2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 4
Submissions This Week – 3
Submissions Currently Out – 9
Acceptances This Year – 1
Rejections This Year – 17 (7 personalized)
Goal
Last week I set myself a word count goal: 1,000 words per day. Sadly, I only managed about 50% of that. Most of those words were on my newest story, temp titled The Scout. So far, it’s one of those stories where I am really enjoying certain aspects, and other aspects are very obviously falling short. Stories like that just need time and effort to find the pieces that will click into place and make the whole thing work.
Even though I didn’t meet my goal, it was a useful motivator, so I’m setting the same goal this week (1k words/day).
Submissions and Responses
It continues to be quiet. I received no responses on my current submissions; maybe the editors are all enjoying the last few weeks of summer.
I have purposely stuck to publications that accept simultaneous submissions for my drabbles so that I could submit widely. I sent each of these three stories out again this week. Of course, Murphy’s Law of Short Story Submissions ensures that after weeks with no responses, I’ll eventually get them all back at once.
Goals for Next Week
Once again, I’m shooting for 1,000 words on my works in progress per day, and planning to send out one or two more simultaneous submissions.
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 3
Submissions This Week – 0
Submissions Currently Out – 3
Acceptances This Year – 1
Rejections This Year – 17 (7 personalized)
No Submissions, No Responses
My stories are currently submitted to publishers with longer turnaround times, so I had no responses this week. It was a nice break to get caught up on other writing tasks. I still haven’t submitted those drabbles that have been sitting around. More on that below.
The Writing Pipeline
Recently, I’ve been thinking about my writing pipeline. When I find myself doing the same type of work (like editing drafts) for too long, I lose focus and slow down. It is good to actually finish projects instead of endlessly jumping between half-finished things, but when I’m getting stuck on a project, it’s better to make some progress on another piece than grind ineffectively.
This week, I tried to diversify my writing more than I have been. I spent some dedicated brainstorming time generating new story ideas, which I haven’t done in quite a while. I also started outlining the new story I mentioned last week, The Vine. Finally, I wrote more of Portrait of the Artist in Wartime, a story where I suspect I will end up with a large word count and have to pare down.
What I didn’t do this week is any editing of Red Eyes, which is the story I was stuck on.
Next week, I’m going to try the same tactic and split my time among a few projects, and I might go back to Red Eyes to see if I can be more productive.
The List
The last thing I did this week is finish compiling my big list of potential publications for submitting drabbles.
One interesting discovery (which is obvious in retrospect) is that many publications will pay a fixed amount per story, and while $5-20 per story doesn’t seem like much, it ranges from a respectable semi-pro to top-tier professional pay rate when the story is exactly 100 words.
My next step will be to rearrange these publications into a rough ranking. I’d like to try more simultaneous submissions, but that will be limited by the amount of time I want to spend submitting.
Goals for Next Week
Work on brainstorming, The Vine, Portrait, and Red Eyes – whatever feels most productive
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 3
Submissions This Week – 1
Submissions Currently Out – 3
Acceptances This Year – 1
Rejections This Year – 17 (7 personalized)
The Vine
I have the excuse of a busy schedule over the past month or two, but I haven’t been getting as much done on my stories as I would like. Perhaps counterintuitively, I decided to unblock myself by starting work on yet another story.
The new story is tentatively titled “The Vine,” and is one that I’ve been kicking around for a while. (It inspired a piece of microfiction way back in the summer of 2021.) It’s about a plant that gets inside you and makes you feel empathy for others.
When I find myself getting stuck like this, it’s usually because there is some issue that I’m not recognizing and addressing, and it can be helpful to step away and work on something else. When I return, I’ll have a little more distance to evaluate the problems in my other stories and address them.
The Drabble Publishing List
I mentioned in previous weeks that I have a couple of drabbles that I’m interested in submitting, but some would qualify as reprints (since they already appeared on this site), and I think a good percentage of publications aren’t interested in stories that short.
So I dug deep on Duotrope and sifted through nearly two hundred publications that say they accept SFF flash fiction. I poured over submission requirements, editorial interviews and mastheads, and created a list of about thirty paying and thirty non-paying markets that might be good places to submit.
My next step will be to read some stories from as many of these as possible, especially the ones that specialize in shorter formats.
The Grind
It was a quiet week for submissions, with no new responses. I resubmitted The Incident at Pleasant Hills (which came back to me last week).
