When I beat myself up for not having *The Novel* finished, I need to remember in 4 years, I've written 25 short stories, the 4th in a 4-novel series, a TV pilot, launched a podcast, published an anthology from authors on the podcast and... IDK existed/survived.

And now I *am* writing *The Novel*.

@susankayequinn My most rejected story has been sent out 25 times. It keeps going out because it's also the one with the most positive rejections and/or it got to second round before rejection.

I've sent out 15 stories and 104 submissions over 12 years (but I had submitted and had stories accepted before that, I just wasn't logging them). Unfortunately, I also started logging around the same time I got sick with ME/CFS so my submission and writing rates dropped significantly.

@susankayequinn

If you've got the collection set, do it!

Back when I sent stories out, I would keep them on submission until the right collection was ready to go.

These days, I just self-publish in my store (my readers know where to get them) and then release a collection.

@susankayequinn have you looked into setting up your own publishing house?

It's on my mind because a professional society I belong to recently did that so we could have more direct control over our technical publications. And a colleague set up his own publisher when he bought the copyright back on his textbook so that he could lower the price to make it affordable for students while also making more money per copy sold. That's been a godsend for the community that relies on that textbook.