Every writer collects rejections. This one counts them. The numbers below come straight from my own submission tracker and refresh themselves every few hours: short stories, poems and novels sent out into the world, and what the world said back. Mostly: NO.
NOs collected since June 2025
564
91.9% of the 614 decided submissions ended in a NO. The other 50 said yes.
- Submissions sent950
- YES50
- Still waiting229
- Withdrawn107
The NO Report: September 2026
Every month the numbers get read aloud by a tired noir narrator, in the rain. Also in the podcast feed.
Read the transcript
September came in like a form letter: polite, cold, and over before it started. 66 envelopes left my desk that month, each one dressed for a funeral it didn't know about yet. By the end of the month I'd collected 48 rejections. That's 48 more than anybody needs. 2 never came back at all. Silence is a NO that doesn't even bother to sign its name. 2 of them were personal. Somebody actually read the thing before they killed it. In this town, that's practically a love letter. The fastest took 2 days. Somebody was having a productive morning. The slowest took 330 days. By then I'd forgotten what the story was about. So had they. And then, out of nowhere, five YESes. I read them three times, checked the address, and poured a drink I didn't need. That makes 564 NOs since June 2025, and counting. 91 point 9 percent of everything I send out comes back marked NO. I lit the last cigarette I don't smoke and went back to the typewriter. The pile wasn't going to reject itself. This has been the Lemondrilla NO Report. Same time next month. Bring your own lemon.
NOs received per month
Last 12 months, dated rejections only (poems are tracked without reply dates).
Show as table
| Month | Sent | NO | YES |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2025 | 11 | 10 | 0 |
| December 2025 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| January 2026 | 37 | 22 | 0 |
| February 2026 | 81 | 27 | 1 |
| March 2026 | 125 | 48 | 8 |
| April 2026 | 113 | 49 | 6 |
| May 2026 | 77 | 59 | 5 |
| June 2026 | 124 | 61 | 6 |
| July 2026 | 87 | 53 | 4 |
| August 2026 | 106 | 43 | 5 |
| September 2026 | 66 | 48 | 5 |
| October 2026 | 75 | 27 | 1 |
Anatomy of a NO
- 28 daystypical wait for a NO (median)
- Same dayfastest NO
- 330 daysslowest NO
- 250 dayslongest silence, still waiting
- 62NOs in a row (longest streak)
- 2days since the last NO
- 358 / 60form letters vs. personal notes
- 437NOs so far in 2026
By kind
| Kind | Sent | NO | YES | Waiting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short stories | 706 | 412 | 41 | 151 |
| Poems | 153 | 85 | 9 | 57 |
| Novels & long works | 36 | 18 | 0 | 16 |
| Agent queries | 55 | 49 | 0 | 5 |
Counted live from the author's own submission tracker, refreshed every three hours (last update: October 15, 2026, 00:17). Titles and venues stay private: the gorilla names no names. One exception, by the author's choice: the novel Brimstone Management has its own page, with every agent query counted.