My querying efforts used to be extremely disorganized. But now I use this handy tool for tracking short story submissions.
Here’s a tool I discovered from writer, Matt Bell, which I modified for my own preferences and goals. (Thanks, Matt, for creating this and making it available to fellow writers!) It’s a spreadsheet from Google Sheets that serves as a tracker for all of your short story submissions.
I work with Google’s G Suite regularly for my day job. It’s a great lineup of programs that enhance productivity, especially when you’re dealing with multiple collaborators. I like them for my own personal projects, too, because I can access them with ease from wherever I happen to be. I can also make updates on multiple devices like my laptop, phone, or tablet.
Starting with Matt Bell’s original template, I added a few extra columns to help me keep track of additional information from markets, as well as organize my own notes about a particular story. Best of all, the spreadsheet can be easily adapted to fit your needs and your own organizational style.
Click here to see my version—then, to save a copy for yourself, click ‘File’ in the navigation bar, then click ‘Make a Copy.’ And keep reading below for some insight on how I use it to organize my own short story submissions.
Here’s how I use this spreadsheet tracker. But you can customize it to suit your needs.
Title: This column is pretty straightforward. This is title of the story.
Submission Date: This is the date in which I submitted a story to the publication/market.
Publication: This is the name of the publication or market.
Response: For my template, I used Google Sheets’ conditional formatting feature to create a color-coded system. This helps me to better visualize the current statuses of my stories. In this column, I use one of three keywords (Pending, Rejected, Accepted). For stories that are ‘Pending’ with the publication, the line item/row remains white. If I mark a story as ‘Rejected,’ the row turns grey. If a story is ‘Accepted,’ the row turns green. You can adjust these colors—and other conditional formatting options to customize your tracker—by going to the navigation bar and clicking ‘Format,’ then ‘Conditional Formatting.’
Response Date: This is the date in which I received a response from the publication/market regarding the story.
Next Submission: Many publications/markets will ask you to refrain from submitting a new story to them until after a certain amount of time has passed. Usually, this is a few days, but could be up to a few weeks or even months. I use this column to note the earliest date in which I can submit a new story to this market. For example, if a story is rejected on January 4, and the market requests that writers do not submit a new story to them for at least one week, then I’ll note, ‘Accepts new story after 1/11 (or, January 11).’
Version: Chances are, your stories went through several rounds of revisions. This column helps me note which version of a story I’ve submitted to a particular market (labeled as ‘V1,’ ‘V2,’ etc.).
Word Count: When it comes to short stories, many markets place limits on (or at least note their preference for) word counts. This column notes approximately how many words this particular version of the story contains.
Notes: In this column, I’ll add notes to help me remember unique details or information.
Feedback: This is my favorite column in this spreadsheet tool. Rejection letters are commonplace, but personal rejection letters are like gold. Any bit of constructive feedback from an editor is worth saving, so I’ll add it here for future reference.
Status Links: Many markets utilize online portals where writers can view the status of their submission. I’ll put links to those portals (or the market’s website) here for quick reference.
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