My Year Of Rejection

I know we’re twelve days into the new year already here, but I thought a nice wrap up of the year eight was in order just so I can start the new year clean. Clean, like… like… fuck… I don’t know. But I’ve got ’em and feel like sharing them.

Just so you know where these are coming from, I keep track of my story submissions in a little spreadsheet I put together. I’ve got each story with its word count and its submission history listed down in fields so I can run these numbers.

So here they are:

In 2008, I completed only two stories. This is pretty sad. Really sad. In six I completed seven and in the year seven I completed eleven stories. But last year, only two. And these stories were The Legend of Varad Ranjani, or, Those Short Sighted, Close Minded Bastards On Earth, perhaps the longest title I’ve ever created, and Company Town. Both of these stories I felt were among my best and really showed the result of my growth in skill from the previous years. So, even though I only did these two, I was really pleased with the end result.

But while I only wrote two new short stories, I did complete another history book, History of The Age of War, start another The Founding of the SEK and write a significant portion of a new novel based on the short story You’re Never To Far From Gelassenheit. This totaled over 150,000 words. Yeah, not all of them were good but they were words put down on the page.

And even though I only completed two stories, I did have a banner year for submissions. I racked up twenty-four submissions and twenty-five rejections, beating out last years record with five in each category. What I did not receive was a single acceptance though I got close at least twice. Sigh…

Still, those stories sat on editor’s desks for nearly eleven hundred days in total, beating out last years 770 days and 2006’s 246 days. The average number of days was also higher, clocking in at almost 44 days per submission. Neat, right?

For rejections, here are my top five magazines:

1. Strange Horizons – 9 submissions and rejections. Averaging 37 days per rejection.
2. Abyss & Apex – 8 submissions and rejections. Averaging 40 days per rejection.
3. IGMS and F&SF – Tied for third with 6 submissions and rejections each. IGMS averages an amazing 89 days per while F&SF has an equally amazing response average of 5 days.
4. Asimov’s – 5 submissions and rejections. Averages 23 days per.
5. Andromeda Spaceways – brings up the rear with 4 submissions and rejections. Another 40 day average.

Of course, those are life time totals. But there you have it. My year of rejection, summed up for you, right here.

Be good, kids.