The following three print anthologies are all paying markets and they are all seeking submissions on very different topics.

Meerkat Press is accepting submissions for Behind the Mask, a superhero anthology with a twist; they are looking for ordinary, day-to-day issues faced by superheroes – growing up, relationships, growing old, career struggles, parenting. Looking for stories with originality, diversity, and strong character development. Word limit 3k-6k words, the deadline is September 9th, 2016. Pays: .02-.08/word. Details here: http://meerkatpress.com/submissions-open-for-a-superhero-anthology/

Pink Narcissus Press is looking for science fiction (hard or soft) stories featuring a transgender male protagonist for their Brave Boy World: a transman anthology. No erotica, no stories that fetishize trans people. No word count limit. Their website says the call will remain open until the anthology is filled. Pays $100 per story, reprints $50. Details here: http://www.pinknarc.com/submissions.html

Copper Pen Press is looking for submissions for its Freakshow: Freakishly Fascinating Tales of Mystery and Suspense, a short story anthology set in the world of a travelling circus, carnival or freak show. Looking for dark, twisted, unusual mysteries. No splatterpunk, erotica or fantasy. Word limit 2k-7k, deadline October 31, 2016, pays $50 plus a contributor’s copy. Details here: https://copperpenpress.com/freakshow/

Soft Skull Press is a small publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction currently based in New York. They publish a wide variety of quirky and well written work. They have published a number of well-known authors, including Maggie Nelson.

They are a niche press. Their distributor is Publishers Group West. They are now an imprint of Counterpoint Press.

They are generally open to unsolicited queries of nonfiction only. For literary work they require an agent.

The nonfiction they publish includes history, memoir, literary biography, religion and philosophy, and natural history.

Send a query letter, a detailed proposal, and two sample chapters via the mail. They will not consider queries submitted electronically.

They only respond to proposals they are interested in, due to high volume of submissions. So, there is no need to include a self-addressed and stamped envelope.

To learn more about what they publish you can see their catalog here.

The one single factor that affects your rejection rate the most is not the quality of what you are writing, but the acceptance rate of the journal itself.

Some literary journals accept up to 90% of what is submitted to them. Others accept less than 1%. This isn’t speculation, this is fact. There are two websites that monitor acceptance rates. One is Duotrope and the other is the (Submission) Grinder. They base these acceptance rates on data that members of the sites give them.

Most people who use Duotrope and The (Submission) Grinder report every time a piece of work has been accepted or rejected. Because so many thousands of writers use these sites they have a fair amount of data to work with. Not every journal has acceptance rates listed there, but all of the popular ones do.

One could theoretically have an acceptance rate of almost 100% if one only submitted to literary journals that publish most of what they receive. If one only submitted to very established and competitive literary journals like the New Yorker and Tin House one could be an excellent writer with a 0% acceptance rate.

My personal acceptance rate is 13%. That doesn’t sound great, does it? But I never submit to a literary journal with an acceptance rate over 8%. Most of the journals I submit to have an under 1% acceptance rate. So context matters.

The competitiveness of the journals you are submitting to affects your acceptance rate more than any other factor. Which is why articles that suggest that rejection means that you have should written something better, are not very helpful. If the piece you submitted is very good, the odds of it being accepted goes up. But it also depends on that journal’s acceptance rate, and the personal taste of the editors, among many other, often arbitrary, factors.

Keep in mind that the context of acceptance rates is key when submitting! The only person I know who has a 50% acceptance rate while submitting, submits to less than 5 places a year. And all of those places? They have an over 50% acceptance rate. Sometimes a higher rejection rate can actually be a good thing. It means that you are challenging yourself.

The Slag Review is published four times a year in print and online. They publish additional online content on a rolling basis. Right now through September 23, they are accepting submissions for their fall print and online issue. They accept submissions for other online content, including “Pieces of Slag,” on an ongoing basis.

Poets may submit up to five poems. Nonfiction authors may submit essays or works of narrative nonfiction, 5,000 words or fewer. Fiction writers may submit short stories or self-contained novel excerpts, 5,000 words or fewer, and pieces of flash fiction, 1,000 words or fewer. Though 5,000 words is the maximum length for all submissions, The Slag Review prefers submissions around 3,000 words. Multiple submissions in all genres are encouraged.

The Slag Review accepts submissions via email, but not online or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that authors withdraw work published elsewhere. They do not accept previously published work.
If you would like to learn more or submit to The Slag Review, please visit their website at https://slagreview.com/submit/