2021 by the Numbers

 

The most important thing for any writer to do is to, not only keep writing, but to also keep submitting, keep putting his or her work out there. For those looking to be traditionally published, this means submitting to publications such as literary magazines and anthologies. And if you are submitting your work, it is important to keep track of where you are sending it to, how many works are accepted for publication, how many are rejected, and how many are left as dead letters. I keep track of this with a Microsoft Spreadsheet.

I try to keep as many items out there under consideration as possible at all times. When an item comes back with a rejection, I immediately start looking for the next publication to send it out to. Sometimes I consider giving it a revision before doing so, but sometimes I send it out again as is. It depends on if I received a form rejection, or a more personalized one with suggestions on how to make the piece better. It also depends on how many rejections the particular piece has already received.

I once read from one published author (I cannot remember who) that they try to submit up to 100 pieces for publication per year. I have found this does not seem to be possible for me, but I do try to send out as many as possible, and am able to submit between 35 and 50 pieces per year.

I often read from writers with less experience than me that they feel hurt when they receive rejections, particularly if they receive too many of them. The best advice I ever received was that writers should not count their rejections. Instead, they should only count how many pieces they send out in a given time, such as a given year. Therefore, I try to compete with myself, to send out as many as possible each year.

So without any further ado, here are my numbers for the past year, 2021: I sent out 29 short stories, 11 poems, and 4 novels for a total of 44 pieces sent out for consideration. This is the third most submissions I've made in any given year. Of those submitted this year, I sold three items, two poems, and one short story, for publication. The last item I sold was to the anthology, Alternative Deathiness (pictured above). It includes some notable authors, placing me in some good company, so I am honored to be a part of it. It contains my poem "Old Forgotten Grave" and can be found on Amazon here. 

So when writing and submitting, be sure to keep track of your works, even if for no other reason than to make sure you don't accidentally send the same work to the same publication twice. I certainly would have accidentally done this numerous times if I didn't have a Spreadsheet to keep track of these things. If you like, tell me about how many works you submit per year, or in the last year.

Synchronicity and Another Eulogy

Some time ago, I posted about the loss of my father. During the summer of 2018, after dad passed away, I read a book to help me get through the difficult time, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. In it, she discusses the year after she lost her husband, how it took about a year for her to fully realize she had truly lost a loved one. She describes scenes of continuing to expect to see him when waking up in the morning.

Didion is fantastic writer, known not only for her memoirs, but also (and perhaps even moreso) for her engaging essays. She was extremely talented at both fiction and non-fiction as well. I often use her essays in classes I teach.

Over this past Christmas, I unfortunately lost my mother. In a strange case of synchronicity, Didion passed away at the same time my mother went into her hospice care, which did not last long. I found this interesting timing, having read the above mentioned memoir after the loss of my father.

To further compound that synchronicity, I also had a horror poem about death titled "Old Forgotten Grave" published in an anthology titled Alternative Deathiness. The anthology contains numerous short stories and poems about death. I'm particularly proud of this piece and this publication, partially because it also contains a short story by a best selling author, Jim Wright. I wound up reading my short poem in it at mom's eulogy as requested by other family members, who seemed to find piece fitting for the occasion.

I'm not looking for any condolences for losing my mother (although if you did leave some, they would be greatly appreciated), but I thought this was an interesting time to point out how writers sometimes think or look at things. We look for and often find meaning in life's events. Surely, anyone else can do the same, but perhaps it is because writers make it a habit of doing such things that makes reading so important and enjoyable.