Writers of the Future: Honorable Mention

Adam — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:00:54 +0000

I felt a little blue this week, grousing over revisions and my sometimes fragile ego. I distracted myself by patiently refreshing the Writers of the Future blog and checking the mail every few minutes, hoping to see some word of the 2009 Q4 results. Well, the list of Honorable Mentions was released before they had a chance to update the blog.

“Out of the thousands of stories that get submitted to the contest, a small percentage make it this far,” Wentworth continued. “Past Honorable Mention stories have gone on to see publication elsewhere. That is how competitive this contest is. The contest quality of submissions is the best of the best.”

I am pretty pleased to see my name on the list of Honorable Mentions. It certainly shook me out of my funk. I’m one for one so far, so We’ll see if I can keep up the streak with my Q1 submission. Now to see if I can find a good home for the Q4 story.

As an aside, is there any benefit to adding “received Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future Q4 2009″ to a stories cover letter? My guess is no, since a shiny rejection is still a rejection and not relevant to the new market.

2009 Submission Statistics

Adam — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:32:53 +0000

It wasn’t the best year writing-wise. Eight new stories, one of which was flash and four were “hint fiction”. Two stories from 2008 were edited repeatedly and eventually submitted, both to Writers of the Future. Fifteen submissions, thirteen rejections, and one rewrite request. If my Duotope statistics are accurate, nine were personal rejections (one from a pro market).

Could be worse. 2010 will be much better, though.

Adam Israel » submissions

Writers of the Future: Honorable Mention

2009 Submission Statistics