YESes Are Like Buses

Long ago I heard the following expression: Opportunities are like buses. You wait for ages for one to come along, and then three show up at the same time. Sort of like When it rains, it pours.

Lately, it seems I've been doing a lot of waiting, writingwise. Waiting for acceptances (or rejections) of my submitted stories, waiting for the publication of stories that have been accepted, waiting for places to come along that I might want to submit stories to. Alas, not much was there. Especially acceptances. On the rare occasions when I did submit stories, I was hearing "No" a lot. "Yes," not so much. My publication list, both recent and upcoming, had fallen dead as a dodo.

Then, several weeks ago, several bright spots (buses?) came along:

- New Myths published my flash fantasy/crime story "Jumpin' Jack."

- Black Cat Weekly published my 24th story there, "Sweet Loretta Morgan."

- Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine published "Moneyland," the eighth installment of a mystery series about southern sheriff Ray Douglas

- The Bouchercon 2026 anthology, The Lines We Cross, published a blackmail/murder story, "Garden Path"

- Umbra Magazine published my short mystery/crime/adventure story "Raibow's End." 

- Crimeucopia: Objection! Overruled!! published "Nothing but the Truth," a fantasy/crime/courtroom story

Some of these publications were in new markets, some old; some were small, some large; some were magazines, some were anthologies; some paid well, some didn't; some of the stories were long, others short; most were lighthearted, a few were dark; most were original stories, two were reprints. On top of those six publications, two Josh Pachter-edited anthologies--Happiness Is a Warm Gun and The Great Filling Station Holdup--both of which contained my stories, were re-released with new covers and (in one of them) extra content.

All this spelled sweet relief to the literary drought I'd been going through. Some of my recent submissions even received YESes instead of NOs, including acceptances from EQMM, Strand Magazine, and a Santa Rage II anthology. The needle on my mood-meter finally moved up a bit. It had, for quite a while, been frozen at DISMAL.

Do you, if you're a fellow writer, occasionally go through these slumps? 

I think they're to be expected. Most of us writers suffer self-doubt now and then--I certainly do--and sometimes it's justified; despite what your mother might think, not every single thing you produce is going to be a winner (ask George Lucas about Howard the Duck). But there are also other reasons for downturns. For one thing, especially for those of us who write short mystery fiction, there just aren't as many places out there anymore to send our stories to, certainly not many that pay well. (Even some of those that do pay well seem to have lowered their rates.) Plus, some of the existing markets take a very long time to respond, which discourages some writers from submitting to them at all. (We're dying of thirst here, Lord--we need some rain!)

The good news is, marketwise, several new magazines--at least new to me--have recently appeared. Some of those I heard about from other writers, some via internet searches, some via posts on the Short Mystery Fiction Society's message board. Also, at least one publication that was about to shut down has been given new life via new owners, and one has announced that it'll soon take on more readers of submissions in order to cut down their overlong response times. Last but not least in the Good News Department--though it's not really news--is the fact that slumps will always, eventually, end.

Once again, how about you? If you write short stories, are you finding enough places to submit them to? If so, how? Are you getting yes/no replies in a reasonable time? Are you being paid enough, or paid anything, for your work? Are you--yes, I must ask--just finding it difficult to write stories that please an editor? Do all these occasional obstacles get you down?

My answer to that is, don't let them--and don't stop trying. I know I'll keep trying, simply because I love writing these stories. I'll subscribe to the places I send stories to, I'll keep up with which markets are out there and what they need, I'll attempt to promote them--and my stories in them, I'll keep looking for new markets, and I'll try to write every story as well as I possibly can. I will also count my blessings that things still aren't as bad as they could be. I'll say it again: Dry spells don't last. My favorite observation on this subject, though I don't remember where I heard it, is this: A professional writer is just an amateur writer who didn't give up.

Don't give up.