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Climbing back on the short story horse...

Saturday, 6 September 2014

I've been neglecting short stories a tad of late, what with novels and summer holidays and so forth. My outstanding submission count was down to something like five. Not good!

So I've been busily writing and polishing up half-completed tales and also submitting stories for reprint where possible. My outstanding submission count is now a shade below fifty. Much more healthy.

A couple of successes to report from this submission splurge already: Apocrypha and Abstractions have accepted a flash piece called Judgement Day (to appear next March) and German 'zine Pulpcore have bought German reprint rights to SF yarn Remembrance Day. I've only been published in English and Spanish before, so that's sehr gut indeed...






How many stories do you currently have on submission? Is fifty ridiculously high or should I aim for more?

Posted by Simon Kewin at 14:12

10 comments:

  1. Deborah Walker7 September 2014 at 11:16

    Congratulations on two great sales. And on that healthy submission count, Simon. Its time consuming getting the subs. But I find that once the count is at a high level, easier to maintain. I doubled my submissions out this year, (mainly reprints) and I haven't really noticed an increase in work in maintaining it. Which reminds me, I should do a sub or two today.

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    1. Simon Kewin7 September 2014 at 14:26

      Yep, I think you're right - maintaining the higher level is easier than getting there. It's addictive though - it becomes a challenge to see how many subs you can get out there. I quite enjoy it.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous7 September 2014 at 15:28

    Holy frick-fracking cow: 50? Way to go, amigo. I've got maybe 20 out on the sub circuit at present...maybe I should get 80 of my reprints out there. But no, ain't nobody got time for that. I've got to pen a 750-word space opera, after all.

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    Replies
    1. Simon Kewin7 September 2014 at 15:32

      If you got 80 reprint subs out there you could hit 100, right? But sure, it is time-consuming, especially as each market has their own little formatting foibles...

      Delete
  3. Elizabeth Twist7 September 2014 at 23:38

    Does it really get easier? I will hold that idea in my hot little heart as I sub like the devil.

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    Replies
    1. Simon Kewin8 September 2014 at 07:25

      Electronic subs certainly make it easier (I long-since stopped submitting to paper-submission-only magazines; what century are they in?) in that once you've penned an email to one market you can reuse, edit and send pretty quickly. Or with online submission, reuse and paste existing cover letters and bios etc.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous8 September 2014 at 03:05

    WTF? How do you find the time?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Madeline Mora-Summonte8 September 2014 at 14:13

    Wow, Simon! That's an amazing submission count. I'm not even going to say what I've got going on and out - I am a sloooooow writer.

    Congratulations on all the recent acceptances and publications!

    Madeline @ The Shellshank Redemption

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    Replies
    1. Simon Kewin8 September 2014 at 22:40

      Thanks! You have to write at the speed that works for you, right?

      Delete

I'd love to know what you think.