2017 in review

37 acceptances (vs. 45 in 2016).

40 rejections (vs. 35 in 2016).

33 original short stories published and two reprinted (vs. 40 in 2016), and no articles/essays published (vs. 4 in 2016). (Even so, I did write some guest blog posts and became a regular contributor to SleuthSayers.org.)

I completed 32 short stories (vs. 56 in 2016).

I completed (to final draft) 130,600 words of short fiction (vs. 169,430 in 2016).

That's an average story length of 4,081 words (vs. an average of 3,026); the shortest story was 1,100 words; the longest was 6,700 words.

I completed and submitted an average of .62 short stories each week (vs. an average of 1.08 each week in 2016).

(I only track completed short fiction word counts, not words written for incomplete projects, nor words written for other forms of writing.)

Observations:

1) The decreased number of completed stories and the increase in the average length of my stories is partially attributable my not writing any stories intended for Woman's World, a market I have never cracked. 

2) Two magazines, responsible between them for 21 of 2017's published stories, ceased operation mid-year. This negatively impacted the number of acceptances and the number of published stories, and it put a crimp in my productivity.

3) Some publications do not send rejections. Non-responses are not included in the rejection count.

2018 Goals

For the past several years, my annual goals have been:

1) To complete and submit an average of at least one short story each week.

2) To receive an average of at least one acceptance each week. (Reprints and non-fiction pieces count for this goal.)

3) To continue to have one or more short stories published each and every month, as I have for several years now.

Given that I've lost two of my primary markets, these goals may no longer be realistic. So, my primary goal this year is to rebuild and re-establish myself as I move into new markets and/or new genres.