time”? Just how could they? 

No matter how attached a writer is to their work, that doesn’t make it immune to rejection. Whenever a rejection does come, writers need to realise that this is not a personal attack on their work, skill, or person. Instead, they should take it as a learning curve and understand there could be several (other) reasons why their work was rejected that had nothing to do with the writing itself.

It may be that:

There’s no resonance between the story and the theme

Sometimes, a writer’s work may be rejected because it didn’t quite carry a definite semblance to the theme of the magazine. A call for submissions on the theme ‘transition’ for instance, would mean different things to different writers. From coming out as queer, to moving to a new city, to transitioning from womanhood to motherhood, a writer could explore this theme as they see fit.

More often than not, the editor or magazine would also have expectations on the kind of work they’re looking for, which is totally beyond a writer’s control. In the case where a writer’s submission doesn’t quite fit into the theme, or the editor’s vision of the theme, no matter how good the writing is, that’s an automatic rejection earned. 

The story needs further development

It is common for editors to consider questions like; “Is there a story here?” “Is the story working?” when deciding on accepting a piece. Hence, writers should know the rules about the elements of storytelling.

I’ve once received feedback on a story where the editor said, “I enjoyed the setting and while I found the protagonist fairly novel, I’m afraid it read a bit too after-school special to me.” What if I took this feedback and rewrote the story? Would it be better? Definitely! Likewise, its chances of being accepted would increase.

The editor is finding it hard to connect with the story

Picture this: two editors working at two different magazines read a writer’s work; the one says “Nah. This doesn’t work for us” and the other says “Whoah. Brilliant. We’re accepting this.” What could be the deciding factor? Well, one may never know.

However, a plausible reason why the work was rejected by Editor A could be because they couldn’t connect with the story. Or rather, they couldn’t connect with the writer’s intent for the story. Some editors would rather reject a piece because they don’t want to publish it according to what they think the story should be as opposed to what the writer intended it to be. 

“It’s not you, it’s us”

A good number of writers are already familiar with this phrase. When a magazine says “It’s not you, it’s us,” it can be one of two things: there may be too many great works to choose from and some submissions would have to suffer from the fall, or the budget of the magazine can’t accommodate any more stories for an issue, so tough decisions have to be made.

Personally, there are about three stories that I’ve had to reject but they still live rent-free in my head because they’re fantastic stories. I hope they find a home soon, and I wish the same for my rejected-one-too-many-times pieces as well. 

As engine oil eases the movement of vehicles, so does rejection for writers. The more the rejections flow in, the merrier. 

Winifred Òdúnóku (she/her) is a writer from Nigeria who loves to explore different narrative styles in her writing. She works as an Assistant Editor for Isele Magazine and as a Nonfiction Reader at Fiery Scribe Review. Her works have been published or forthcoming in Inked Gray Press, Ilford Review, IBADANarts, African Writer Magazine, Isele Magazine, The Moveee, Revista Periferias, Kalahari Review, Nnöko Stories, Ngiga Review, and Punocracy, among others.