In Print, February 2020

Released last month and available for print purchase, Outposts of Beyond Vol, 7, No. 2, features my Middle Stars piece The Dreaming Giants, an early outing in the series but a seminal one as I’ll be returning to the title entities at a later date, in what is planned as my first Middle Stars novel.

This is the last issue of Outposts of Beyond—the third time I’ve been in the very last issue of a title. Good news is Alban Lake are expanding with a line-up of new titles coming in the not too distant future.

For the moment, you can order this volume from the Infinite Realms Bookstore, at US$9. Click here.

It’s been a stunningly silent month on the progress front, I’m in my longest dry spell between placements since my record dead patch at the middle of last year. I had hoped to notch up two or three this month but so far, zip.

Cheers, Mike

Four Years In: The Annual Review

I should have posted yesterday but had things to do and places to be, as the saying goes. And with the inferno sweeping Australia at this time one is allowed to be a bit distracted! So, here is the four-year-and-one-day milestone, and it’s time to look back on performance in this quest of mine to make a mark in the short story world.

Overall: After 1461 days, I now have a total of 1549 submissions, 92 placements (16.83:1 submission/acceptance ratio), 90 stories on submission at this time (my record is now 99), thus 1365 rejections (14.83:1 rejection/acceptance ratio). These ratios have squeezed out only slightly from last year’s figures, reflecting a slight down-turn in the activity of the market, which, in the long-term, has been less an impediment that I had feared it might.

In calendar year 2019, I made 432 submissions (well up on last year), receiving 25 placements, one less than the previous year (17.28:1 submissions/placements, longer odds than in 2018.) This is an acceptance rate of just 5.78%, down from 2018’s 7.36%, which was itself down from 2017’s 8.16%). If there is a metric for the downturn in the market I felt I was seeing, this may be it.

Average time between acceptances in Year Four was 14.6 days, appreciably the same as last year (26 acceptances).

I have not encountered a professional placement in the last twelve months, which is bad news in terms of income; that said, I managed to make slightly more in the last financial year than in the previous one, which suggests I’m hitting higher on the market scale more often, despite not actually being in the pro category in the twelve months between July 2018 and June 2019.

Productivity is well up, 42 stories this year (very much better than the 20 in 2018, yet still well behind the 62 in 2017), totalling 214, 998 words, up a long way from last period’s 130, 695 (but, as expected, still well below the 247, 782 words I clocked in 2017). I have over 210 stories registered at Submission Grinder, and 230+ in my personal list.

With the reorganisation of staff at my university I found myself without courses to teach in 2019, and this freed up time for intensive writing and marketing. The apparent market slump that seemed to set in around September 2018 (at least read as a marked slow-down in terms of placements) caused me to work that much harder, writing as much as possible and maintaining the highest possible submission rate. At one point I drove submission in play to 99, though to be fair there were several on multiple or simultaneous submission among them, plus some old subs effectively dead or in limbo, and a truer figure would have been in the 80s.

High points this year gone by include my second placement with Andromeda Spaceways, third with NewMyths, fourth with Aurealis and sixth with Lovecraftiana. I picked up the Editor’s Choice Award at Alien Dimensions with Sky Tears, and branched into mystery: I have begun to write Sherlock Holmes stories, a most active subgenre, plus original cases with an occult twist set in the Holmesian era, the Inspector Trevelyan Mysteries. One of each has placed so far.

Had I maintained the rate of placement seen in 2017-18 I would have been well above 100 placements at this time. As it is, I expect to see that milestone around March. With such a tally amongst one’s credentials, I would hope a literary agent would be suitably impressed, and the plan for the not too distant future is to begin work on a novel. I’ll keep up the short story activity too, it’s natural as breathing at this point, but the longer format offers new opportunities, both creatively and in market terms.

I hope to have equally interesting stats one year from now!

Cheers, Mike Adamson

In Print January 2020 (and Progress)

This month promises to be my busiest ever, with four items releasing! First up, going active around January 1^st, was my mermaid short Sylvie in the Blue, in the online magazine Aether & Ichor #5. Read it here. This is the last edition of A&E, oddly enough the second time I’ve appeared in the last issue of something, the other being my SF short A Grand Succession, which was in Nebula Rift Vol. 4, No. 12, in January 2017.

Next up should be Apocalyptic Visions appearing at the online mag Emerging Worlds on January 9^th, followed on the 14^th by my fantasy short Hubis in Retrograde when Black Hare Press release their anthology Pride, first of their Seven Deadly Sins series. And finally, on the 28^th, my mermaid piece Silver Scales will be appearing in Kzine #26, due on the 28^th of the month. Links to come on all of these.

I also just received my copy of the anthology Synth, featuring my SF short Naevus. This a reprint, the story having first appeared with Uprising Review in November, 2017. You can order here.

I scored my first placement for the year today, my Lemuria fantasy short story Lord of All Seas being picked up by NewMyths magazine, my third piece with them.

Tomorrow, I’ll be producing my annual review, looking back at my fourth year in the game, and presenting the stats of writing and publishing to date.

Cheers, Mike Adamson

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UPDATE

Apocalyptic Visions went live at Emerging Worlds: you can read it here.

Hubris in Retrograde appeared in Pride, you can order here.

And finally, Silver Scales can be found in Kzine #26, which you can order here.

I’ve also placed three more stories this month, which is equal with my best January in previous years. The Silent Agenda scored a place with the Pole to Pole anthology 20, 000 Leagues Remembered, a collection celebrating 150 years since the Jules Verne classic was published. Then my fantasy piece Zamalek, the Dream, a cautionary tale of human interaction with the world, found a home with Dim Shores Presents Vol. 2, due later in the year (a collection that came out of left field, resulting from the great number of excellent submissions the publisher received in response to a previous project.) And finally, The Gentle Art of Ghosting—a scientific look at the fiendish problems in performing surgery on a ninety-ton whale—has been accepted by the Swedish publisher Jay Henge for their new anthology Sunshine Superhighway.

It’s certainly been a busy start to the year, four publications, four placements, and I’ve written three new stories in the same timeframe as well, plus beta-read a novel and a short story, and am working on a feature film script too

Cheers, Mike Adamson

In Print December 2019 (and Progress)

Apologies for no update in November! Quick recap, there were two placements, my fantasy short Hubris in Retrograde was picked up by the Black Hare anthology Pride, one of their Seven Deadly Sins collection, and though this was a non-paying volume it opened the way to submitting to their paying volumes. Then at the end of the month my SF short Apocalyptic Visions scored a place with the UK online mag Emerging Worlds.

December has been a quiet month in previous years, but this one has had a flurry of action. My Victorian occult-detective piece The Vicar of Sexton’s Deep was picked up for the Black Beacon Book of Mystery, publishing in about a year, then Lovecraftiana accepted my cosmic-horror short The Tower of Dreams, for the Lammas 2020 issue. And finally (I say finally, but there’s a fortnight left in the year!), my mermaid piece Sylvie in the Blue was taken by the magazine Aether and Ichor to appear on January 1^st, 2020. That’s both my mermaid stories now placed.

Also appearing this month in electronic and paperback formats is the anthology Not Far From Roswell, from Pole to Pole Publishing, cover above, featuring my SF short The Man with the Alien Aura. I had fun with that one and was delighted it placed on the first submission. You can track it down at these links:

A second anthology is coming out at this time, but the two stories I have in it are written under pseudonyms and I’ll be keeping that line distinct from my mainstream material.

I so far have three pieces publishing next month, and plenty more writing to do to route stories to open markets. Look out for my fourth anniversary roundup post on January 7^th, 2020, which will feature the statistics of my market performance, current tallies and so forth—always interesting to compare from year to year.

Cheers, Mike Adamson

1500

Over a year ago I exceeded 1000 submissions and had intended to post on that milestone, though I don’t remember actually doing so. Well, I just passed 1500, and I’ll post about it now!

