dr_phil_physics | Mid-Year Report

I was going to do a mid-year report on my writing submissions, but the end of June was busy with finishing my summer classes and doing some things around the house. So let's call it the:

Ides of August Report

On the 15th of August 2006, I submitted my 111th submission to anywhere, the 63rd submission to commercial markets (as opposed to contests, workshops and Clarion), 27th submission of 2006 and the 40th new story since June 2002. I've received one check -- Third Prize for the CrossTIME Anthology Volume V which will be out the end of August they tell me.

I've already exceeded my number of submissions for any year from 2002-2005, so 2006 is clearly going to be a banner year. I'm mostly pleased with what I've submitted -- I know even if I'm not showing up in the TOC of Analog/F&SF/Asimov's/etc. that my writing is improving and my short stories are getting much closer to being marketable. For someone who writes l-o-n-g, it is interesting to note how many of my stories are 4000 to 5000 words. More than I thought anyway, though it's partly a function of the markets.

Year          2002  2003  2004  2005  2006(8/15)
Submissions     8*   24    26**  26    27*
Returns         3    22    26    26    25
-- Wins         0     5    10     7     6
-- Rejects      2    15    15    18    18
-- No Calls     1     2     1     1     1
Number Out      5     7     7     7     9
  at year's end
Sales           0     0     0     1     0
Prizes          0     1     0     0     1
-- Honorables   0     1     2     0     1
Paid            0     1     0     1     1
Pending Publ.   0     1     2     2     4
Published       0     0     1     1     0

* - Partial year stats for 2002 and 2006.
** - 2004 numbers corrected from previous postings.
(1) Wins includes Sales, Prizes, Honorable Mentions,
WOTF Quarter/Semi/Finalists even without publication,
plus Encouraging Letters from Editors which just cannot
be considered the same as a straight rejection.
(2) No Calls include Contests canceled, Publications
gone under, Manuscripts lost by the USPS, and Manuscripts
withdrawn after Way Too Much Time (usually associated
with Publications gone under).

Currently I have stories out to and in no particular order:

-Baen's Universe (was on Eric Flint's desk when the Hold to October 1 began)
-Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show (new editor says slush backlog will be dealt with by August 31st)
-Writers of the Future (will probably hear in September, as per usual)
-Asimov's
-ChiZine's 12th contest
-Oceans of the Mind (Fall 2006 issue)
-Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
-Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
-Fantasy & Science Fiction

Four of these are new markets for Dr. Phil (Baen's, ChiZine, Oceans and LCRW). Four of these submissions are new stories (one is pulled from Chapter 14 of an unfinished novel mostly written in 1998). Nine stories out is not the record (11).

Dr. Phil