Year in Review

2009 was a very good year for me as a writer. True, I didn't have any professional sales and I won't be paying my bills doing this any time soon. I don't have an agent yet, although it isn't for lack of trying and I don't have any books out with just my name on them, but I still consider this to be a very good year. It was a year that, I believe, saw my work get just a little bit better. I haven't received nearly as many form rejections as the year before and on a better note, I received more acceptances than I thought would be possible in a single year. Especially considering the number of stories I wrote. Let us get on with the stats.

Short stories written (completely): 14
Short stories sold: 14 (2 of these were in December. I made it into the zombie Western anthology and into the four horsemen of the Apocalypse antho as well)
Rejections received: 51 (I finally looked them all up)

On the surface this looks fantastic (I am including flash in this number because a story is a story no matter how long it is) I have sold more of the stories I wrote this year, either in their primary or secondary markets. Most of the stories I have left out in sub land (5) either are from last year or they haven't been out that long in the first place.

Words written in short stories: just over 25,000 (this includes one that I am still working on)

Not too bad. I can live with this number. It is the equivalent of 100 manuscript pages.

Short stories actually published in 2009: 10
words actually published in 2009: 14,765

Novellas, books written in 2009 (complete): 3; (incomplete): 4
words in those books: 114,000 (complete); 151,000 (incomplete)
books accepted: 0 (I really need to work on this)
Books out in submission land: 1 (I really, really need to work on this)

Now I could state my goals for next year and in writing them I might attain that but the acceptance part, while in large part due to my writing ability, is also dependent on the mood of the editor reading my material so no such goals will be put forth. As far as my blog-roll group as a whole I predicted good things to come last year and I was right. Of the 19 or so of you that regularly post comments on my blog 7 of you have sold books in single author formats either online or in print this year. That is pretty good company to keep. Congratulations to all of you. I hope more of us can join the ranks of you in the next year.

Would I like a better year. You bet. Who wouldn't. Will I get a better year. We will see. If I continue to see improvements in my writing then perhaps.

Here is hoping everyone has a wonderful New Year and I hope to see you all in 2010! May we all share many ToC's to come.