How was 2006 for you?
In the spirit of transparency, here’s how it was for me – as a fiction writer, rather than as a fully rounded human being. Lots of wonderful, terrible, and mundane things happened to the human being, but this is simply the writer’s year:
Submissions – 181 (112 still outstanding)
Print publications – 8 (five anthologies, three magazine)
Online paying publications – 10 (I don’t give my writing away these days unless as reprints)
Reprints – 6
Commissioned works – 2 (one novel-length erotica for serialisation, one short story, both paying)
Works for exhibitions – 9 (shown in London and Beijing)
Accepted for publication but not yet published – 2 (both anthologies)
Under peer review or in editing – 2
I didn’t win any contests but I think I was runner up in two, finalist in two more, and I gave two workshops and five readings I think (could be more actually, I don’t record that data).
Is this good? I don’t know. I know that no agent has yet snapped up my novel, which could make the whole year seem like a failure if the novel was all I thought about. I know that for a writer who didn’t get published in 2006, my year must look like a bonanza, so good or not good rather depends on where you stand. Above all, I know that I could have done better, submitted more, despaired less, reached out to others, shared my experiences and hoped without selfishness.
So my goals for 2007 include the aim of trying to suggest, at least once every month, a place for another writer to get their work published.
Has anybody else any writerly resolutions this year?
2 Comments
TitaniaWrites
2nd January 2007I think that sounds like quite a fabulous year, one submission every two days, and you’ve found paying online publications and been commissioned, very impressive!
And such a generous resolution to recommend places for other writers to get published. I like that. I may try and do something like that too. Thanks for the inspiration. BTW, V & I have started a blog to keep a tally of submissions etc.. http://writingstats2007.blogspot.com/index.html
If you or anyone else reading this would like to join us, please get in touch with one or other of us.
Debra Broughton
6th January 2007The figure that struck me most was that almost half your submissions are still outstanding. Knowing how long it takes to get a response (and understanding the reasons behind it) I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.