As a nosy writer, I always wonder what other writers’ rejection statistics look like. With that in mind, I thought I’d share my stats for last year as compiled by the Submission Grinder.
Last year was the first year in about a decade that I actually wrote and submitted short stories. For the most part, my writing has been concentrated on either writing for work or long-form pieces. I decided to try short fiction as a way of relieving pandemic pressures and also because, at a time when so much else has felt in stasis or otherwise uncontrollable, a short story is something easily started, finished, and sent out. (Easy being relative compared to a 100K novel which is the average length of books in the series I co-write with James.)
So, here are the stats:
- 43 different submissions (many of my stories were submitted to multiple venues)
- 3 sales
- 19 form rejections + 11 personal rejections
Currently I have 4 pieces outstanding that were submitted last year, including one in rewrites and one in the second round at a publication.
Unfortunately, the Grinder doesn’t report out on which pieces made second round and I was fortunate enough to have that occur multiple times, as well as two revision requests. Magazines where my work was held for further consideration included Uncanny, Diabolical Plots, Cast of Wonders, Fusion Fragment, and The Overcast. Two markets closed, sadly, while my work was under consideration: The Overcast and Departure Mirror.
As far as sales go, I sold two flash fiction pieces to Daily Science Fiction and one to Every Day Fiction. My flash piece, “Chocolate,” (DSF) is also featured on the Nebula reading list.
Overall, I think it was a good year and I’ve learned a lot about writing in general. My goal this year is to collect 50 rejections as that will mean that I’ve completed and submitted that much work. Will I make it? Who knows. But I’ll enjoy the process of getting there.
Gwen Whiting 