Tracking My Success

I track my short fiction submissions using Duotrope.com. Over the last 3+ years, when I seriously began to focus on short fiction again, I have noticed that my short fiction sales tend to come in waves, and that I have good months and bad months. So I created this crude chart to see if my impressions were born out by the data.

Turns out I was right. My best month is January, followed by November, April and July. Although September has more sales than either of the three above-mentioned months, this is largely due to a fluke 3-sale flurry over the course of five days in September '06. That spike has not repeated. Historically, April is a good month for me, but not in the last two years. If the trend is any indication, I will have to wait until July gets here before I see another short fiction sale. Alas.

But July would be right in line with the sale of my novel, should any of the four agents currently rereading it decide to represent it - hint, hint.

My worst months are October and December. December isn't a surprise, considering people in the industry seem to take the entire month off, either literally or figuratively. And January isn't a big surprise either, as editors are coming back from the holidays and catching up on their reading.

Next thing will be to see whether these numbers are affected by the phases of the moon and Dow Jones Industrial Average. That should provide some truly meaningful data for a more thorough understanding of my navel. Besides, I haven't promoted myself here lately, so I thought it was time to climb a tree and beat my chest.