Loose Change

Optimism versus the odds

I've been submitting stories to a number of anthologies recently, and it is definitely an exercise in optimism.  This is not to express a lack of confidence in my writing; I write reasonably well and have plenty of published stories.  It is more a reflection of what the numbers the editors face.  For example, two anthologies I have recently submitted to are "Terminal Earth" and "Triangulation: End of the Rainbow."

Terminal Earth, with a final deadline of March 15, periodically gives the stats on its slushpile.  On March 8th, with one week to go, they list:

Stories Received: 92
Stories Accepted: 5
Stories Held: 30
Stories Rejected: 52
Undecided: 5

92 stories so far, with 5 accepted.  Granted, another 35 are either Held or Undecided (whatever the difference is).  Let's assume they need 15 stories total, although they don't say.  Let's assume they get an additional 40-50 stories in the last week, which seems consistent with what I have heard.  Even if they reject a little over half out of hand, that leaves 35 held/undecided plus an additional probably 20 held/undecided.  So, even if my story gets past the out of hand rejection, it would be in a pool of about 45 stories of which 10 will be accepted, even though all are essentially suitable (assuming that the out of hand rejections were either just too poorly written or too far off topic).  It feels quite a bit like applying to Harvard or one of the other Ivy League schools.  The question is no longer whether you are good enough, it is whether you are lucky enough to fit exactly what they need at that moment.  Maybe you wrote an angle that is too close to the angle used by another accepted story.  Maybe they need a tuba player and you play only saxaphone.

So, your fallback school is Yale, or in this case, the Triangulation anthology.  The stats on that are much more simple as of Feb. 28,:

Submissions: 211
Rejected: 201
Accepted: 10

Optimism vs. the odds: like cheering for the Cubs to win the World Series.


Current status: 62 items in 71 submissions. Three new markets attempted, Foetus Fatale: Fubar'd Noir, Terminal Earth Anthology and Big Pulp.