When I began this enterprise I could not conceive of such figures. I was feeling my way, certainly, and increasing the frequency of submissions over time as I dropped into a working mode. A rejection comes in, I log it, redirect the story to some other appropriate market, and log that, both in personal records and at Submission Grinder (it’s great to be able to cross-reference the two for accuracy). Wait, repeat as necessary…

This is not the place to look at the statistics, that comes up on a couple of months when I reflect on the fourth year of the project, but 1500 submissions down is quite an achievement. It’s also a frank acknowledgement that over 1300 of them have been rejections, as well as that there is absolutely nothing unusual in this. It’s how the industry rolls these days, a fact of life.

I have no intention of quitting, and see myself in another year looking back on stats and saying similar things, but I would certainly like to break into the novel field. Short stories are an artform all their own, but novels are where the proper money can be found (unless you find a way to sell consistently to the pro end of the short story industry, which is a mystery to most). I have a number of novel ideas in hand, but picking the right one to develop in the current market is a matter of research, thinking it through, then committing to it. I’ve not completed a novel in many years, so it would be something of a renaissance for me.

1000 submissions was not even a bump in the road, it went by quickly in the flurry of work, and I don’t think I marked the occasion in any way. Perhaps this time I’ll raise a glass of something to the possibilities of tomorrow, before getting my head down over the next story. Because there’s always another story to write, another market calling for submissions, therefore another opportunity to make a mark, earn a few bob, and add to one’s professional capital before searching out that agent or publisher for wider endeavours to come.

Mike Adamson

In Print October 2019 (and Progress)

Two Austalian titles have gone live this month, Aurealis #125 (below), with my story The Witch Who Wove Dreams, a magical realism piece set in 17^th century Holland; and Andromeda Spaceways #76 (above) featuring my apocalyptic piece Rats, a tale of the years after the Earth has become uninhabitable without the buffer of technology.

Click here to order Aurealis.

Click here to order Andromeda Spaceways.

Also due this month is the anthology Not Far From Roswell, featuring my short story The Man with the Alien Aura, and I’ll update this post when it comes available.

And I’ve placed two stories this month so far, New Myths bought the “Middle Stars” pieced Wharf Rat on the 9^th, for publication in about a year, and on the 19^th Alban Lake picked up my Lovecraftian piece The Golden Land for their anthology Dream-Realms of Cthulhu. News about these releases as it comes available!

UPDATE (25/10/19)

Well, Roswell isn’t out yet, but Lovecraftiana V.4 No.3 is, the Halloween issue for 2019, with my story The Last Hunt, a tale of the world in an age damned to endure the return of the star-spawned elders.

And it looks like an extra placement, just sorting out some details, there may be a bit of a story to tell about this one! Next time...

UPDATE

Re that last comment above, my “Middle Stars” piece Petrichor was picked up by the anthology Wordland 8, which I learned late in the month after an email snafu meant I didn’t get the acceptance message some three weeks earlier. GRRR!

Cheers, Mike Adamson

Progress, September 2019

I’m unsure if I have anything coming out this month, though the next Aurealis won’t be far away. What is worth blogging are two new placements during the first half of September which bring me to 82 overall.

First, my fantasy short The Demonologist of Kraith   was picked up on the 10^th by the anthology series Fall Into Fantasy 2019, my second story with this stable (the first was One Shot Kill with their companion title Spring into SciFi 2018, early last year). Kraith is another of my “Avestium” tales, the fourth to be published so far.

Then on the 13^th, my SF piece Rats was accepted by the other big Australian magazine Andromeda Spaceways, my second appearance with them. Rats is part of my cycle of stories detailing the descent of the world into non-inhabitability a hundred years from now.

Also of interest, my volume of submissions is greater than at any previous time, with my record for total number of submissions in play having twice reached 99. I was unable to find that extra submission to round it up to 100, no matter how hard I mined my material, though. I’m currently on 95, with new material in preparation.

Cheers, Mike Adamson