Pro's

Have I been going about this the wrong way?

I was looking over my spreadsheet the other day in which I've diligently kept track of every short story submission/sale since the summer of 2009 (when I started this Journey into the Published Land), and I noticed something. After all of my stories have made the rounds through the pro-paying market circuit (Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Apex, Clarkesworld, Fantasy, etc.), in the end they get picked up by the semi-pro and token-paying venues I submit to later. Which begs the question: am I wasting my time on the pro-zines?

Maybe I should just send my stories to the lower-paying markets first, if it means my work will get accepted sooner and published sooner, instead of being held up by the pro-zines that take anywhere from two to nine months to respond with their form-letter rejections. Or should I keep doing what I'm doing, hoping there's a chance that one of my tales will actually make the cut at a pro-paying market?

Write1Sub1 has been great at forcing us to get our work out there consistently, but after looking over my eight submissions from the past eight weeks, I know it could be a long while before five of them are accepted, as they're currently on the "Pro Circuit."

In other news, the latest installment of "Doppelgänger Mine" is up at Fried Fiction today. Also, I had a couple tweet-sized tales published this week: "Hold on Tight" @ Seedpod, and "Huevos Verdes con Jamón" (in honor of Dr. Seuss Week) @ One Forty Fiction. Other miniscule good news: Scifaikuest accepted another haiku—this one for their special anniversary PRINT issue in August.

> W1S1 update: Week 9 story "Soulless in His Sight" out to Chiaroscuro.