August is now over. We are eight months through 2020 and I have:
-11 short story and flash acceptances
-36 rejections
-2 hold notices
-11 stories out on submission
Friends out there: please keep writing, finishing, submitting, and taking care of yourselves.

I racked up seven rejections in July. A few of them hit day after day, which is a great way to feel worthless. Spoiler: you are never worthless.

A couple of those rejections were the "near miss" variety that made it excruciatingly close to the final cut. I had my hopes up for one in particular. But oh well! Those stories just have to go back out on submission while I write new stuff.

But I also sold three stories in August, easily the most in one month this year. One is a reprint that I'm delighted will see rise again. Let's have a word about the other two.

The next was a dream market sale: I'll have a story in Uncanny Magazine this November/December! https://twitter.com/Wiswell/status/1297950350868185094

I have been submitting to Uncanny since they first opened. I had a story held in their first slush. My story sale was the result of writing a heck of expanding my craft and writing a lot of new stories over years.

The last story sale of August came an hour before midnight last night. It's a market I enjoy, to an editor I adore. I can't say much yet but it's the kind of queer story I only started letting myself write in the last few years.

It's worth acknowledging that in my most successful month of 2020, I had more than twice as many rejections as acceptances. If you see someone succeeding, don't fool yourself into believing all they do is succeed and you can't touch them.

If these threads are helpful to you or you'd like to do something for my birthday on Friday, I have a thread here: https://twitter.com/Wiswell/status/1296119880392093696

But the #1 thing I'd appreciate you doing for me is helping my friend. Car woes suck way worse than rejections, friendos. https://twitter.com/Merc_Wolfmoor/status/1296152164788822021

Martin's whole thread is worth reading. My big piece of advice for how to manage rejection is to have a new thing to work on. Don't wait in the shadow of a submitted story. You have more stories to tell, and finite time to write them. https://twitter.com/McFlyCahill90/status/1300851103463026688