As mentioned in my previous post on the year in review, it was a great year for me as a writer. My goal this year was to get my submission stats back up to where they were pre-pandemic, when I was averaging 167 submissions per year over the previous four years. (DANG, past me!) During lockdown I was only averaging 76 submissions per year. (Actually not as bad as I feared? I think mostly it was the “not hitting 100” that was making me feel down on myself.)
I had tried to get back up there last year and got 84 submissions done. This year, I managed 155 submissions! WOOT! I did it! (I’m calling 155 hella close enough to 167.)
Now here’s the surprising thing. I had a feeling that I wasn’t doing well at selling stories this year. In the past, any time I increased my submissions, my acceptance rate went up. This time, nope. My acceptance rate took a first-ever drop when submission rate did not also decline. My acceptance rate this year (6.5%) was the lowest it’s been since 2017!
The rate is calculated without looking at number of rejections themselves, because many submissions are either never responded to or still pending. However, my total number of rejections received this year is the highest in five years, at 110.
Oh, here’s a fun fact… personal rejections made up 9% of rejections in 2023, the lowest since 2013! (2014 came close at 9.2%).
It’s possible that there are fewer personal rejections these days, in general, given the surge of submissions that followed Chat GPT. It feels like a failing, though, because personal rejections are often used by writers to show they were “close” to selling.
Have I peaked? Is it all downhill from here?
Well, first let’s accept that the publishing industry is entirely subjective and all my attempts to find trends (like that I sell more fiction when I submit more fiction) are exercises in futility.
Then let’s ignore that and exercise some sweet, sweet futility.
Were the stories this year more new and raw than usual? Or more old and tired than usual? I submitted 6 new stories this year as I worked to replenish my trunk by returning my focus to writing short stories during the Clarion Write-a-Thon. This does include one story solicited by the anthology it ended up in and two written for specific open calls, which were both successful, so I don’t think remaining 3 new stories skew my overall quality-of-work much.
Do I have more old stories than usual this year? Have all the “good” stories from years past been taken? But then, two of the stories I sold this year were among my oldest! Then again, I retired 4 pieces this year. (Meaning gave up on ever selling the tired old things.) I gave my trunk a hard look and asked, “These are all competent stories, but do I want them representing me?” I gave two of them one last submission, then moved the four to the “Hiatus” folder to think about themselves.
There are 16 stories currently in my “Done” folder that are not in “Haitus”. And 4 in my “Short short” sub-folder for flash fiction. So 20 stories. Seems like a nice trunk, but it also feels a little lighter than in past years. Wish I had kept count of the size of the trunk in past years. Hrm… of those 20… six were placed in the folder this year. (Confirms earlier count! Go me!) Woah, maybe I DO have more new stories than normal this year.
Am I a worse writer this year? Are my stories written this year not as good out the gate as previous years? I suppose it would require me to know how many stories sold the year they were written in the past.
Unfortunately, I only started keeping track of new-stories-per year two years ago, so all I can say is that I’ve had more new stories this year than those two years, which were also years of very low submitting. I wish I had records for how many new stories I submitted in 2020, my highest acceptance-rate year. Maybe I can gain some insight by looking at my journal from that year… hrm, at least four of the 22 stories sold that year were also written that year. (Identified by looking at my “Current Projects” list in a journal entry for July 17, 2020, where four Works in Progress are marked “Sold!”)
Huh… I was working on “We Build This City” that year. As well as “Live to Eat” a story I just decided was good enough to submit this year. Looking at earlier 2020 journal entries, that’s also the year Galactic Hellcats was accepted, and I sold my first (still only) movie rights. And I sold a story to Nature, Futures, which I had written that year… and also “Faster than Light Fireflies” was written and sold that year. Wow, okay, so that’s 6 new stories in 2020, same number of new stories as this year, but all six of those sold in 2020. What a year for me! Maybe lockdown wasn’t so bad for my creativity as I thought?
2020 was just an insanely good year, all around. 2021 was kind of its hangover, maybe I’m still building my way back up from that.
Of my ten acceptances, five were written this year. So, no, it’s not the new stories holding me back. One story was written to invitation for the anthology it was submitted to, so actually this year I had fewer of my sold stories, as a percentage, come from the slush pile. If I remove the solicited story, ooof the rate is terrible. 8.2%, lowest since 2014.
It is specifically my ability to sell from an open submission that is down… though solicited stories are not a significant factor overall, since I can count my solicited stories over all of my career on one hand.
One sale this year was a reprint. I wonder if I could separate out my reprint sales and see them? Then again, they aren’t a big part of my totals. I’ve sold 12 reprints in my career, out of 98 total acceptances. 12%, ish. (Two stories have been reprinted twice, and are counted twice in that total: “Knit Three, Save Four” and “Single Malt Spacecraft”. So, my total number of stories accepted is 88.)
Fun fact: I have never successfully submitted a story as a reprint, I’ve only sold reprints via someone asking me for them.
Another thing that happened differently this year, of course, is I got my first ever Major Award Nominations(TM). There’s a sinking feeling that maybe people are looking at my submissions more critically? Like, “This is good, but it’s not award material.” ? Anyone else with Major Award Newness experience a feeling like that? Wow, I almost want to turn comments back on to find out.
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