Submission Statement: February 2025

February has come and gone, and it was a pretty solid month for submissions. I’m still on pace to hit all my goals for the year, from the number of submissions sent to the number of new stories written. Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the numbers.

February 2025 Short Story Stats

• Submissions Sent: 11
• Rejections: 8
• No Response: 0
• Acceptances: 0
• Further Consideration/Shortlist: 1
• Withdrawals: 0
• Pending: 20
• New Stories: 7

I sent eleven submissions last month, four fewer than I sent in January. Strangely, this had little to do with not having enough stories to send, and much more to do with there not being enough open markets to send them to. I’m only submitting stories to markets that pay at least semi-pro rates, and I’m prioritizing those that pay a pro rate. What that means, especially when you have 20 pending submissions, is that you can quickly run out of desirable markets. This is particularly true with horror, where there are just fewer markets in general. So, toward the end of the month, I found myself with a handful of new stories and nowhere to send them. Thankfully, a bunch of markets opened up on March 1st, and I sent a flurry of submissions right away.

Sadly, no acceptances in February either, though I did receive another further consideration letter from a pro market, which brings my total to three. All of those held submissions are getting pretty long in the tooth, and I expect a decision this month on at least two of them.

My goal of writing one new story per week is still on track, and in February I completed five new stories, three shorts and two flashes. That gives me nine for the year, five of which are out on submissions, and I actually sold one in January. Not too bad.

Rejections

Eight rejections in February.

• Form Rejections: 8
• Personal Rejections: 0
• Close-But-No-Cigar Rejections: 0

A lot more rejections in February than January (all of the form variety), which is a trend I expect to continue. I’m sending out A LOT of submissions, and sim-subbing wherever I can. In addition, I’m submitting primarily to pro markets and tougher semi-pro zines. All this means the rejections are gonna start piling up, and I don’t think I’ll struggle to hit my goal of 100 no’s by the end of the year.

2025 Writing Goals Bingo

If you’ve been following my progress this year, then you know I have a new and fun way to track my writing goals. The bingo card below breaks up my primary goals into 25 bite-size mini goals, and this month I get to mark the first one complete.

Now, technically, I hit the 30 subs on March 1st, but I’m gonna go ahead an mark it complete here because, well, it feels good, damn it. Hopefully, when I update you on my March progress, I’ll have filled in a couple more squares.

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And that was February. My goals for March are pretty much the same as last month: write one new story per week, send roughly 15 submissions, and, hopefully, net a couple of acceptances in the process.

That was my month. How was yours?