We're halfway through 2026. Let's look at my submission stats.
Where am I in meeting my acceptance goal for the year?
New Year’s Eve last year, my husband and I sat down with glasses of bad homemade mulled wine and wrote our 2026 goals. I’m not big into resolutions, but the goal lists allow us to reflect on the previous year and how we’d like to grow together and individually in the new year. My list is typically a mix between production-oriented goals (workshop my stories monthly and read 40 books) and goals aimed at connecting with loved ones (maintain family book club and go on an international trip with my husband). It functions much like a reminder on my fridge to put down my phone and do what fulfills me—writing, reading, and spending intentional time with family.
The biggest challenge on these annual lists is always my submission/acceptance goal. In 2025, my goal was to have three short stories accepted, and I totally flopped. I had no stories accepted, though I only began submitting halfway through the year. So I copy/pasted this goal into 2026: Advance creatively by having three short stories accepted by literary magazines. This might feel like a small number, but, to date, I have only ever had one story accepted in a given year.
So, now that we’re halfway through 2026, how am I doing?
I am thrilled to say I’ve met my goal!
Friends and family alike told me acceptances often come in batches, and this is exactly what happened. In April, I received my first acceptance of the year. The second followed on May 22, and the third on May 26. Wham bam, my goal was met after months of being told “no.” It weirdly felt like cheating.
Back in March, I published a piece detailing how to deal with story rejections. In it, I shared that I’d been on a rejection streak starting in September 2025, and I was struggling with the motivation to keep pushing forward. But it’s good to remain objective about these things: I was receiving tons of rejections because I was sending my work to more magazines than ever before. Since I started submitting my work to lit magazines in 2022, my production has significantly ramped up the last two years. I used to work on one story at a time, submit it to several magazines and wait to hear back before submitting further. Now, I’ll have nearly a dozen stories out to between 10 and 20 publications at a time. Like it or not, rejections are evidence of hard work.
Even though I’ve met my goal for story acceptances, I want to analyze the data and adjust accordingly. I manage story submissions through a spreadsheet on Chill Subs, which has massively improved my organization, production, and ability to find magazines aligned with my writing style. FYI: Searching magazines and using the tracker spreadsheet on Chill Subs is free with an account.
The Data
Though I will only analyze 2026 submissions, I want to note that since August 2025, I have 55 submissions on record. Thirty-six of those submissions occurred this year, which we will look at in detail here.
Total submissions: 36
Acceptances: 3
Pending: 9
Rejections: 17
Withdrawals: 7
Individual stories submitted: 11
Individual magazines submitted to: 32
Length between initial submission and acceptance
First Story: 3.5 weeks (rejected once)
Second Story: 9 months (rejected 15 times)
Third Story: 1 month (no rejections)
Total submission fees: $18
My analysis:
I have a 15 percent acceptance rate, based on acceptance and rejection numbers (20 submissions).
What a wide range between initial submission and acceptance times! One story took nine months under submission, while the other two took about a month. While acceptance largely comes down to persistence and luck, I want to note that the nine month story is a quieter flash fiction piece that I knew would take some time finding its home. The other two stories are more weird and unrestrained in a way I’m finding is appreciated by the lit magazines I tend to follow. So yes—luck and persistence are big, but so are knowing the literary landscape and gaining knowledge about your craft, two things I’ve worked on in the past year.
The magazines that accepted my work did not have submission fees. A typical submission fee is $3. This is not a big investment, but they can add up and are certainly not an indicator of a magazine’s quality. You do not need to pay to be a published writer.
Of the eight stories yet to be accepted, there are two that I will not be actively submitting moving forward. The quality of the pieces simply isn’t there, and I’d rather invest my time in other stories. This means I still have six stories available to submit, on top of another seven stories I am actively working on writing or polishing.
My Plans for the Rest of 2026
I met my 2026 goal six months into the year. Now what?
I revisit the goal, of course. I am modestly increasing my acceptance number from three to five, knowing I will want some rest this summer while still challenging myself.
My mind has separated the year into two chunks. This summer, I have two short stories I want to prepare for submission, along with several flash fiction pieces that need a good polish. Then, later this year, I have three separate flash fiction pieces centered around Christmas that can neatly fit into winter issues of magazines. Between these two chunks of work, I am bound to write new material as part of the SmokeLong Fitness Workshop in which I take part. Among all of this work, I am hopeful to get two more acceptances under my belt.
The three acceptances have given me a much-needed confidence boost. I am a writer! I am a good writer! Each of my stories covers a different type of prose fiction: micro fiction (under 400 words), flash fiction (under 1,000 words), and short story. Knowing I have this creative range is proof of how far I’ve come since I started writing short stories five years ago. I even notice significant growth in the last year, and I know that if I can be honest and vulnerable in my writing, receive regular feedback from trusted peers, and keep submitting, submitting, submitting, more acceptances can and will happen.
Two of my stories will come out later this summer, with the third following late this year/early next year. It gives me something to look forward to and provides motivation to keep working this solitary hobby of mine.
I plan to lock in this summer and spend intentional time writing, reading, and enjoying the weather. Recently, I’ve given myself over to scrolling Instagram and watching depraved true crime videos on YouTube, and since completing my tech fast in February, I can pinpoint that these habits make me feel uninspired and glum. I am reinstating some of my tech fast habits (no time-sucking social media apps allowed on my phone), while allowing myself some enjoyment by watching TV or listening to a podcast while I do chores.
If you feel so inclined, I’d love to hear what summer reads or creative plans you have in store. Summer is not typically a creative season for me, but I’m looking forward to changing that this year.
Thank you for sticking with me and allowing me to toot my own horn. I promise I am typically humble and full of an appropriate amount of self-loathing known to inhabit a writer’s mind. I’ll leave you with two of my favorite quotes from Elizabeth McCracken’s A Long Game: Notes on Fiction Writing:
Failure is hard, motivating. Those kinetic swings between delusions of grandeur and extreme self-loathing are how I get anything done at all.
The first day of workshop, I tell my students that a writer has a mantra, and it’s the same for everybody: I am a genius with much to learn.
What I’m Reading
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
I’m kicking off the summer season with one of my guilty pleasure authors. In my years of reading Moriarty’s work, I find she writes big, but easily digestible, fast-paced reads that still offer insights into the human psyche through complicated, interwoven relationships. I’m also looking forward to Big Little Truths being released in August, a sequel to her hit Big Little Lies. (I thought my sister was making this up when she informed me of the sequel, and thankfully, I didn’t ignore her in typical little sister fashion!)
“I am a writer! I am a good writer!”
Yes you are! I’ve known that for a long time. ❤️