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 2
Submissions This Week – 0
Submissions Currently Out – 2
Acceptances This Year: 1
Rejections This Year – 17 (7 personalized)
Acceptance
It was a busy week for submissions, but the exciting news is that I received my first acceptance of the year. My drabble, Renter’s Dilemma, will be published in an upcoming horror anthology.
Part of being a writer is the “skill” of being simultaneously self-aggrandizing and self-deprecating, so my inner critic immediately looked for some reasons to get less excited: it’s just a drabble, it’s a big anthology series with lots of authors, and there’s no payment. But hey, the truth is that there are fewer and fewer publications that pay, and a writing credit is a writing credit. I’ll take a win, and keep on submitting. And I’ll post links when it’s released.
A Little Clarity?
I also received an odd email this week that made me realize even those who work in publishing sometimes have trouble communicating clearly.
This email was in response to a submission I had sent, and it said that the story had been “accepted for further consideration.” Since this publication accepts submissions via email, I am assuming this is nothing more than an acknowledgement that they received my story. (Duotrope’s guidelines for their normal response times also backs this up.) However, many publications do require submissions to pass through multiple readers or editors before acceptance, so this could conceivably be a note that the story made it through a first round.
The word “accepted” is a very loaded word in a response to a submission, so this phrasing that starts with the story “accepted” and ends with “further consideration” ends up being a linguistic rug pull for expectant writers.
Rejections
I received two speedy rejections this week: one for my recently renamed drabble, Tom, Dick and Larry, and one for Incident at Pleasant Hills.
I don’t normally talk about where I’m submitting, but I did want to mention how much I appreciate Clarkesworld Magazine. They are an excellent sci-fi mag with a very nice homemade online submission system, and they are remarkably fast at responding to submissions, despite being one of the biggest English language sci-fi markets.
Goals for Next Week
Quick turnarounds on submissions are a mixed blessing. It means I’m getting stories in front of more editors, sooner, but it also means I’m spending more time prepping and sending stories. It’s a lot easier to get to some of my other writing goals when stories aren’t coming back to me in 3-4 days.
As usual, I find myself with a lot of things I’d like to do, and not enough time to get them all done. I need to re-send those rejected stories, and I need to continue working on my stories in progress. That’s the bread-and-butter work.
I do still have a couple of completed drabbles that I have not been sending out, and this is mostly because it’s a pain to find places that are interested in a 100-word story. I also haven’t really done any simultaneous submissions, even when I’m sending stories to publications that allow it. That’s another way to get more stories in front of more editors.
Finally, there are always Critters critiques to catch up on. Those tend to be the first thing I let slide when I have too much to do. Luckily, I’ve built up a lot of credit, but it will eventually run out, and I don’t want to end up with a story blocked, waiting in the queue while I try to catch up on my quota.
So, I’ll throw down all of these as goals, with the understanding that I’m only going to get some of them done in the next week:
Resubmit rejected stories
Look for simultaneous submission options for The Bluefinch and the Chipmunk
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 2
Submissions This Week – 4
Submissions Currently Out – 5
Rejections This Year – 15 (7 personalized)
Playing Catch-Up
First thing this week, I queried the final submission that was still outstanding after my one-month writing break. The magazine responded promptly, and it was a rejection that was likely eaten by my spam filter. I’ll need to be a little more vigilant checking for responses in the future.
I re-submitted the four stories that came back to me over the past month. The process still takes a while, but I’m getting better at having publications lined up for each story, so it’s mostly a matter of checking the particulars and making sure my cover letter and formatting match their expectations.
I submitted Dr. Clipboard to a contest with a small submission fee. This is the first time I’ve spent money on a submission. I received positive feedback on a different story from the magazine running the contest, so I’m hoping that their tastes align with my style.
The Halfway Point
We’re over halfway through the year, but I got a late start on my “year of short stories” project, so this is week 26 by my count—the official halfway point.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping I’d have an acceptance at this point, but the process is slow, and I have received positive feedback. I’m also feeling more and more comfortable with the short story grind, from writing and editing to submission. It’s quite a bit of work, but I’m having a lot of fun.
Goals for Next Week
With my finished stories back in submission, I really need to get back to writing. I’ve also been neglecting my Critters critiques, and I need to get back into that habit as well.
