New Submissions Tracker Template and January Summary
5February 1, 2013 by Nathaniel Tower
About a month ago, I shared a template for a submissions tracker in my first of three posts evaluating the services of Duotrope. The tracker was downloaded over 100 times, so hopefully people found it useful. One of my big projects for the past few weeks has been updating the submissions tracker and rolling all of my submissions data since 2008 into the new version. With over 1000 lifetime submissions, this was a bit of a tedious undertaking, but now it’s complete. I am offering the updated template to anyone who wants it (don’t worry; it doesn’t have my submission data in it). Click here to grab your free copy. I have added the following features to the tracker:
- Lifetime stats tracker (including totals and percentages for each type of response)
- Yearly stats tracker (tracks totals, percentages, and earnings)
- Average tracker (calculates the averages for each type of response)
- Numbering system (each submission is numbered by title in order to create another sorting option)
If you have any suggestions for features you’d like to see, let me know. I’m thinking of adding a feature to track the number of submissions to a given market (as well as the types of responses from that market). I also might add a feature to automatically count the stats for a given piece. I don’t want to make the tracker too cluttered though.
Aside from the submissions tracker, I also managed to do the following during the month of January:
- Released Issue 9 of Bartleby Snopes (a big thanks to Rick, Cortney, and Justin for the help on this)
- Recorded two new audio stories for The Surreal Grotesque Podcast (Cannibal Cory, The Ugly Husband)
- Had two stories published (“Laundry Day” and “Magic Santa”)
- Completed and published two new chapters of my serial novel Misty Me and Me (the serial earned top 30 again in January, the third consecutive month)
- Interviewed with writer Joanna Delooze and juggler Perry Romanowski
- Conducted interviews with Duotrope, Meg Pokrass, and Magic MasterMinds
- Created The Next Big Thing Blog Hop Database, which now features around 100 author interviews in one convenient place
- Wrote 9 stories
- Submitted 24 stories for consideration
- Had 7 stories accepted
- Was rejected 6 times
So what’s coming in February?
Well, the big thing is going to be the launch of Cold Reads, a new podcast series. More information about this coming very soon.
I also plan to continue to participate in Write 1, Sub 1.
And of course I’ll juggle, joggle, read, write, edit, submit, teach, and maybe even find some time to breathe.
you, sir, are a MACHINE!
Thanks, James. Next week I reveal what it’s like to write as a cyborg…
I’m doing a presentation at Oklahoma Writer’s Federation Inc. this year and I’ll be covering tools writers can use to organize. If you don’t mind, I’ll add your spreadsheet to the ‘toolbox’ I’ll be sharing.
Madison, please do share this. I’d be honored. If you don’t mind, please tell everyone where you found it. Good luck with the presentation. When is it?
I’ll have your links on handouts so workshop attendees can easily find you
It’s May 2-4 at Norman, OK (Embassy Suits, I believe). Anyone who shows up with a short story ready to submit will get my help walking through finding a market, reading submission guidelines, submitting and then tracking their submission using either Duotrope or the method of their choice, so I’ll be familiarizing myself with your spreadsheet too 
The conference link is http://owfi.org – thanks!