Last month, we announced that Cemetery Dance magazine would be reopening to fiction submissions later this year. A poster on the Cemetery Dance forum asked a couple of great questions, which I thought I’d discuss here.
1) “Yet, I do have a question: what is the value of opening to submissions besides the chance that some new writers will be discovered?”
It’s an excellent question and he answered it perfectly. In Cemetery Dance #66, two of the stories originally arrived unsolicited. In Cemetery Dance #65, I believe it was three of the stories. Same deal with #64. Looking forward to #67, which is shipping from the printer this week, it’s three stories. #68 will be three as well.
If you go back to the early days of the magazine, almost all of the fiction was unsolicited. A lot of those authors went on to be some of our bestselling authors in the book line.
New blood is good for any publication, and one of the reasons we keep publishing the magazine is because we love finding new voices in the genre.
2) “I may end up submitting a story (especially since it is being done through an electronic system, which I like better than postal mail), but I have to assume, simply because of statistical reality, that my work will not get accepted.”
Of course, on the surface, you are correct about the odds. If we have 2 or 3 slots in each issue for unsolicited stories, and we publish 4 issues a year (the current plan), that’s maybe 12 slots for unsolicited fiction per year. If 500 stories arrive during the reading period, those aren’t good “odds.”
But here’s what you’re missing: submitting a story to a magazine isn’t like buying a lottery ticket or playing some other game of chance. It’s not a random process.
If you’ve written an outstanding story that is perfect for a publication, your odds aren’t 12 in 500. They’re much better than that.
Why? Simple: a lot of unsolicited submissions are poorly written, retreads of an idea the editors have read a thousand times, or just aren’t right for the publication.
Of course, maybe your story is well written and perfect for the publication, but it’s too similar to another story they just purchased.
Or maybe there are 12 other stories that came in that are just a little more perfect for the magazine than yours even though yours is awesome as well.
Submitting unsolicited stories to any publication is a combination of hard work (on your writing) and lucky timing (sending the right story at the right time).
(Of course, the reason Cemetery Dance was closed to submissions is because we have this tendency to not think about “slots” to fill. Instead, we just buy anything that we really like and want to publish, which is how we ended up buying too much and having to close to submissions for a while!)
At the end of the day, there’s nothing more thrilling than reading something great that no one else has read yet, and that’s why we read unsolicited submissions.
Hi Brian! This is good news as I was asking you and Mindy about open submissions. Now I need to get to work and submit a good story for consideration. I still believe that Cemetery Dance is the best magazine around! Thank you for letting us know.
Thank you, Mike! Hope to read something from you!
When will you send out guidelines for submissions, or have you already?
A copy of the guidelines are posted here: http://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/cemetery-dance-magazine-reopening-to-submissions-later-this-year/
We’ll post them back on the submissions page a little closer to when we re-open. Thanks for asking!
I for one am super excited that it’s opening again. I wrote a short story just for Cemetary Dance and even if it does not get accepted, it will be an honor to submit.
Thanks, Kyle!
No, sir, thank you!
Is Cemetery Dance—or will it be—open to poetry submissions?
We haven’t published poetry in the magazine in a long time, unfortunately. Sorry!
FYI… It’s spelled CEMETERY not CEMETARY … that spelling was a childs conception in a Steven King novel… “PET CEMETARY”
Umm… Stephen King’s Book was titled Pet Sematary.
FYI. 😉
We’ve seen EVERY spelling of Cemetery when it comes to the magazine… including King’s! 🙂
This is great news. Having a story printed in CD is one of those bucket list things for anyone working in the genre.
I’ve been wondering how many submissions we’ll get since we were closed to subs for a long while. Before we closed, we were receiving 500 per month. Will it be more this time because of the new electronic submission system or will it be less because people have taken us off their lists? Either way, it should be a lot of fun!
I’d guess you are going to get a flood of submissions. I know a lot of folks, just like myself, who have been chomping at the bit for this opportunity. The competition will be tough and you have your work cut out for you.
I’d prepare for a Noah-esque flood!
A deluge! And this chat started on my birthday, August 29th, so I am taking that as a very good sign!
Hello, Brian James Freeman! I listened to your novel, The Painted Darkness, about two years ago and posted the information on my face book page!
Thank you! Very much appreciated!