2025 By The Numbers
We are a month into 2026 and I’m just now getting to my 2025 By The Numbers blog. It’s been a busy year with a busier year ahead. Let’s get right to my data-informed snapshot of a year in writing. (The truly dedicated can check out my 2024 and 2023 reports, as well).
Comparing 2024 with this report, I took a step back in terms of revenue, but my publishing velocity is increasing, and if you look at things from a distance, the overall trends are up and to the right.
Short Stories
59 short story submissions
37 short story rejections
7 short story acceptances
6 short stories published
All of those numbers exceed 2024 marks, and then as now, 59 submissions don't represent 59 stories! I had nine or ten stories in the market at various times in the year. Some sold on the first submission, while others have knocked on dozens of doors, and continue to wander in the storm.
Where time is given below it represents effort spent in 2025. Several stories were created in previous years, so I don’t list time for 2025.
“The Devil Downsized” sold to SPOOKY Magazine, appearing in their third (and final) issue.
“Last Responder” (24.75 hours, including research) sold to Michael Bracken for his Mickey Finn anthology series, but is on hold (along with “Errands,” which I sold to Michael in 2024) while a new home is secured for the series, following the closure of Down & Out Books. You know, I published a story about nominative determinism this year and you have to wonder about a publisher named Down & Out. Anyway.
“Whitey's Elephant” appeared at Christmas time at Cold Caller.
“Law of the Jungle” was mostly written in 2024, and sold to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It will be published in June 2026.
“The Sky Falls Up” (45 hours) was a pulp fiction lark that found a home in the Creature Feature anthology from Raconteur Press. At 7500 words, this is the longest short story I’ve done, which along with the world building required of a SF/F story accounts for the extra time it sucked up.
“A Finger For Frodo” is my oldest story, having been in the market for over 1000 days (!), but sold as part of Big Smoke Pulp Vol. 2, with a successful Kickstarter in November, and publication to follow in 2026.
“Strangers On A Train On A Train” sold to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine ... and if a story with that title couldn't sell to Hitchcock I think I might have been out of luck. But I'm delighted to place my first story in that market and you will see it April 2026.
To the list above, add Agua Fantasma, Shamus & Buster, and Destiny -- all published in 2025 though written earlier.
Written all or in part in 2025 but not yet sold:
“Flycatcher” (17.5 hours) — 4900 words, a criminal sticks his neck out to save a kidnapped boy.
“Summer At The Shore” (7.75 hours, plus another 7 hours this year) — 4900 words, a criminal dad snatches his son on the way home from school for a harrowing vacation adventure.
Plus less than ten hours overall chasing various “ideas” that didn’t evolve, and doing nip/tuck jobs on stories between coming back and going out again. A solid year, especially in terms of publication, but my creation of new short stories slowed a bit as I focused my attention on …
Novels
I can’t yet call myself a published novelist (though Gumshoe Frankenstein is close).
Gumshoe Frankenstein (130.5 hours over 56 sessions) attracted the attention of an agent and three publishers, leading to substantial rework and rewriting. I anticipate an unknown number of hours in 2026 as the book is edited for publication, but the book is set aside until a contract is signed. I have ideas for a sequel but I doubt I’ll get to that before 2027 at the earliest. It has been a saga-and-a-half working on this book, which I’ll cover in a series of blog posts leading up to publication.
Free To Play (186 hours over 107 sessions, plus 61 hours in 2024) is my crime suspense story set in the world of video game development, and was my primary work of the year. I finished it just before Christmas and parked it over the holidays. It is informally submitted in a couple places right now, but I’ll be putting together a query package and hitting the bricks in earnest to sell this one in a couple weeks.
Everything Else
Biz Dev: 61 hours
Blog & Social Media: 33 hours
These numbers are roughly in line with last year’s efforts, though Biz Dev would be higher if I counted every hour I spent at the Book Passage Conference in June, or the hundreds of hours devoted to being an Edgars judge. I count it a victory that these numbers were no bigger than the year previous.
Bottom Line
All-in I recorded 551 hours of writing in 2025, up 32% from 2024. This shocks me, as I worked fewer days, taking most weekends off and packing things up entirely for half of December (where I went crazy without writing, but that’s another tale). The only answer is I spent more time in the seat this year — and I don’t track gross hours, just the hours when I’m actually writing. Plenty of times I record two hours work for the day, but it takes me all day to get those two hours.
However you break it down, this is a record effort for my new vocation and it pleases me. I’m encouraged that I spent the bulk of my year on novels, as I’m convinced this is where my career needs to go. I’ll continue to write short stories during breaks on longer work, but I went into this to become a novelist and I hope to achieve that goal soon.
Money? Well, who cares about money, right? My writing remains a “full time hobby,” earning me about $1.08/hour. But without the windfall of my 2024 grant money from the Speculative Literature Foundation, I’m down about three bucks an hour from my earnings last year. I like to think I’m building up a flywheel here … that future novel earnings will be more substantial, and that eventual short story reprints will lift revenue a bit. I do like to think that. I do.
I don’t do this for money. The money is important — I insist on always being paid for my work — but money isn’t the primary reason I write. (And it’s a good thing, too, or I wouldn’t write at all). I committed to this trade in earnest in May of 2022, figuring it would take me five years to get established. I’m ahead of that estimate on the short story side, but novels are lagging. With luck I’ll have more positive trends to report when I review 2026 By The Numbers.
Thanks for reading!