So! I have been thinking about my own publishing stats a lot lately. And, frankly, no one needs to see me continually talking about doing less these days. Even if I only post a status every quarter.
As a result, I got to thinking about collecting everything in one space, rather than updating it every three months. In particular, much older stuff can go here. I don’t think you need to see my 2018 numbers in more than one place, now, do ya?
At least, I hope you don’t. And if you do, I’ve got quarterly reporting for that.
Why Keep Publishing Stats at All?
Some of this is simply for my own records, naturally. But I hope to put it out here for others as well. But why?
You can see that querying and publishing, even in the age of the nontraditional author and self-publishing is still pretty damn hard.
It also can, potentially, show some trends. At least, I hope it can.
Note: I will keep the milestones (which are read counts) in the quarterly report posts, along with info on whatever has been published, even if it’s out of print. And so, without further ado, my publishing stats.
Queries and Submissions—the Prelude to Publishing Stats
So here’s how that’s been going lately.
In Progress
Currently, the following are technically (but I’m not getting my hopes up) still in the running for publishing:
| Publisher | Title |
| A Thousand One Stories | Soul Rentals ‘R’ Us |
| Adbusters | Justice |
| Gemini Magazine | I Used to Be Happy |
| RAB | Mettle |
| Sonder Review | Who Do We Blame for This? |
Querying Stats
Here’s the history of my querying, in all its naked glory.
2018 Stats
So in 2018, my querying stats were:
- 68 submissions of 19 stories
- Acceptances: 4, 5.88%
- In Progress-Under Consideration: 3, 4.41% (so these don’t seem to have panned out)
- In Progress: 10, 14.71%
- Rejected-Personal: 14, 20.59%
- Rejected-Form: 24, 35.29%
- Ghosted: 13 (so these were submissions where I never found out what happened), 19.12%
So in 2019 my querying stats were:
- 23 submissions of 11 stories (so 6 submissions carry over from 2018)
- Acceptances: 4, 17.39%
- In Progress: 11 (so this includes 2 holdovers from 2018), 47.83%
- Rejected-Personal: 4, 17.39%
- Rejected-Form: 3, 13.04%
- Ghosted: 1 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 4.35%
2020 Stats
So in 2020 my querying stats were:
- 37 submissions of 12 stories (so 9 submissions carried over from 2019)
- Acceptances: 3, 8.11%
- In Progress: 7, 18.92%
- Rejected-Personal: 12, 32.43%
- Rejected-Form: 4, 10.81%
- Ghosted: 11 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 29.73%
2021 Stats
So in 2021 my querying stats were:
- 5 submissions of 5 stories (so 5 submissions carried over from 2020)
- Acceptances: 0, 0%
- Ghosted: 5 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 100%
2022 Stats
So in 2022 my querying stats were:
- 6 submissions of 6 stories (so 5 submissions carry over from 2020 and 2021), plus 1 reprint!
- Acceptances: 14.29%
- Rejected-Form: 1, 14.29%
- Ghosted: 5 (so these are submissions where I never found out what happened), 71.42%
It can be pretty discouraging and hard to go on when nothing new comes up which is positive.
Overall Publishing Stats
So, here’s everything that has found a home so far. I’ll probably keep this in the quarterly reports, at least for now.
Untrustworthy, which is my first published novel. So yay!
A True Believer in Skepticism, published in Mythic Magazine.
Almost Shipwrecked, a story in the January 2019 edition of Empyreome.
Canaries, a short story in the March 29, 2019, edition of Theme of Absence.
Complications, a story in the Queer Sci Fi Discovery anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds went to supporting the QSF website.
Cynthia and Wilder Bloom, stories in the Longest Night Watch II anthology.
Props, a story in the Longest Night Watch I anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds go to Alzheimer’s research.
Surprises, a story in Book One of the 42 and Beyond Anthology set.
The Boy in the Band, a story in the Pride Park anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds go to the Trevor Project.
The Interview, the featured story in the December 14, 2018 edition of Theme of Absence. So they even interviewed me!
The Last Patient, a story in the Stardust, Always anthology. This was an anthology where the proceeds go to cancer research.
The Resurrection of Ditte, a story in the Unrealpolitik anthology.
This is My Child, a short story published in the April 8, 2019 edition of Asymmetry Fiction.
Three Minutes Back in Time, a short story published in Mythic Magazine.
Killing Us Softly, a short story published in Corner Bar Magazine.
Darkness into Light, a short story published in Corner Bar Magazine.
If my works resonate with you, please check out another article about my progress: