In April, I gave the update that my original goal planning was not cutting it, and so I made a stretch goal – submit (and get rejections [for]) sixty (60) short stories this year. This will lead up linearly until in my fifth true year of submissions, I’m aiming for 150. I try to stay on top of submissions by having a specific number reached as the calendar year progresses. Othewrise, I might be stuck short of my goal with a large number of closed-for-the-holidays and/or a break markets.

As of today, I should have sent forty-two (42) stories out in the world – the same number I actually sent out in 2021. I am excited to say, I have submitted fifty (50) short stories already in 2022. I am only ten (10) away from my goal and have a whole four (4) months to get them sent out.

Since the April update, I have 2-3 shorter works that I have fully polished and am sending out, along with my other stories looking for homes. This brings me to ten-ish (10) stories that are out and about, looking for their homes. Why -ish? Well, a couple of those stories counted and not counted are reprints, another is a drabble that I’m not settled with. Another has a very specific order-of-operations and isn’t really available to just send out, or turn-around upon rejection, which is my usual motis operandi.

Right at this moment, not everything that could be is out. And, gasp, I’ve got a couple stories under acceptable simultaneous submission! I find with ten stories, the turn-around is a little slower and I also consider simultaneous sub with less stress than it was. 

Querying, you say? Yes, last update after a year of querying and a (less than a paragraph) form rejection on a full request and so much silence from agents, I declared myself done querying one of my novels. 

Then a friend and champion of querying mentioned she was at 150 queries. Which sparked one of my few competitive drives. While I will not try to outcompete that, I have decided to at least get to 100 queries with my novel before setting it aside.

In June, I began querying again.

For the first ten months of querying, I made a policy to always have one dozen (12) queries out in the wild. I built up to that number within the first week or two. When a rejection came in, I sent another out. With the silence of agents in 2022, that method does not work at all. I’d never move forward with queries. I’m currently sending queries as I have the emotional and time bandwidth for it. Every rejection is still a knife in my heart (but I’d still the rejections than the silence). I’m currently at about twenty (20) queries out. 

​We’ll see how it goes.

I hope to have all sorts of good news by the 2022 goals wrap-up – short story goals submissions met, more acceptances, querying at least meeting my goal number if nothing else.