Sunday, July 14, 2013

Submission Numbers

Since January 2013, I've sent out 40 short story/flash/poetry submissions, received 28 rejections, 3 acceptances, and had 2 short pieces published.

Since I started tracking in Excel in December 2011--although I started sending out stories around July/August 2011--I have recorded 81 submissions, 58 rejections, 11 acceptances, and 11 publications. The numbers are not exact because of the missing time period. For example, I have 4 acceptances that haven't been published yet, that aren't reflected in the current counts. And I have 13 published items listed on my fiction page, instead of the 11 I have in Excel.

So. Grain of salt.

Why do these numbers matter? Well, they tell me that half-way through 2013, I've already submitted as much work as I did in all of 2012 and part of 2011. I feel good about that.

Writing short fiction is such a mind game. Sometimes it helps to take a step back and just look at the numbers. It also reminds me that I should write some new stuff.

1 comment:

Irena Pasvinter said...

I use duotrope for tracking submissions. Even though it costs money now, it is so convenient I can't give up on it. I also have a backup tracking in an Excel spreadsheet, just in case.
And I very much agree with you that is important to keep track and review the numbers from time to time. The only way to get rid of rejections is to stop submitting, which is totally unacceptable.:)