Is anyone else running into this?

[Sporty]

Okay, so I'm trying to figure out what's going on because I've never had an issue with this before. I've just gotten my second "too many good entries" rejection in a row for a short story submission, which I've never gotten until this story. I understood why it happened the first time -- it was the Halloween issue, which I hadn't entirely realized it would be, and the story wasn't themed around the holiday at all -- but it just happened again, on a normal NT issue, when I submitted the story literally the day after the previous issue came out.

I know the tmge rejections are what they say they are and not due to something being wrong with the entry, but I've always gotten the impression that higher quality stories have a better chance of getting in. And my writing quality has definitely improved from years ago when I got several short stories in with no problem. Is this because of the new policy of not holding entries over from the given two-week period? Do entries basically have to be submitted three or four times before the editor gets through all the stories that were already submitted several times and can finally get to yours? Or is there some other trick or something else in the submission process that I'm missing?


Or is it probably just pure dumb luck where a lot of stuff got submitted at once this cycle and I was just one of the unlucky ones who somehow missed out? I'm not sure why I would miss out by pure dumb luck if I submitted this short story so early in the cycle -- does everyone just have a habit of submitting immediately on Friday night or something?

[June Scarlet]

Sporty! Nearly everyone is running into this! We have many discussions about this! There's more to say, but I want to get a reply in quickly so you don't feel left out.

[Sporty]

June Scarlet: Okay, good to know! I had a feeling that was the case, but I'm not really active on the Neoboards so I don't always see the discussions. Thank you!

[June Scarlet]

Sorry, I got distracted. Anyway, I see the most discussion about it in the neopets channel on the NTFW discord, but I think there's discussion in other places like the Neoboards as well.

The short of it is, it doesn't matter how good your piece is when there's only five slots for short stories. It's artificial scarcity for sure, because why not just open up more spots? But it is what it is, I guess, and right now, after filling up those five slots, the editor clears out the backlog and TMGEs everyone else for the two week period.

There's a tracking thread on the neoboards for submitting and receiving acceptances, which gives us a vague idea of behind the scenes. Basically, you do have to submit ASAP after the previous issue is published and the backlog is cleared for the best chance. While there is no official deadline to submit, practically entries submitted after a certain day just don't make it in (and that certain day is a mystery and changes from issue to issue).

The whole situation is frustrating, but we muddle through anyway.

I don't know your piece, but if you can throw in a birthday mention somehow, and get it submitted this weekend, you can try to submit for the birthday/anniversary issue in two weeks.

[Stephanie (swordlilly)]

To add to what June has said, make sure to include the keyword "birthday" in your piece because the staff seem to do keyword searches. If you just make a generic reference to cake or whatever, it might not come up in the search.

The piece doesn't actually have to be on the topic of birthdays. It just needs to include the keyword somehow. Here's an example.

[Sporty]

Okay, thanks for the additional info! This short story isn't related to birthdays at all (it's a post-TFR story because I'm predictable lol), but there's a celebratory setting/theme involved so I'll see what I can do as far as the upcoming issue goes. Thanks again to both of you!