2014 Year in Review

2014 was in many ways a step backward for me in terms of my fiction writing. While I sold one more story than in 2013 (and still sold quite a few stories in general), I didn't break into any notable new markets and I only sold to one SFWA-qualifying market in 2014. Just as important, I didn't feel as if I wrote stories in 2014 which would be likely to help me break into new markets.

There were some good things. I received my contributor's copies of my first major digest publication ("Lakeside Memories" in the February, 2015 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine). One of my stories was listed as an Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year. Another of my stories made the Tangent Online Recommended Reading List. And my acceptance ratio was up a bit from 2013.

Overall, I made a total of 174 non-reprint submissions in 2014. I received 199 responses, some of which were for submissions sent in 2013. (Conversely, some of my 2014 submissions did not receive responses during the calendar year.) For those submission responses:

• Five submissions received no reply.
• Two submissions were withdrawn.
• I had 17 acceptances. (I also had a paying reprint acceptance.)
• And I had 175 rejections.

Of the 18 paying acceptances:

• Two were to pro-rate SFWA-qualifying markets.
• Four were to pro-rate markets not on the SFWA list.
• Seven were to semi-pro markets, this includes the reprint sale.
• Five were to markets which pay, but either have a per-word rate below semi-pro rates or which pay a flat rate which can fals below semi-pro. For at least one of these, my pay worked out to pro rates, but I still classify it here.

I sold 18 different stories in 2014:

• Seven of those were flash length (1,000 words or fewer), including the reprint.
• Seven were between 1,001 and 3,000 words.
• Four were over 3,000 words.

• Nine were science fiction stories.
• Six were fantasy stories.
• Three were horror stories.

The length breakdowns were very similar to 2013. I had more SF sales this year and fewer fantasy.

I hesitate to call any year where I sold seventeen stories "disappointing" but the fact is that I think I can do better, so in that sense, it was. I'm going to work at improving my writing and submission process and will hope that the work leads to an even better 2015.

2013 Year in Review

If 2012 was a fantastic year for me on the short fiction front, 2013 was... a decent year. Frankly, I'm honestly tempted to classify it as a very good year solely on the basis of my sale of a story to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Getting a story into one of the big print digest magazines has long been one of my personal goals, so that was a Big Deal. The "problem" (such as it is) is that when you leave that single sale aside, the year was only so-so. I didn't sell to any other notable new markets, I sold fewer stories than in 2012, etc.

Overall, I made a total of 299 non-reprint submissions in 2013. I received 275 responses, some of which were for submissions sent in 2012. (Conversely, some of my 2013 submissions did not receive responses during the calendar year.) For those submission responses:

• Six submissions received no reply.
• Three submissions were withdrawn.
• I had 16 acceptances. (I also had a paying reprint acceptance and four non-paying reprint acceptances.)
• And I had 249 rejections.

Of the 17 paying acceptances:

• Six were to pro-rate SFWA/MWA-qualifying markets. (Including the EQMM story here.)
• One was to a pro-rate market not on the SFWA list.
• Five were to semi-pro markets.
• Five were to markets which pay, but either have a per-word rate below semi-pro rates or which pay a flat rate which generally falls below semi-pro, including the reprint sale.

So, the good news is that the decrease in sales came from the semi-pro and token rate markets.

I sold 17 different stories in 2012:

• Five of those were flash length (1,000 words or fewer)
• Eight were between 1,001 and 3,000 words.
• Four were over 3,000 words.

• Eight were fantasy stories.
• Five were science fiction stories.
• Two were mystery stories.
• Two were horror stories.

The genre breakdowns were pretty similar to 2012. Probably the most notably item in the above is that the percentage of stories which I sold at flash length decreased significantly from 50% to a bit over 25%.

So, the net is fewer sales but a higher percentage to pro-rate markets and a higher percentage of greater than flash fiction length. I'll call it a good year, yes. But I hope to have an even better one in 2014.

2012 Writing Stats and Reflections

What a difference a year makes.

At the onset of 2012 I had a total of four fiction publication credits in the 21st Century for which I had earned a total of less than $15. I had made 70 short fiction submissions in 2011, garnering 67 rejections and 3 acceptances. (That's actually a fairly-decent ratio, though one of those was a twitter-length fiction and the other two sales were a pair of flash stories to the same market.) Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that in 2012 I would make over a half-dozen pro-paying sales, become eligible to be a full Active member of SFWA, and have a story of mine selected for reprint in an anthology being edited by mystery and crime editing legend Otto Penzler.