The View From the Five Year Mark

 

As with last year, this review post is coming a day late, as it seems life always has a way of intervening. Last year it was the chaos surrounding the bushfires sweeping Australia, and this year—well, 2020 speaks for itself with a very foul tongue. The world is not improving, to paraphrase Professor Henry Jones Snr.

So, from the five-year-and-one-day milestone, here's the outlook on my pursuit of a writing career!

Overall: In five years, I have 1953 submissions, 122 placements (16.008:1 submission/acceptance ratio), 90 stories on submission at this time (my record is now 101), thus 1741 rejections (14.27:1 rejection/acceptance ratio, slightly improved from last year, though it really doesn't feel like it!). These ratios continue to reflect a down-turn in the activity of the market, which, given the pandemic, is only to be expected

In calendar year 2020, I made 404 submissions (28 less than last year), receiving 31 placements, one less than 2017, my best year (13.46:1 submissions/placements, considerably improved form last year.) This is an acceptance rate of 7.67%, up from last year's 5.78%, and better than 2018’s 7.36%, second only to 2017’s 8.16%). If this is a any sort of measure of market viability, it would seem things are in fact recovering, despite the turmoil of the world at this time.

Average time between acceptances in Year Five was 11.7 days, appreciably better than last year (25 acceptances/14.6 days per).

Professional placements picked up in 2020, five since January last, which is good for the bottom line; I've done okay in the first half of the financial year against previous years and obviously hope the trend will continue.

Productivity is fair, 36 stories this year (down from 43 last year, and miles behind my grand total of 62 in 2017), totalling 186, 585 words, down from 214, 998 words last year.) I have over 230 stories registered at Submission Grinder, and 270 in my personal list.

The general effects of the pandemic and the craziness in the US in the run up to and aftermath of the federal election has more than likely affected the publishing field. Markets have continued to close, some of them professional-paying, while new markets have sprung up to take their place, some of them for-the-love-of-it mom-and-pop ventures, others ambitious pro-paying projects originating in the mainstream of the industry. There seems an indomitable spirit at work, that no matter how bad things get, the need to read and write escapist fiction will always endure, and the darker the days the more people need and want such stories to both ease the gloom, and speak plainly of better ones to come. That is one of the great strengths of speculative fiction, its nature as a pointer of the way.

My record of 101 submissions in hand at one time is a fairly erroneous figure, as there would have been a fair few older submissions either dead or in limbo. I went through and tidied up old subs and guess ten or twelve panned out as deceased—this was three or four months ago and the stories were redirected to other markets. In the last few days I've sent our twelve or fifteen queries against more old subs, and am giving them a week or two grace. Given the chaos in the US at this time—the Capital Building invasion was yesterday—I'm not looking for prompt attention to inquiries.

High points of 2020: My story Sky Tears not only won the Editor's Choice award from Alien Dimensions in 2019, but was nominated for the 2020 Aurealis Awards, in which it progressed to one of the five finalists—that's as close as I've come to a trophy so far! I picked up a second Hugo Awards long-list nomination too. My mystery writing has embraced Sherlock Holmes this year, with seven stories completed and more to come. I placed a Holmesian piece with Ellery Queen Mystery Magaizine, one of America's grand old mystery publications (since 1941) and scored a berth in their annual Sherlock Holmes tribute issue, due out at this time.

If I can maintain my productivity and marketing rates, I would hope to see 150+ placements by the end of this year. Also, I'm working on novels at this time, with a historical adventure in note form and a sci-fi/fantasy noir with three chapters on paper. With eighteen pro placements to date, I would hope a literary agent would be eager to take me on—that's the plan for the future.

Right, let's see what year six brings!

Cheers, Mike Adamson