Another year has come and gone — almost too quickly. It wasn’t as much of a spectacular writing-accomplishments year for me as 2012 was, but it was pretty darn good anyway.
I luuuurve me some data to crunch, so I continue the annual tradition of sharing my submission info with the world. First, I’d like to address my 2013 resolutions, which were definitely a mixed bag:
* Complete at least one novel and begin shopping it around to agents/publishers
Failed that one miserably. I have approximately 20,000 words written on the novel so far, and keep distracting myself with short stories. Definitely must get this done in ’14.
* Continue to participate in the Write1Sub1 initiative and write at least one new short story per month.
Blew that one out of the water by completing two short stories per month instead.
* Translate into English at least two SF/F short stories by Russian authors
Translated one short story (The Ferryman by Siarhey Bulyha) and am shopping it around.
* Attend at least one major SF con (something like WorldCon or World Fantasy) and a few smaller ones
WorldCon accomplished:
Ken’s Hugo receives the George R.R. Martin seal of approval.
I also got to attend LunaCon, BaltiCon, CapClave and PhilCon, and will likely be back to all or most of these next year. I already registered for next year’s WorldCon in London.
And now, to the good stuff:
Short stories written in 2013: 24
This is not counting a handful of stories I started but didn’t complete for some reason. Totaling approximately 65,000 words. 11 of these have already been sold. One I felt wasn’t quite good enough to submit. The rest are out to markets.
Number of Submissions sent out (including reprints, foreign rights, podcasts, translation, etc.): 224
Number of Acceptances (includes stories submitted in 2012 but accepted in 2013): 39
Lost/Withdrawn: 2
Currently on Submission: 18 (with 3 more waiting for specific markets to open in January)
Rejections: 168
$ Earned from Short Fiction Sales: $1850
This is calculated based on what I’ve been paid for in 2013 (i.e. a bunch of stories from 2012, and a bunch of recent sales haven’t been paid for yet).
Non-Reprint Sales: 19
Pro Rates ($0.05+ per word) 13
Semi-Pro Rates ($0.01 – $0.04 per word) 5
Token payment: 0 (the only token market I even bother to occasionally submit to anymore is Every Day Fiction)
Royalty-only: 1 (A story I wrote for an anthology edited by a friend)
I also edited and published two anthologies: Unidentified Funny Objects 2 and Coffee. and began working on at least two more for 2014.
Overall it was a solid year, and I look forward to do more of the same in 2014. I do hope to get my first novel finished (and maybe even a second one if I can find a way to switch to novel mode). Otherwise, my major goal is to break into more of the top short fiction markets that haven’t yet published me. And, most importantly, continue to have a great time being a part of SF/F fandom.
#SFWApro
Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction 