Have You Been Naughty, Or Have You Been Nice?

       At the end of 2012, Donna Volkenannt wrote a post chronicling her year as a writer. She listed her submissions and her acceptances/rejections. It inspired me to keep a planner and I faithfully mostly remembered to make a notation when I sent something off.

     Hey, Donna! I just bought my new planner for 2014. Hopefully I will submit something in the first week of January to start things off.

     And now, here is how my year went: (And if you want to avoid all the writer mumbo-jumbo and go straight to the earth-shattering revelations mildly interesting details, scroll past the bullet points.)

In January I submitted: 

• a story for the NYMB law enforcement anthology. (I haven't heard yet)
• a story for the moms-to-be NYMB anthology.
• a story for NYMB about the first meeting of the WWWP's (no news yet)
• a guest post for writingwithoutwalls--it was published
• a guest post for WOW--The Muffin called "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle." (it was published)
• a story for the "Cupid's Quiver" collection--was published
• a story for Sasee's March issue--rejected
• a story for Chicken Soup's Just Us Girls anthology--published

In February I submitted:

•  a story for LTYM--was rejected
• a story for Chicken Soup's "Lemon to Lemonades" collection--was rejected
• another story for CS's "Lemon to Lemonades"--rejected
• a story for Chicken Soup's Holiday Stories--rejected
• a piece of flash fiction to an ultra-short competition--rejected

In March I submitted:

• a piece to Sasee for their May 2013 issue--rejected
• a story for CS's "Miraculous Messages from Heaven"--rejected
• a short story to Bayou magazine--no news...still
• a story to Chicken Soup's "The Dating Game"--accepted
• a memoir piece for NYMB on Cats--???

In April I submitted:

• a story to Silver Boomer Books' "Longest Hours" collection--rejected
• a story for CS's book on cats--???
• a story for Gloria Gaynor's anthology--rejected

In May I submitted:

• a story to Chicken Soup's "Just Us Girls"--published
• two stories to "Thirty Days to Sanity"--both rejected
• a story to the NYMB on Dieting--???
• a story for CS's book on holidays--???

In June I submitted:

• a story to CS's "Multitasking Moms' Survival Guide--published
•  a story to CS's "Positive Kids"--accepted
• a manuscript to Guardian Angel Publishing--rejected
• another story to CS's "Positive Kids"--rejected
• a story for NYMB on Special Occasions--???
• a story for CS's "Rebooting" anthology--???

In July I submitted:

• a story for Chicken Soup's book on dogs--???
• a story for NYMB on Moms--accepted
• a guest-post for WOW--The Muffin--published
• a story for NYMB on Family--rejected
• a story for Sasee's September issue--published
• a story for NYMB on Moms--rejected
• a story for CS's dog anthology---???

In August I submitted:

• a story to NYMB on Moms--rejected

In September I submitted nothing. Yikes.

In October I submitted:

• a story for CS's "Overcoming Challenges" piece--???

In November:

• I worked on my NaNo project from 2012 and got into the mid 70,000's
• I submitted a story for CS's "Home Sweet Home"

In December I submitted:

• a guest post for WOW--The Muffin--published

      I discovered several things. One, I know there are pieces I forgot to jot down. I will try to be not as naughty next year and instead be more meticulous.

       Secondly, there were some months where submissions were sparse. April, May, August, September (none), October, November and December. I am going to try and be more vigilant and look at my planner, week by week, and see if I need to ramp up my submissions. For some of those months, I can make excuses rationalize why I didn't submit much. April is a busy month for me, teaching-wise (state testing). May is a crazy month for me, teaching-wise (the end of the school year/report cards). August is back-to-school month and September is parent-teacher conferences. October? Perhaps I'm too busy gobbling up Halloween candy before Halloween...November I completely understand. My priorities were with my NaNo (still not done). December--another crazy month teaching-wise (report cards are looming).

      Third, (I already knew this) my rejections far, far outweigh my acceptances. Donna Volkenannt did a nice job of tallying up her rejected pieces vs. her published pieces. I'm too full of Christmas crap right now to do that. However, I think for every 942 pieces that got rejected, 3 got accepted. It seems I've been a lot naughtier as a writer than I've been nice.

         Do you keep track of your submissions digitally, via a calendar/planner or some other way? Do you have a bit of advice to kick some (like me) in the butt?