Before I go into my year-end statistics overview, a happy announcement. I had two stories go live last month,

“Tumbleweeds and Highways” was published in Clean Sheets.

“Web of Death” was published in MicroHorror.

I also finished the month on 100 Words which you can read at Val Gryphin’s December Batch.

Go check them out and if you have any comments feel free to leave them for me.

Go! Shoo! Then you can come back and read my stats!

Now, where were we. Ah yes.

In the year 2008, (According to my lovely Duotrope) I had 74 new submissions to 57 different markets, on 17 different pieces, with 11 submissions still out for consideration.

Of those 63 completed submissions I had 48 rejections:

• * 1 assumed rejection
• * 7 personal rejections
• * 40 form rejections

I also:

• * had 1 rewrite request
• * withdrew 7 submissions

And, (the best part) I received 7 acceptances, of which 3 have gone to print.

Other interesting facts:

• * the shortest response time was 0 days
• * the longest one is still out at 216 days
• * the next is an assumed rejection at 200 days (yes, I had emailed to check on it.)
• * the longest actual rejection was 189 days
• * of the acceptances, I had one that was 0 days and one that was 127
• * the piece that went out the most went out 13 times so far (and still not accepted!)

Overall I consider it a very successful year. I met agents and learned more about the business at a writer’s conference, and developed an elevator pitch I was able to give to an agent I respected. I was also requested to send the first 100 pages of my novel, which, even though it was rejected, was a great experience. I completed both NaNoWriMo and a month of 100 Words. I did a hard revision on Moving on Nightfall and am 2/3rds of the way through my second novel.

Yes, overall, it very good writing year.

Or, in non-ten-year-old-speak, Duotrope has gotten a nice facelift. Their icons have gotten larger and clearer, and the colors of the genre icons are much clearer, making it much easier to tell which genre a market is looking for. (Before the colors of the genres could get confusing.) The payscale and length of works accepted have also been made much clearer. The submission tracker has also had a major overhaul as they have made it easy to sort and show submissions using a varity of criteria.

The only downside is the site has been rather slow lately, perhaps because so many people are discovering it. Perhaps I shouldn’t be constantly singing its praises? Nahhhh.

As I wrote the post yesterday about giving away content online, I started thinking about my beloved Duotrope. (Yes, there really is a love affair going on, or maybe more of an infatuation, as is more one-sided. Anyway.) Duotrope is free, they give away their content, and they work amazingly hard at it. Instead of charging up front for it, they instead have a status log that keeps track of their money level, and they ask for donations from users. I never would have paid up front for the service, simply because I had no idea if it would be as good as it seemed. However after using it for a while, I willingly donated last year, and twice again as much this year, because their service really is that good. However, asking for money after writers tried their service was a large risk for them. What if their users didn’t think their content was good enough to pay for? What if they thought it was good, but not good enough to pay for? It’s a gamble, but so far it seems to be paying off for them, although not by a whole lot.

It is a gamble for authors to give out content online as well. As a blog writer, you also have to be a savvy marketer. You have to figure out what people will like, and make sure that the content you post is of a quality that will not only keep a reader’s attention, but also make them remember what you wrote about. The window of opportunity to grab people’s attention is very small, and if a piece of writing is of low quality they aren’t going to read further, come back or – perhaps most importantly – recommend it to anyone else. There goes your word of mouth. And word of mouth is one of the most important tools of all.

Giving away any type of free content is a gamble that requires hard work, but done correctly the payoff can be worth it. For Duotrope, they receive the funds they need to stay running, and great word of mouth. The payoff for a writer isn’t necessarily going to be in cash, as while you are marketing books you aren’t going to be soliciting donations. The payoff in word of mouth however can be better than any paid advertising.

I have had a submission out to the “Slow Magazine” (not the real name obviously!) for quite a while – since February of 2007 as a matter of fact. This particular piece is a long poem, which they specifically state they like in their guidelines. Because I am anal (and my handwriting sucks!) I had printed labels for both the to and return envelopes, I included postage for a reply, and dropped it in the mail slot. (Well, really, I gave it to to post office lady over the counter, if we are going to be specific.) Although I have a tendency to go over my Duotrope tracker and see how long my submissions have been out, I really don’t stress over them, well, until they get to a year or so, and then I start to wonder.

I have one other story that has been out for a year, to BUST Magazine. However, in this case, as it was an electronic submission, I shot them off a polite email in December inquiring about the status of my submission:

I am writing to inquire about a submission for your “One-Handed Read” I sent in February of this year, “Story Title.” I was wondering if I could find out if it was still in the consideration process?

Thank you very much for your reply – I appreciate your taking the time to let me know.

I very promptly received an email reply that stated:

thanks for contacting BUST! It is still in our folder for consideration.

thanks again

So, I know they still have the story, it is still in consideration, and while I will still look at it in my submission tracker, I’ll be waiting a while to inquire again. It is a glossy mag, and I can wait to hear

However, my submission to the “Slow Magazine” is a different story. Part of that story is its dismal Duotrope stats. Of the 26 responses that have been reported, over half were assumed rejections and withdrawals, and of the assumed rejections, the average time was almost 400 days. Yowsers. If you know Duotrope, you know those are some sucky stats. Now granted, I did look at those numbers, and wonder if I should attempt it, but I figured what the hey, long poems are harder to find markets for, and who knows, it might get in there.

Yeah.

So, while years ago I did have a non-responsive email-submitted market (Literal Latte – which is also on Duotrope’s list of low-responsive markets - they didn’t respond to a follow-up email either), I hadn’t yet encountered a snail-mail submission market that not only hadn’t responded, but had such low response stats. I looked all over their website, and couldn’t find an email where I could even ask about inquiring about my submission. So, I thought about it, and sent them a snail-mail inquiry (on printed envelopes, with postage on the return envelope as well), and I said:

I am writing to inquire about the status of a long poem that I submitted to the “Slow Magazine” on February, 26th, 2007, titled “This Long Poem.” I would like to know if this piece is still being considered, or if it was lost in the mail. If I have not heard of the status by April 1, 2008, I will be withdrawing it from consideration and submitting it elsewhere. Enclosed is an SASE for your reply.

Thank you for your time in replying to this inquiry.

Now, hopefully I will have heard from them one way or the other by April, but if not I have it put it writing that I will be withdrawing it. Then I will revise it again as I haven’t looked at it in over a year, and send it back out.

Somewhere with better stats.