The Year in Review (2024)

 

Year Nine of this enterprise has now drawn to a close, and this is my annual review of progress. Last year I was able to report a gradual shift in emphasis from short form to long, as single-author volumes became more of a practical proposition, and I have spent considerable time this year in pursuit of this goal.

Crimson Blade took much longer to deliver than expected, but went to Hiraeth at the end of October and is due at press any day now as I write this. The Remarkable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 was released by Belanger Books earlier this year, and Volume 2 has now been delivered, along with Of Old Gods and Dreamlands, my H P Lovecraft anthology. In progress at this time, is Sherlock Holmes: Ravensgate for release in 2025, and Tales of the Middle Stars Volume 1, to appear with Jay Henge Publishing in Sweden also during the coming calendar year.

The bulk of this work has been tackled in the last six months, which says something about current productivity levels. I also could not have done it without the amazing input of Jen Downes, my editor and companion in creative efforts. We have co-written some stories this year, and have more collaborations to come.

Now for the raw data:

In the last nine years, I’ve made 3295 submissions (176 in the last twelve months, a marked decline from the 270 last year, which was itself well reduced from the previous year). I have 266 placements (12.39:1 submission/acceptance ratio, up from 12.78:1 last year, which was up from 14.53:1 the year before that, which bettered 15.11:1 in the previous year). Over five consecutive years this ratio has tightened down, suggesting that while overall numbers are not high, I am more efficiently targeting my work to markets that really want it.

With the shift toward single author volumes I have had less time and inclination to blanket the short story market with submissions, so my total number of submissions active at any one time has fallen. I have averaged forty-something active submissions logged at Submission Grinder during the year (32 at this point, including some old ones that must be dead by now—I have periodic clear-outs), sometimes as high as fifty, sometimes thirty-something.

These figures also indicate 2861 rejections or other null-responses (that tells you how slow things have been in the last year, a surprisingly small increase on the previous total), giving an overall rejection/acceptance ratio since 2016 of 10.75:1—improved for the fifth year running (2023: 11.65:1, 2022: 13.18:1; 2021: 13.52:1; 2020: 14.27:1).

During 2024 I made 180 submissions, almost a hundred less than the previous year, which was itself way down on the year before. This alone is a good indicator of my shift in emphasis. I had 21 acceptances, my second-poorest year in terms of total numbers since the very beginning. My submission : rejection ratio was 8.57:1, slightly poorer than last year’s 7.23:1. So, although total numbers were low, I was targeting material quite effectively, and my mystery writing was an almost 100% acceptance result.

Things seem to have been slow on a day to day basis, and that’s reflected in the figures. An average of 17.38 days elapsed between acceptances in the year, almost twice as long as last year (which had many more acceptances). Again, this is a function of the shift away from concentrating on short stories, which have by and large attracted disappointing pay scales. I recently scored a pro publication, and if I could do that more often things would be different, but it constitutes a statistical outlier at this point.

I completed 23 new stories in 2024, 15 of which were Sherlock Holmes pieces, almost all of which went directly into print with either Belangers or MX, or were written to complete The Remarkable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume II. I produced 42, 040 words of science fiction, fantasy and other genres, while my Sherlock Holmes short stories total 159, 200 words, for a grand total of 201, 240 words produced during the year. This is a markedly greater output than either of the two previous years, and does not count novel work.

At the end of 2023 I expected to write some eight Sherlock Holmes stories in the coming year, and in fact almost doubled that figure. I will make no firm predictions this year, but write to the markets as they present themselves.

As mentioned above, my second title with Belanger Books, The Remarkable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was released not long after midyear, and I have already delivered the second volume, for release when schedules permit in 2025. The third volume of the series is over half complete at this time, as are two other Holmesian anthologies. I am approaching 50, 000 words on my second Sherlock Holmes novel at this time, also scheduled for publication during 2025. My next volume coming up for release should be Of Old Gods and Dreamlands, my H P Lovecraft collection.

I have recently put together a list of projected work over the next three years, including projects for my established group of small presses but also embracing a number aiming into the professional arena. I have a novel near completion which I would be happy to offer out for agency representation, and another project to begin with which I could sound out local publishers on a non-agented basis. These are all ‘test-the-water’ ventures, and success in any particular area will shape the way things move from that point.

My total accepted wordcount now stands at 1, 390, 888 words, not counting novel length projects.

That’s it from the statistician for another year. 365 days from now will mark ten years since I decided to take the writing game for a spin, and I hope to have new milestones to report by that point, including extra small press releases plus, I sincerely hope, agency representation to the professional marketplace, with pro contracts in the offing.

Cheers from South Australia,

Mike Adamson

Header image royalty free from Unsplash, Aaron Burden photo

A Magical Number?

 

“It was seven years ago, this very day, that Mr Marley left us...” Or...

