One of my goals for this year was to have at least as many sales as last year - three. About a half an hour ago, I found out that my third story of the year has been accepted for publication (I can't reveal it yet, sorry). If I count the reprint sale of "Brimstone Orange" to Pseudopod, this makes four sales for the year. I know that's not a lot to some people, but it means a lot to me. It means that despite how difficult it is for me to write shorter projects, making myself stick to it has resulted in a slow but steady stream of sales. Perseverance. Kind of counts for something in this business. :D
As far as word count - bleh. Not a lot. Several stories, several novelettes, one novella that needs serious revision, and a failed flash. But I decided early on in the year that keeping an annual word count would just depress me. So: fuck it! What's more important is that I'm finishing stories, I'm sending them out, I'm selling them - or if they come back, I'm sending them out again. At the end of the year, however, I'll post my "Raymond Chandler Write a Million Words of Shit" count - I still keep track of overall output, and what percentage of that has sold.
What's looming up ahead is the spider-steampunk novella and the novel - this means my sale rate will slow to a big fat 0, since I'll have to disrupt my short story/novelette routine. I wish I could "write a story a week" like Jay Lake advises, but it just will never be. But I have a few stories and some prose poems in inventory that are either in submission or ready for submission, so perhaps there won't be such a big slow-down in my sales as I work on the novel. Also, frankly: I think one or two projects that have published this year will get HM's or better in various "best of" anthologies, so that will continue the very small momentum I'm currently experiencing. I think the key words there are "very small". I'm still under the radar, here. No one knows me or knows of me. Little steps, though. Little steps.
As far as word count - bleh. Not a lot. Several stories, several novelettes, one novella that needs serious revision, and a failed flash. But I decided early on in the year that keeping an annual word count would just depress me. So: fuck it! What's more important is that I'm finishing stories, I'm sending them out, I'm selling them - or if they come back, I'm sending them out again. At the end of the year, however, I'll post my "Raymond Chandler Write a Million Words of Shit" count - I still keep track of overall output, and what percentage of that has sold.
What's looming up ahead is the spider-steampunk novella and the novel - this means my sale rate will slow to a big fat 0, since I'll have to disrupt my short story/novelette routine. I wish I could "write a story a week" like Jay Lake advises, but it just will never be. But I have a few stories and some prose poems in inventory that are either in submission or ready for submission, so perhaps there won't be such a big slow-down in my sales as I work on the novel. Also, frankly: I think one or two projects that have published this year will get HM's or better in various "best of" anthologies, so that will continue the very small momentum I'm currently experiencing. I think the key words there are "very small". I'm still under the radar, here. No one knows me or knows of me. Little steps, though. Little steps.
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