Solid day today though I am still a little unbalanced.
Reading—still off the wagon.
Data analysis—I made some refinements to my short story submission tracker that will make it easier to glean data and insights from acceptances/rejections. I broke the tracker down between short stories and flash fiction, which I intend to start writing later this year.
Marketing—I found new markets to add to my short story submission tracker. I am only tracking pro markets for the most part, but I added a couple of decent semipro markets to the tracker just to keep my options open.
For anyone who has no idea what I just said…I am writing short stories to license to magazines. Magazines facilitate payment in four tiers: Pro, Semipro, Token, and No payment.
Pro markets pay at least $0.08 per word. A 5,000-word short story would net $400.
Semipro markets pay at least $0.01 per word. That same story would net me $50. Huge difference.
Token markets offer a very small amount for a story. Not enough to be worth it.
And obviously, no payment markets don’t pay.
I’ve made a decision to go after ALL of the pro markets that buy science fiction and fantasy stories, and about 3 semipro markets. Overall, I have about 18 target markets for my short stories.
I’d like to get to a point in the very near future where I have 18 stories out to markets at the same time. So, essentially, I will have a short story under consideration on all pro markets at all times. That is, if I can swing it. That’s easier said than done. Takes a lot of work, organization and planning.
Anyway, this is a key marketing item that I hope will pay off for me over the next few years.
For production, I’m at 2100 words right now but I have some dishes to do so I anticipate ending the night somewhere around 2500 words. That puts me slightly below my quota of 2750 but this story is progressing at a pretty good clip so I’m fine with it. I could have been at my quota today but I backed off the throttle and am letting this story take its time. It’s moving at a steady pace so if I have another day like today tomorrow, I’ll finish it tomorrow night.
Have a good night.
YTD Word Count: 96,600
Plan: 1,252,000
Words Over/-Under Plan: 11,350
Days Ahead/-Behind: 4.13
Projected Annual Word Count: 1,402,800
Projected Decade Word Count: 14,028,000
Deadline 12/31/2023
Days to Go Until 12/31/23: 460
Word Count Average: 3,116
Average Pulp Speed: 1.8