“Marley was dead—as dead as a two-year-old un-responded submission.”

Okay, I couldn't help the Dickensian reference, but it really has been seven years—today—since I made my first story submission in earnest. Late in 2015 I made a few experimental submissions to test fire the method, and I'd had a few unpaid placements in the previous two years which encouraged me to get serious about the game, but January 7^th, 2016, is the date inscribed in my memory as the day I really launched my bid to be a writer.

Maybe seven is the charm—they used to call it a magical number in the ancient world, and with the seventh year complete I have in some ways positioned myself for success to come. This is my annual review of progress/state of play post, and 2022 has been an interesting excursion in many ways.

Here's the raw data:

In the last seven years, I have made 2849 submissions (401 in the last 365 days). I have 196 placements (14.53:1submission/acceptance ratio, up from, 15.11:1 last year, which was am improvement on 16.008:1 the year before, indicating a steady positive decrease over time, regardless of all other factors). I currently have about 70 stories out, and my record is around 105-110, though to be fair there must have been a fair few multiple submissions and dead/in limbo subs among that lot. These figures also indicate 2583 rejections, giving a rejection/acceptance ratio of 13.178, also an improvement for the third year running (down from 13.52:1 in 2021, and 14.27:1 the previous year).

During the calendar year 2022, I made 368 submissions, scoring 32 placements (even with 2017 and 2020). This is an acceptance rate of 11.5%, down from 2021's 12.375%, but still well above 2020's 7.67%. Covid isolation has gone by (indeed, the world is behaving like the pandemic is over—funny, a hundred people are dying a month from this disease in my state alone, but, horrifyingly, society has normalised that), which might account for fewer people reading. But outlets continue to fold as well, reducing market breadth, though new magazines come along as brave publishers give it a go.

Average time between acceptances in Year Seven was up from last year's 9.125 days to 11.4 days, a sign of harder times all round. I've gone through dead patches so long I would be forgiven for wondering if I would ever see an acceptance again! But in real terms it's about the same as 2020's 11.7, which was an improvement over the previous year.

Professional placements, what are they? I don't believe I've had one in the last year...

On the face of it, productivity has been somewhat low, just 33 stories this year, totalling, however, 175, 871 words, a major jump on last year's 104, 309 words (and not far behind 2020's 186, 585). There are at this time two stories unfinished, straddling the New Year period, and it must be remembered in these totals that this year I have extended into novels, with over 50, 000 words of a near future SF project committed to digits, plus an entire mystery novel of 78, 500 words completed, edited and submitted in the same period—more about this in due course. Totalled up, this is around 400, 000 words of output in the past twelve months, which I'm pretty sure is the record for me.

I have 287 stories registered at Submission Grinder, and some 420 in my personal list (this includes work on pseudonyms).

As with last year, the standout in 2022 is again my success as a writer of Sherlock Holmes. I'm continuing to write (two new stories in prep at this time), and have appeared in seven Belanger anthologies to date, with acceptances for two more, and a second placement with Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. Strand Magazine actually solicited a second story from me (still waiting to hear back about it), and I was recently invited to submit to the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories anthology series, a charity collection coming out around quarterly in support of the Undershaw School, for children with learning disabilities, run out of a house that once belonged to Conan Doyle. This is a great honour, the tables of contents of these anthologies are a who's who of major talents, and I could not be happier.

My Sherlock Holmes output for 2022 was 62, 392 words, not counting the two still in prep, and I may as well reveal that the 78, 500 word novel I completed during the year is also a Holmesian excursion. I expect to have good news about that one in due course.

My total accepted word count stands at about 987, 000 words—I really wanted to pass the million mark, and the 200th acceptance before the end of 2022, but the market seems sluggish at this time. Perhaps this is to be expected, in view of the cataract of crises pouring over the world these days, from floods to wars, and disease to monolithic corruption.

In terms of period mystery, The Inspector Trevelyan Mysteries is continuing to develop, about half a dozen stories so far, plus two Sherlock Holmes crossovers (they are contemporaries). I have high hopes of an anthology at some point, and very possibly a Trevelyan novel too.

Also during 2022, I was invited to write a jacket blurb for a horror collection, Howls from the Dark Ages, published by the Horror Obsessed Writing and Literature Society, a group in Centennial, Colorado. I did a most enjoyable online Q&A with their members in August, 2021, and was invited to submit to their disaster horror anthology, Howls from the Wreckage, due out soon.

On the table with Hiraeth Books are two anthologies, a full collection of my Lucinda Crane, Vampire/Hunter stories, and a volume of three novellas of historical fantasy—more about those when things mature.

That's where I stand at the end of Year Seven, on the brink of the two hundredth acceptance and the millionth word past the post, with a novel and single-author collections in progress. I hope one year from now I'm reporting some real developments on all fronts!

Cheers, Mike Adamson

Header pic: Image by Nile from Pixabay.