Multiplication and Submissions

At the start of the year I had a goal to submit one short story a week. While I didn't keep rigidly to this, it worked out OK because some weeks I would submit several stories, which made up for the weeks when I didn't submit any. However, in September and October I hit a wall, my writing suffered and I didn't submit anything at all. While I wasn't sending stories out, I was still receiving Duotrope*'s weekly email. As well as notifying me about upcoming deadlines, recently deceased publications and changes in the market, it also listed the names of the people who had reported acceptances for the week. I always read through the names to see if I recognised any of them. One name kept on popping up week after week. Mercedes Yardley. Who was this woman? Her unusual name made her stand out, as well as the fact that it reminded me of both Mercedes Lackey (well known author) and Yeardley Smith (voice of Lisa Simpson). Eventually I decided to Google her and found her blog here, on wordpress. Kudos to Ms Yardley for her publications. It seems she has a goal of having 40 submissions out at any one time, and it is certainly paying off for her. This kind of goal was exactly what I needed to boost me back into sending my writing out once again. I think 40 is an unrealistic goal for me at the moment, so I decided on a submission total of 25 pieces for November, three of which have to be to major publications. At the moment I have 11 stories out in total - 8 new ones for this month and 3 pending from earlier in the year. I don't know if I will make my goal of 25 before the end of the month, but I am very pleased with my progress already. I love the Internet for little things like this. I love the inspiration, information and support it provides to the creative community.

*For all you aspiring writers out there, you should check out Duotrope's Digest. It has a huge list of markets for both short stories and novels in all genres and pay scales. It is free to use and if you join up they have a very handy submission tracker which helps you keep on top of all the pieces you have sent out and is invaluable when your laptop crashes and you lose all the submission information on your hard drive!