Batting Average | Karen Kao
Nicolás Espinosa [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] Image source: Wikimedia In 2018, I received 17 rejections. I’m not talking about sexual advances or job applications. This is about me sending submissions to a literary journal. My submissions might be short stories, essays or book reviews. But because I am a literary nobody, my only way into a journal is through its slush pile. the slush pile Never heard the term? Lincoln Michels explains in The Ultimate Guide to Getting Published in a Literary Magazine . When you submit to a literary magazine, your work gets thrown (either literally if submitted through the mail or figuratively if submitted electronically) into the “slush pile.” […] The slush pile is a mess. Great stories absolutely come out of the slush pile, but they are hidden among the typo-ridden rants, third-rate Raymond Carver imitations, and haikus handwritten on hotel napkins. A good portion of the slush is filled with work...