It’s year-end writing-stats time!
WHAT DID YOU GET UP TO THIS YEAR?
So much!
I learned to love making book covers.
This year I really opened up my writing revenue streams by reprinting some of my work to Kindle, Smashwords, and QuarterReads. They’re not STRONG revenue streams, but they’re not nothing.
Math!
- The Lair of the Twelve Princesses – Amazon, B&N
- Suddenly, Zombies – Amazon, B&N
- Trials of Teeth and Fire – Amazon exclusive
I slipped into WorldCon for a day and WFC for three, which was 100% delightful on both counts. You guys are so great in person!!
I underwent a thorough and harrowing fifth revision of a certain novel, which is nearly done, at last.
TELL ME ABOUT SUBMISSIONS!
Here are my submission numbers:
- 81 rejections
- 14 sales
- 21 submissions still pending
I am way happier with those numbers than I am with last year’s. They’re more in line with what I like to see from myself. Those sales include five stories to pro-paying markets, four audio reprints, two poetry sales, and, fingers crossed it comes through, a foreign translation reprint.
SOME STUFF WAS PUBLISHED
- Omen – Shock Totem #8.5, 3/5/14
- Two Things – Recorded by Wily Writers, 4/6/14
- The Hitchhikers – Phobos: Emergence, 6/1/14
- The House, the Garden, and Occupants – Recorded by Pseudopod, 6/6/14
- Loving Armageddon – Crossed Genres, 7/2/14
- The Gate, My Beloved; My Story, Its Key – Daily Science Fiction, 12/2/14
BUT HOW DID THE WRITING GO, AMANDA?
I had a weird year!
I got about 110k new words written, which has been my yearly pace for a very long time now. (Last year was a fluke.) That pace delivered me about 17 finished shorts and poems, another 25k on last year’s novel, and an embarrassing assortment of unfinished nonsense.
Did I mention revising nearly an entire novel for the fifth time?
SO WHAT’S UP FOR NEXT YEAR?
I’m aiming for what I consider a fairly easy 3k/week pace, which will still wildly increase my output of new words, depending on how hard I cheat. I have quite a few unfinished and imperfect stories to whip into shape. I’m planning to complete my adult fantasy novel, rewrite one other YA fantasy novel, and start seeking an agent for the YA fantasy that’s nearly done. I plan to keep up with #10bythen, or ten submissions per month. (I assume saying all this will help me actually do it.) I don’t have any convention or additional self-publishing plans, but who knows what will come up.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Link me your 2014 stats post, or tell me in the comments what you accomplished!
Amanda C. Davis 
January 2, 2015 at 3:16 pm
This is funny because I was just posting my yearly stats as I read yours. Here is the link to mine: http://sklase.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/writing-wins-and-woes-yearly-stats/
January 2, 2015 at 5:02 pm
I sent out 20 submissions – -mostly old stuff that I polished a bit. Only one is still out, and none of them sold. 😦 But I’ll keep trying.
It wasn’t a terribly productive writing year either — I only wrote one new story and did some novel revision — but any progress is good progress, right?
January 2, 2015 at 5:02 pm
Right!
January 2, 2015 at 6:56 pm
I am so impressed! Well done, you!
Question: did you design all five of the book covers following the sentence that says you’ve come to love doing it? They look terrific! I can see why you’d love doing it!
January 2, 2015 at 7:07 pm
Yes, I did! The first and third are from stock images. I drew the second myself. The fourth uses a DeviantArt commission (a redraw of an existing piece). The fifth is Heather’s X-ray. 🙂
January 2, 2015 at 7:13 pm
Nice!
January 21, 2015 at 1:23 pm
[…] I make book covers now! This weekend I offered on Twitter to make a free commercial ebook cover to the first person who had an image available and told me they wanted it. My taker was @ChrisIfill. […]