Lessons from the Long Game of Getting Published
I’m approaching 200 submissions. It sounds like a lot, but I started in 2010, so that only averages to a little over 13 submissions per year.
Note that I am only counting acceptances where I got paid for my story and not places like CAB Theater that picked up one of my comedic pieces for free and performed it on stage. I didn’t get to cash in on that one, but I did get to sit in the audience while the actors performed my words, soaking it in as they got the biggest laugh of the night out of one of my jokes. And, honestly, that was way better than getting paid.
My acceptance rate is about 5.8%. While that isn’t quite stellar, it does seem to be better than averages reported by the Submission Grinder for many of the markets I stalk.
This gives you a feel of how difficult it can be to land a piece. Just looking at the odds for every 100 stories you submit you can expect to land less than two. There are some markets, like Anotherealm, and BSF Horizons that have nice fat acceptance rates of 12.5% and 33.33% respectively. But these appear to be the exceptions to the rule.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Allegory, which has an acceptance rate of a little over 2% and UFO publishing (They are closed now, no acceptance rate is listed at the Grinder). I was a first reader for several years at both of those publications.
I have also noticed a dip in acceptance over my last 50 submissions or so. If I calculate everything preceding those 50, I have a nearly 8% acceptance rate. Either I am getting worse (entirely possible, if not likely) or the market for short fiction is getting tighter. For the benefit of my own morale, I am going to choose to believe it’s the latter.
So what can we do to hedge against the ever increasing odds?
We do the only thing that has ever worked: create more content and hone our skills along the way.
And continue to have a lot of patience.
From the odds I can only expect to land fewer than 2% of the stories I submit, but improving the quality of my writing should give me an edge.
Or we can take the Han Solo approach — Never tell me the odds!
Comment below to let me know what your submission journey has been like. I’d love to hear from other writers grinding it out.
-James
Breaking Into The Craft 
Hi James,
Thanks for sharing your journey (and your stats!). After seeing two acceptances on The Grinder from one author on back-to-back days (congrats Lena Ng!), I stumbled upon Breaking Into the Craft. Then I saw all those markets where Lena had submitted her latest published story, and the sadness-slash-frustration at my latest twice-rejected story was handily put in its place. That’s some serious persistence, and I’m so glad her story was highlighted!
Over five years, I’ve submitted 164 pieces across poetry, flash, short stories, and even one nonfiction. 29 are currently on sub. I’ve had seven accepted (out of 135, for a 5.2% clip – I’m slightly jealous of your 5.8%. But also pumped for you.)
I suppose any writer expects 100% acceptance in that hopeful (or with me, slightly needy and narcissistic) realm of their heart. Of course I know 100% is foolish. Heck, 10% is impossible! Still, the hope takes so very long to die.
Despair is easy, unfortunately. One of my favorite contests is Apex Magazine Flash Fiction. They receive around 250 submissions every month and choose one. That is 0.4%. To put that into morbid perspective, an American man has a 2% chance of dying from prostate cancer. I happen to be an American man, one that is hopeful of winning the contest before being cast off this mortal coil.
What helps most is seeing and honoring the persistence of other writers. Misery and frustration, I feel, are emotions that so easily pump the brakes on writing. It’s hard to keep going forward when this brain of mine is angry, or despondent, or throbbing from the latest rejection sting.
After five years, I’ve gotten a lot of advice from non-writers. Not much has been worth a $%!*. Writers give better advice, but it’s often individualized. For me, your advice seems to be the only advice with any value: Have patience. Get better. Write the next thing.
And, as you and Lena and so many others have shown, keep submitting the pieces you love.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go write. And submit this latest rejected story somewhere else.
Lots of luck, and if I wish anything for you and the others reading, I’d wish for persistence and patience and that joy we all have when the writing is going like Clark Griswold on his greased-up sled.
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Thanks KM, I am sure Lena appreciates your kind words and yes, her persistence humbled me a bit, as well. It looks like you are getting a very respectable acceptance rate. Congrats on that. I agree in that every time I put out a story, I have a high expectation that it will be picked up. I think it’s mainly because I really research the market to make sure it’s a good fit. I haven’t tried submitting to Apex’s flash contest, but have come to appreciate flash fiction, writing more of it over the years than I did when it first became so popular. It’s an interesting challenge to get a story to fit in so few words. I can do a scene in a 1000 pretty well, but a full story arc is a bit more difficult. I love your positive attitude and appreciate the humor in your comment, particularly the Christmas Vacation reference at the end.
Take care,
-James
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