A Year in Rejections

It was 1 year ago that I sent out my very first submission, my first novel to Tor. And what a year!

1 novel finished before the year started.
19 short stories written to completion within that year.
31 venues received my submissions.
91 rejections on those stories.

Almost to the century mark for rejections. Lately the trend seems slightly more positive--I've actually gotten a few "almost" replies, and one that's being held for consideration for an anthology. I'm hoping that's a continuing trend and not just a shallow peak. Here's hoping! Who knows what the next year will bring.

I am a little bit curious what the big 3 digit rejection will be, the big one oh oh!

Rough weekend

Between Friday and Monday I received SEVEN rejections. 2 on Friday, 3 on Saturday, 2 on Monday. Ouch, my ego!

On the bright side, a story I have posted to the Baen's Bar forum (a critique forum that doubles as a submission route for Jim Baen's Universe) is getting some positive comments, even from Edith Maor, one of the slush readers who is notoriously hard to please.

Lately I have noticed that, in my writing submissions, when I get particularly bad news it seems to come paired with some measure of good news on the same day. Maybe it's just a fluke, but maybe something really good is just around the corner. I can hope, right?