• Pieces: 154
• Submissions: 288
• Rejections: 185
• Acceptances: 62
• Pending: 26
• Acceptance Percentage: 25.1%

I’ve seen others post these types of stats lately and some have very high acceptance percentages and others lower. Some also have higher or lower numbers in terms of pieces written, submissions, etc. One thing that’s been personally helpful for me to see has been others’ acceptance rates because it seems obvious things have changed over my career and there’s much more “competition” now. I’ve been frustrated with my rates because they’re the lowest of my entire career and I’m working my ass off under challenging personal circumstances. Yet I’m having to reevaluate because things change. From 1989-2013, my career acceptance percentage was 51%, which encompassed thousands of works that appeared in about 800 publications, most of which were print, as online publishing possibilities didn’t really exist for the first half of my career (the most prolific years of my career). Thus, last year my acceptance percentage was around 27% and yet it seems I should feel okay about that while still striving for improvement.

Any comments or anyone else wish to mention their own experiences?

These statistics rely on data from two sources I use, one of which is my primary database and the other a popular tracking website that I started using midway through 2023 called The Grinder (or Submission Grinder) while I’ve used my software for longer than that and rely on it the most (Story Tracker). I use multiple resources (even more than these) though because no one resource does what I want done. These few statistics, then, are an average of the combination of Story Tracker and Grinder going back about 15-17 months toward mid-2023.

(A final note. Any use of the word “piece[s]” or something like it to indicate a written work of mine will produce inaccurate data and is meant to only describe the basics of my creative writing endeavors, including poetry, fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction and book manuscripts. I write and publish in many other areas I don’t track anymore, such as tech, science, book reviews, blog posts, foreign policy, defense policy, geopolitical analysis, China/SE Asia analysis, etc.)

I just wanted to report these basic stats in case anyone was interested or would like to share their own. Additionally, those of you who are writers will now be able to either gloat over my meagre results or feel frustrated with their own more meagre results, which ideally will inspire them to keep on, if for no other reason than to kick my ass next year, eh? 😉

Comments unnecessary but very welcome. Cheers!

Scott Holstad

January 5, 2025