Get back to writing stories and get my word count up
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 2
Submissions This Week – 0
Submissions Currently Out – 2
Rejections This Year – 14 (7 personalized)
A Month Of Responses
As I mentioned in my previous post, I took a writing break in June, so my works in progress are still in progress. I haven’t sent anything new out, but I did receive several responses.
For “The Incident at Pleasant Hills,” I received a very positive personalized rejection, indicating I had gotten past several rounds of evaluation. This confirms to me that the story is solid, and this is a publication I should keep in mind for future submissions.
“Dr. Clipboard’s Miracle Wonder Drug,” received a rather strange rejection that was generally positive about the story, but concluded that it didn’t fit the editors’ definition of the fantasy genre. To my sensibilities, it’s more of a modern fantasy or new weird story, but this response makes me think it might be worth trying some “softer” sci-fi magazines as well.
“The Bluefinch and the Chipmunk” received a form rejection.
My drabble, “Tom, Dick, and Larry,” has the distinction of being the first submission of the year that didn’t get a response at all. A few magazines state in their submission guidelines that they won’t respond for rejections, but this was not one of them. It’s possible that the story got lost in the shuffle, or the response was eaten by internet goblins or spam filters. I’ll be sending a query to see if I can get a clear response.
Goals for Next Week
Send a query to get the status of “Tom, Dick, and Larry”
Re-send all the stories that came back to me
Get back into the writing groove and work on at least one short story
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 2
Submissions This Past Two Weeks – 3
Submissions Currently Out – 5
Rejections This Year – 10 (4 personalized)
Moving
Well, I missed my usual Monday post last week, and as soon as I did, I lost all my blogging ambition. So this week will be a double-whammy and include the stats for last week too.
In exciting non-writing news, I’ll be moving house in about a month. We’re just getting all the paperwork sorted and starting on the packing, but I have no doubt it’ll be a big time suck. We’ve had more than a decade at the current house, and boy oh boy, stuff accumulates. At least it gives us an opportunity to go through everything and do some Spring cleaning. It’ll be a good thing, but it may eat into my writing time in the next few weeks.
Submissions
Luckily, the Year of Short Stories continues full-bore. With more than a quarter of a year under my belt, I’m up to five short stories currently out for submission, and feeling like a proper short story writer.
I finally finished The Bluefinch and the Chipmunk and sent it out. I also found a good themed anthology that accepts reprints, and submitted an old drabble, Haunted, under a new name: Renter’s Dilemma. I also got a rejection on Dr. Clipboard’s Miracle Wonder Drug and sent it out again. I’ve just about exhausted the professional-paying options for this story, so I’m moving on to the semi-pro publications.
New Stories
I’ve noticed that I tend to slow down when I’m working on a single story, so I’ve decided that it makes sense to have a couple irons in the fire. Now that Bluefinch is done, I’m going back to Red Eyes, another story from the trunk that I’m in the process of revising. I’m also working on a fresh story, Portrait of the Artist in Wartime, in the hopes that if I don’t feel like working on one of these stories, I can make progress on the other.
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 2
Submissions This Week – 1
Submissions Currently Out – 3
Rejections This Year – 9 (4 personalized)
Quick Update
I don’t have much in short story news this week. It turned out to be busy, so I got little writing done. Bluefinch remains just shy of fully revised.
I was excited to discover a brand new, pro-rate-paying magazine that specializes in speculative fiction drabbles: 100-Foot Crow. In fact, it’s so new that it hasn’t actually published yet. The timing is perfect, since I got a quick, personalized rejection for Tom, Dick, and Derek a few days ago.
That’s all for now. I hope to have more news next week.
Anyone who has been keeping up with the blog lately will know that 2024 is my year of short stories. I’ve been writing short fiction and submitting it to publications. As a result, I’ve been using Duotrope quite a bit.
Duotrope includes a database of publisher information and a submission tracker for authors. (It’s not the only one: Submission Grinder and Chill Subs are out there too. Duotrope is just the tracker I’ve been using.) So, I thought I’d write about a few tips and tricks that I’ve discovered that make the submission process a little easier.
1. Search by Title
The Duotrope publisher search has a lot of options, so you might be surprised (as I was), that there is no option for the actual title of a publication.
