I was going to talk about some more about noir novels today, but instead I am going to post about getting my seven hundredth rejection (yesterday, from Lightspeed). Long-time readers might recall my previous rejection milestones:
- 600 - March 17, 2011 (seven months ago)
- 500 - June 22, 2010 (fifteen months ago)
- 400 - September 13, 2009 (two years ago)
- 300 - August 8, 2008 (three years and two months ago).
Clearly, this is an accelerating pace (which is due, mostly, to increased submissions volume). At this rate, I can expect 800 to come in around 5-6 months.
Saleswise, this has been my best century so far. From rejections 501-600, I sold exactly nothing, but from 601-700, I’ve made 5 short story sales (3 of them at professional rates), so that’s definitely something.
Every time I make this post, I am somewhat astonished at these ever-growing statistics: 105 stories of mine have gotten at least one rejection, and 165 markets have rejected at least one story of mine.
I feel pretty good about where I’m at, and I have reason to believe that my next century will be even more successful than the last one. However, I am looking forward to the day when my rejection rate slows down, not because my productivity has decreased, but because editors are buying my stories at a rate sufficient to slow my submissions volume (since frequently-rejected stories are better for submissions volume than quickly-accepted ones). It will be nice to reach a day when years--multiple years--pass between rejection centuries.