But this year I had 3 stories go out and go over 200 days. One, the longest, I emailed inquiring if it was still under consideration, and received a quick reply letting me know it was. So, even though it is still going a long time, I’m not worried about it, as I know it isn’t lost.

The other two however, have me a wee bit irked, only because I don’t like marking assumed rejections, even when I feel they must be. Both I emailed over a month ago to inquire about, and neither responded. One I hadn’t received a conformation email for submitting, so at 200 days I reluctantly marked it AR. The other one I did receive a conformation email, but no response to the inquiry email. Tomorrow that one will be at 200 days as well, and I will probably mark it as an AR, but it irks me more than a rejection does. (I’m used to those.)

So this year so far, I have submitted two pieces, and already received a rejection for one. Go new year!

“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.

And in that time period between this and my last acceptance I have also received 1o rejections.

And I have 8 stories out to 15 markets.

AND! NaNoWriMo starts in about 48 hours! I’ll be blogging my progress heh heh heh. I am invoking the Zokutou Clause as I have won NaNo before, and will be rewriting and continuing the one I started in 2003 – it is at 33k, but my writing has improved and there are some changes I want to make. I’m also shooting for 70k words rather than 50k – which means I am shooting for writing 2334 words a day. Yikes. I’ve been busting ass for a while writing though, so I’m going to try like hell to pull it off.

*starts sweating already*

I also edited my Twitter box so it doesn’t take up so much room. I have it partly so people can have another way to follow my posts as this blog pings Twitter whenever there is a new post.

I had another short story accepted, this one by Ruthie’s Club, titled “Winter Showers.” I also have received 8 rejections this month, which brings my total this year to 27. I currently have 18 stories out.

And in non-writing news, my daughter has the chicken pox. She had recieved one of the shots in the 2 shot series so far, so even though she tends to catch anything like that very severely, she has a mild case with just bumps and itching. She’s quite pleased however that this means she doesn’t have to have the second shot after this!

So, since May 1st that is

39 submissions,
21 of which are pending,
15 rejected,
2 accepted
and 1 withdrawn.

Not bad percentages, but still, a lot of work – the acceptances don’t come easy. And I am NOT complaining at all LOL.

And here’s a new personal rejection letter:

“Thank you for your interest. We have included below our editors’ comments on your work; we hope you find them useful.

Editor 1 Vote: No. Over the top, dramatic, contrivance.
Editor 2 Vote: No. I don’t understand what happened, who these people are, or why I should care about them.”

Owch! Good to hear, but still, Owch!

The first email I got was this:

We’re delighted to let you know that your story, “Short Story,” has just been accepted for its second step in our selection process. Each of our editors will evaluate your story and we’ll make a final decision as to whether or not we’ll be able to accept it for publication. This happens for less than 10% of our submissions.
…
You should hear back from us within one month.

Then a few weeks later…

Our editorial review of your truly lovely, delicate story, “Short Story,” has been completed. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to use your piece at this time.

Once again, though, we liked your work. Please be aware that only a small percentage of the stories submitted to us ever make it to the ‘second step’ stage where we’ve been considering your story, and only 52 can be published within the framework of our weekly schedule each year.

We genuinely look forward to seeing more of your work in the near future.

Wow, that was a let down, let me tell you, particularly since this particular editor really did seem to like the piece. Happily, it later was published in a different market

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.

“Thank you for your submission to Our Magazine. We’ve decided it doesn’t work for us, however. Following are some of the editorial comments for your consideration. I hope you will consider us again in the future.

EDITOR 1: No. This is an intriguing scene, but without some knowledge of the characters involved, it’s hard to build suspense.

EDITOR 2: No. Too short and lacking enough details for the reader to care either way.

EDITOR 6: No. Who is she? What’s going on and how did she get into this predicament?

EDITOR 11: No. Not enough here.”

Good thing Simon wasn’t one of the editors.

Many thanks for sending “Your Story” my way. I found your story to be well-written with good description and believable dialog. You did a nice job slowly revealing what was going on, and building sympathy for our killer.

The only qualm I had with the writing was the use of “began” in the story. Began is a very passive word that can usually be eliminated from a story. If you think about it, you can only “begin” to do something for a nano second before you’re actually doing it. Why use “he began to shake” when you can write “he shook”. Unless something is going to stop him from shaking, the word has not point. Again, this is not a big issue, just something small to improve on.

I though that the conclusion of the tale was well done in that it was both horrific, yet poignant.

Unfortunately, I tend to shy away from accepting revenge pieces. Although your story is very well written, the main point of it is to show someone getting violent revenge on someone who wronged him. As a result, there was never any doubt in my mind how the story would end. I tend to receive a lot of these stories and, as much as I may enjoy them, they rarely offer anything original. You’re tale is by far one of the best of these types of stories I’ve read, but it really didn’t have any twists or turns. As a result, I’m going to pass.

The above comments represent only one person’s opinion; another editor may completely disagree. “Your Story” is a good story that I’m sure another market will appreciate.

Best of luck in all of your writing endeavors,

The Editor”

Now THIS was a nice rejection letter. Not only did he like it (even though he didn’t want to publish it) but he also offered some constructive criticism. (The only thing that really could have made it better would to have actually published it )

*sigh*

I felt like my daughter did when she got Corbin Blue’s (one of the hottest “tween” crushes) autograph by catching him at the back fence after a show. She was on air for days and laminated the fair ticket he signed. I felt like that. (Although, from my older, more cynical self this doesn’t count as a personal rejection exactly, but it was the most personal I had received up to that point!)

So far in the last twelve months I have submitted twenty-nine short stories. (Perhaps obviously, several have been out more than once.) Of those, I haven’t heard back on six, one was published (“Spring and Fall” in Khimairal Ink), and the other twenty-two obviously were rejected. However, of those, five were personal rejections, which means over twenty percent were personal. (Yes I am that much of a geek.) I’m not sure what the average is, but I do know that that’s not a bad average, considering some of the publications I submit to. (I tend to aim high, perhaps I shouldn’t but I do.)

I will post some of the personal rejection letters I’ve received over time, but there was one form letter I received that was so funny I have to post it here. It was from Postcards from Hell, and it went:

“Val,

We have subjected our victims to your story but they were not sufficiently traumatized. Your story has been consigned to the Lake of Fire. Thanks for trying Postcards from Hell. Have a nice day.

Minion

editor from hell”

How great is that??????