For some reason, Duotrope decided that this belonged in its own section. The “Find by Title/Name” option in the Search menu gives you the option of inputting a partial or exact name. If you don’t quite remember the name of a publication, you can also try searching by alphabetical index.
2. Find Publishers for a Piece
Once you’ve added a story to your Duotrope submission tracker, it will show up on your “List of Pieces” page under Account -> Pieces.
When the piece is ready to be sent out, you can always search for publishers by manually entering the length, genre, and other parameters. But you don’t have to.
Instead, just click the “Publishers” link next to your story on the “List of Pieces” page. This will automatically populate a search with the information you’ve entered in the piece’s description.
3. Publishing News
The Publishing News section of the site shows publishers that have been recently added. Since brand-new publications are inherently less well-known, they may represent a good opportunity to get a story in front of editors that are hungry for content, with relatively small slush piles.
Publishing News also has a section for publishers that have recently opened to submissions, which can be another good way to find fresh options, especially when those publications are only briefly open to submissions.
4. Track Themes and Deadlines
Some publications are only open for submissions during specific windows. This is especially true for themed issues or anthologies. Duotrope can track these submission windows and deadlines.
On a publisher’s detail page, general submission windows will be listed under the Dates heading, and specific themes will be listed under Theme(s). In each of these sections, there will be a Track link and a colored bubble listing the number of Duotrope users who are already tracking.
In the Account menu, you can visit “Themes and Dates” to see a convenient list of everything you’ve chosen to track.
5. Deadline Calendar
Whether or not you’re tracking any Themes or Deadlines, you can access the Theme and Deadline Calendar under the News section of the menu, or from the link at the top of the Theme tracking page.
By default, the calendar shows a list of all the themed submissions and deadlines in Duotrope, but you can filter by genre, payment, or your personal favorite publishers.
6. Overdue Responses at a Glance
Duotrope’s Submissions view shows information for all your tracked stories that are out on submission. It includes a trove of information, including some that makes it easier to decide if you need to follow up.
This view shows how many days each submission has been out, as well as the average response time reported by Duotrope users and the estimated response time provided by the publisher. But the status icon also has four different color options for pending responses.
Normally, the status is gray, but it will turn yellow if the submission has been out longer than the normal response time, and red if it exceeds the publisher’s stated response time. In some cases the publisher may state that they don’t always respond to submissions or don’t respond to status queries. In these cases, the icon will turn purple.
Of course, as with all things, you should confirm the publisher’s information on their website before blindly trusting Duotrope. It’s usually right, but occasionally there are discrepancies.
7. The Reports
Reports may sound dry and boring, but there are a few useful lists available there.
Authors who are sick of waiting for long response times can check the 100 fastest publishers to respond. Looking for feedback? Check the list of publishers most likely to send a personal response. Just trying to get a story accepted somewhere? Consider the list of publications with the highest reported acceptance rates.
What Else?
Do you use Duotrope? Are there any interesting features I missed? If you use a different tracker, I’d love to hear what they offer that Duotrope does not. Let me know in the comments.
2024 is my year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about the stories I’m working on, from idea and draft to submission.
Stories in Progress – 2
Submissions This Week – 0
Submissions Currently Out – 2
Rejections This Year – 7 (2 personal)
Critique Week
I received great feedback on The Bluefinch and the Chipmunk, but I always under-estimate how long it will take to incorporate so much feedback. There won’t be any major changes, but I haven’t gotten through all the edits yet.
Once again, it’s clear that stories just over 2000 words get the best response on Critters. Anything shorter only counts for half credit, and people are naturally drawn to shorter stories because it’s the least amount of effort. It’s unfortunate for longer stories, but longer stories are also a lot tougher to sell, so it makes sense to subtly encourage tight word counts.
I’m still surprised, when I receive critiques, to see just how differently people can read the same short story. There’s always at least one response that completely misses a major plot point that everyone else got, and this time, I also got another response saying that the exact same plot point was too obvious.
As mentioned last week, I also submitted a lot of critiques. I didn’t quite get my ratio back up to 100%, but I’m very close.
My 100-word mini-story, Tom, Dick, and Derek came back to me again, with a personalized rejection. I suppose one nice thing about markets that specialize in microfiction is that they can churn through the slush pile relatively fast.
I’ll be sending it out again in the upcoming week, although I’m a little less sure about how well it fits the next couple of publications on my list.
Words Deferred 