Loose Change

Setting up for rejection

I feel I am setting myself up for rejection in January.  It appears that most of the e-zines and other magazines actually take time off, so the rejections/acceptances have dwindled to... well, nothing.  I have 59 submissions out there, 11 at a month or longer already, and 17 beyond the "average response time" according to Duotrope.  I am picturing this slew of rejection emails all on the 4th and 5th of January.  Of course, there may be the occasional acceptance in there as well, which would be nice, but the odds do seem in favor of rejections.  I have had 12 acceptances this year and 28 rejections.  I will jump for joy if I keep up a 30% acceptance rate (which would mean 17 or 18 acceptances for the stuff I have out), but I realistically expect something closer to 5% (which would be about 3 acceptances), because I have submitted to a lot of very tough markets (e.g., Poetry Magazine, Glimmer Train).

Can you tell I am just twiddling my thumbs here?  I think I'll go submit some more before the end of year deadlines.


Current status: 43 items in 59 submissions. No new markets attempted.