Submissions: 2010 Submissions and Responses

Submissions

Here is the annual look back at my submission record for this year and some stats on my total submissions since I started to record them in 2004.

2010 SUBMISSIONS AND RESPONSES:
22 total submissions
*The total is 10 more than 2009.

6 rejections
*All but one were from literary agents on novel queries.

9 non-responders
*Six of these were from literary agencies, the other three from magazine editors.

7 acceptances
*These are from various sources for a variety of projects.

2010 RESPONSES FROM 2009 SUBMISSIONS:
3 withdrawals - 380/388/390 days
*This was for the MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT proposal, which Mike and I placed with Headline Books, Inc.

2010 RESPONSES FROM 2008 SUBMISSIONS:
1 acceptance - 321 days
*This was for my poem Starship Stowaways at Beyond Centauri. So this goes against the past two years where I've said that having a sub out longer isn't necessarily a good thing. In this case it was!

1 other - 726 days
*I created the "other" category for circumstances which cannot be covered under the usual headings; in this instance, it was that an editor left the publishing house, and the submission had been lost.

2009 OUTSTANDING SUBMISSIONS
1 novel query (literary agency)

2008 OUTSTANDING SUBMISSIONS
2 articles (magazines)
2 novel queries (editors)
1 essay (online magazine)
1 article (newspaper)
6 novel queries (literary agencies)
2 articles (online magazines)

SUBMISSIONS I'VE OFFICIALLY GIVEN UP ON!
2004
8/19/2004 - novel query (literary agency)
9/22/2004 - novel query (literary agency)
10/20/2004 - book review (magazine)

2006
8/29/2006 - essay (magazine)
10/18/2006 - novel query (literary agency)
11/9/2006 - article (online magazine)

2007
1/21/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/27/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/4/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/12/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/13/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/20/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
5/9/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
5/23/2007 - short story (magazine)
6/3/2007 - novel query (editor)
9/4/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
10/17/2007 - article (online magazine)
10/22/2007 - article (online magazine)
11/5/2007 - poem (magazine)
11/28/2007 - non-fiction book proposal (editor)

Does anyone notice who most of the non-responders were? That's why things are changing. I can't wait five or ten years for an agent to believe in me and the ability for my book to make them money. If I fail, I will fail on my own terms this coming year.

Comments

  1. Awesome Heidi! 7 out of 22 isn't to shabby!

    9 non-responses is a sin. The fact that they couldn't even be bothered to send a form rejection is a scathing indictment of an industry that just doesn't seem to care about the people who make it work in the first place.

    "If I fail, I will fail on my own terms this coming year." Love this line. I think I might make it my mantra for the coming year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. First, congratulations on your accepted works.

    I have to admire your dedication to submitting work. Certainly I can relate to the situation of having agents and publishers not respond. Surely no person is so busy that the few seconds it takes to send an email proves too great an obstacle.

    The real question, then, is what is the way forward? Self-publishing is an option, but that path seems littered with pitfalls and dead-ends.

    I'd like to feel more positive about this issue...!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congrats on the acceptances! It's amazing how many non-responses you had all the way back from 2007! I do agree that even if it's a form rejection, an agent or editor should respond back. Personally, I think it's rude not to.

    Good luck in the coming year!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, Chris, Adele, and Alexa.

    Good luck to all of you on your writing endeavors, as well!

    ReplyDelete

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