Dec 31 2008
2008 Submissions Stats
My fiction submission stats for 2008:
46 submissions (all short fiction; two more than 2007)
47 rejections (seven more more than 2007)
1 story under extended consideration
2 contracts offered
1 contract accepted
1 story published
It was another interesting yet trying year. I continued to get passed up to head editors at pro mags, about half the time, and I continued to get a lot of “almost” rejections from editors at semi-pro mags. Which is good, but I’d rather at least be getting those “almost” rejections from the head editors at the pro mags, if not of course actually selling some stories. I’m still not consistently able to lure editors into my dense stories of round characters and lush settings.
In my stats post last year, I mentioned two stories in unresolved submissions situations and my hope that at least one of those would result in a sale. Neither did, which was very disappointing. This year, a different near-miss situation resulted in another story remaining under extended consideration. I should hear back on that in a month or so, and I’m hopeful on that one too.
Like last year, I had a contract offered that was soon rescinded, but in this case I was the one who passed. It was from an award-nominated semi-pro venue, but the editor had just that week made offensive public comments, including some directly to or about two excellent young writers who I know and admire. I wanted to sell that story worse than I can put into words, but after what the editor had done to those two people I greatly respect, I just couldn’t accept the contract. The story is still on the submission carousel and I hope it will eventually sell.
I did make one sale this year, after a seventeen-month dry spell. That was a great relief, and I’m delighted to find a great home for a very good story that had been misunderstood by editors at several top markets. And an exciting, up-and-coming home it is–Space and Time magazine. I’m very much looking forward to seeing that one published.
My story in Weird Tales last January didn’t seem to catch much attention from bloggers or SF/F review sites, so unfortunately there hasn’t been any coattail effect from it. Perhaps I can improve on that when my story in Space and Time comes out.
Overall, this year was similar to last year, which suggests I didn’t make a significant leap in the quality of my fiction. Or that my particular brand of character-driven secondary-world short fantasy isn’t a priority right now for the major markets. Or most likely, a combination of both. In last year’s post I mentioned I was working on specific strategies to improve a major element in my fiction. That effort is ongoing, and I am making progress. The coming year will show whether it improves my submissions results.
3 responses so far
Hi Scott,
Thanks for posting your stats. I enjoyed reading them. I hope ’09 is filled with many successes and publications. I was wondering, if you hadn’t already mused on this topic, how starting your magazine has helped or hurt your writing and submission processes? Also what are your feelings on the state of the industry from your unique vantage point. (I’m unfortunately finding it hard to be optimistic about the future, it seems like there are fewer slows every year for great authors like you. So it would be nice to find some good news or silver lining, something you feel is working).
Thanks, Jeff
(Edit: meant fewer “slots” every year)
“I was wondering, if you hadn’t already mused on this topic, how starting your magazine has helped or hurt your writing and submission processes?”
That is a facsinating question–thanks for asking. I don’t think it has helped or hurt me, although I think there are a few more editors who recognize my name. The most interesting thing for me has been experiencing the other side of the process again, with all those little things that as writers we think about, but actually seeing them happen–what sort of things on the first page hook me, what sort of things keep me reading, submissions that are completely inappropriate for the market, and lots of submissions that are solid and well put together and work fine but just aren’t anything more than that. So for me it reinforces in vivid detail the realities that all of our slushpile submissions are facing.
As for the state of the industry, I’m on the periphery doing my own thing, so I don’t really know. The field lost some good semi-pro markets this year, like Aeon and Helix, but we gained at least one in BCS. I agree that there are very few slots out there, but I think part of it is finding the right home for the type of story. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of about BCS, that its content is centered around a type, character-driven secondary-world fantasy, that previously has not had a dedicated home.
The most interesting industry thing may be the rise of podcasted audio short fiction. Escape Pod has twice as many subscribers as Asimov’s, Clarkesworld podcasts some of their fiction, and Fantasy I’ve heard is planning to. With my music home-studio experience it made perfect sense for BCS to jump on that bandwagon, and I know the podcasted BCS stories are reaching people who aren’t always reading the text versions of the stories. I don’t think audio short fiction will replace print any time soon, but something about that format, perhaps the ease of use by commuters, makes it reach a wider audience, so I will keep doing it to get the fiction out there.