Story Responses

Received 4 responses to short story submissions I'd sent out. None were sales. Oh, well. Back in the mail they will go. One was a 125-day from Vestal Review, a flash webzine. (Had to resubmit this one. The editor, a good guy, couldn't find the original submission. Responded to the resub in less than a day.) One was to City Slab -- it was 125-days, too. The editor of Lone Star Stories responded the same day (it was an email sub by the way). The last one was 179-day response to a story I had withdrawn six weeks ago when an editor expressed interest in the story for his new anthology book. Do I move this from the "withdrawal" category to the "Rejection" column or leave it where it was? Decisions, decisions.

Rejections don't sting like they used to. I don't take it personally. You have to risk rejection in order to sell. I always remember that for the longest time Babe Ruth held the home run record in baseball. He also held the strike-out record. You can't hit the long ball if you don't swing.

My rejections stand currently at 385. But sales of fiction stories, reprints, and nonfiction articles stand at 79. That's about 19% if I don't count withdrawals and magazines that folded before responding. 13% if I include all submissions without reason. Not too bad. Can't complain.

In fact, I think I'll swing for the bleachers.