4 recent posts about stories and rejection

• Dealing with literary rejections - six viewpoints (Robin Houghton)
• Are writers the only - or the best - readers of short stories? (Zoe)
• Best American Short Stories: 2014 and O. Henry Prize Stories: 2014--Some Preliminary Remarks (Charles E. May)
• The BBC National Short Story shortlist: my assessment of the stories (Elizabeth Baines)

Submission snapshot

Writers new to submitting their work sometimes begin by sending away a piece at a time. They're surprised when I suggest that they keep many pieces in the post. Here's what I have out at the moment -

• Poems to magazines - 11
• Stories to magazines - 2
• Stories to competitions - 5
• Flash to magazines - 4
• Micro-fiction to magazines - 14
• Poetry book competition - 1

That's 37 pieces sent to 17 places - a mix of ambitious targets and smaller outlets. If 10% of these succeed this time round I'll be happy. For some of these pieces I already know where I'll send them next if they're returned. Some have already been rejected many times, but I like them. Overall, my eventual success rate with poems is 30%. With articles/stories it's 14%.

Recently published pieces

In the last few weeks I've had a few things published online -

• A story - Together (Toasted Cheese)
• An article - Stories by Lydia Davis (Threshold)
• 2 poems - "Musee des Beaux Arts" and "The Poetry Channel" (Angle)

Along with recent paper appearances in "Acumen" (poetry aphorisms) and "Under the Radar" (2 poems) these add up to a busy month.