While my list of publications is longer than in previous years, it’s my belief that wins are more precious against the backdrop of effort. An easy win feels less earned than one that has come through perseverance. That’s why it’s so important for me to be honest about the more difficult aspects of the writing life instead of focusing only on my publications, which inevitably include rejections. I’ve done this in previous years (2020, 2021, 2023), and at some point, I will go back and analyze the data in more detail. So, here are my statistics for 2025:
New pieces written: 12 (all poetry, including prose and hybrid poetry)
Total submissions: 75 (70 literary submissions and 5 photography submissions)
Total decisions: 92 (this includes decisions from submissions in previous years)
Acceptances: 13 (4 stories, 4 poems, 1 article, 4 photos)
Rejections/Abandonments: 79 (10 positive)
Withdrew: 1
Acceptance % (acceptances/total decisions): 12.85% (just literary ones), 17.33% (overall)
Shortest decision: 2 days
Longest decision: 6 months (for places that actually sent me a response, see “Takeaways” for more details)
A few takeaways:
- I had less submissions this year and more acceptances (including ones from submissions made in 2024), making it the highest acceptance rate so far. Whether this is due to my stories/poetry being better, I’m picking journals that fit my work better, or some random quirk of fate and benevolent editors, I have no idea. However, it’s encouraging that I’m still improving after over a decade of taking writing more seriously.
- That being said, a much larger percentage of “rejections” this past year has been abandonments, no response “rejections”, or journals that closed without notification. I consider a story abandoned if I don’t receive a response in 2 years (this includes places that seem to still be up but are not responding to queries). Also, sometimes, I’ll go to a journal’s website for the email address to query only to find out that the website doesn’t exist anymore. Then there are the no response “rejections,” which are those places that do not notify that they’ve rejected my piece. Either they say that if you don’t hear back after a certain time, you can consider it rejected. Or, they’re more traditional magazines or contests, and I only realize my piece is rejected when the contest results come out or the issue of the magazine I submitted for is published.
Honestly, the fact that this is becoming more common disappoints me. I understand that sometimes (especially for contests) the amount of submissions is overwhelming so it’s hard to respond to each one individually. However, from the writer’s side, I spend a significant amount of time researching publications, reading their submission guidelines, updating my formatting to fit said guidelines, and submitting per their guidelines all to make it easier on the publication/contest. I think it should be reflected from the other end as well and, at the very minimum, for them to send out a brief mass form letter to all rejected (or non-winner) submissions or, for closing journals, to all current submissions with an update to the journal’s status. What particularly irks me are those journals that use Submittable and don’t bother to even mark my submission as rejected, so I have to go in and withdraw my submission myself in order for the submission not to linger on my “active” dashboard forever. It’s a two-way street. Without journals, it’s difficult for writers to find publication venues. However, without writers, the journals would have nothing to publish. - I did have less submissions this year because I finally finished the first draft of my novel. It’s rough. Very rough. I’m going to try to spend this year going through multiple revisions, including possibly hiring a professional developmental editor to whip it into shape. My goal is to have something worthy of submitting out by the end of the year. Considering how long it’s taken me to get this far, it’s actually a pretty short novel so far, probably closer to a novella. I’m hoping that once I complete this, I’ll have enough experience and momentum to finish more!
- I also would like to finish some lingering short stories that have been haunting my WIP folder for quite some time. I didn’t complete any stories in 2025, and I’m excited for some of the intriguing ideas that are developing (fermenting like kimchi?) into barest-bone plots, so I’d like to get those into the completed folder and out into the wider world.
Hopefully, I’ll have even more good news by the end of this year. That’s the wish I’m throwing out into the world in this chilly January. Hope you will accomplish your goals and dreams as well!