How to Track Short Story Submissions

You should be able to see at a glance where each story has been sent to avoid submitting to a journal more than twice in one year, or re-sending the same story. For this reason, it's important to have a system for tracking short story submissions.

Here is one rudimentary sample table; adapt it to your own needs and preferences in any spreadsheet program, like Excel. (It doesn't have to be electronic: some writers prefer index cards.) Update the information regularly: from "submitted," a story will eventually progress to "rejected," "no response," or "accepted," for each journal you send it to. Use dates so that you'll know when it's time to inquire about or withdraw a submission.

Dates can also help you track turnaround times for various journals. The table will expand as you add more stories and more journals to your lists. When stories have been accepted, you may want to move them to another page of your Excel workbook.