Where to Submit When You’re Trying to get Published
I’ve been away from my desk a few days. This means I’m behind on my weekly challenge to myself to submit a few pieces of writing-stories, poetry, and essays- to publications that might publish them.
Writers reading this know that uncomfortable feeling of wanting your work to get read, but the reluctance to spend time writing cover letters and selecting who might be interested. We diligently submit and after receiving a series of rejections, fall into a depression. A few months later, we rally our spirits and start again.
I’d like to say that I have a logical selection method, but in all honesty, my process is partially based on intuition. A call-out might arrive in my “in” box asking for flash prose, and I’ve just completed what I think is the final revision of a piece of flash prose, so I decide this call-out is the place to send to first. It’s just a hunch, I tell myself, but isn’t success often due to chance?
Other times I carefully study rating lists of which magazines are the most respected and then, if I’m not familiar with their content, I read several pieces they’ve published in the past year. Once I’ve determined they like and publish flash prose, I might find an online interview with one of the editors. I might also go on to read the ratings provided by Duotrope, one of the services that provides news and opportunities to writers like myself, that reveal how quickly the editors respond and the percentage of acceptances.
Investing Time and Money
I also look at the submission fees and the validation that writers are paid for their work. It’s an imperfect world. Some days I pay submission fees, if they are under four dollars. Some days I invest in entering a contest. I tell myself I’m buying a lottery ticket and it might be my lucky day. Everything is risky, but in order to succeed you have to put yourself out there and be willing to fail.
I subscribe to a number of literary magazine newsletters and blogs that provide monthly publishing opportunities. The challenge is finding an opportunity that is not as well known. Statistically, it doesn’t matter how good my story may be, if I’m competing with thousands of other submissions. Likely it may be skimmed by a disinterested reader and discarded before it approaches an editor’s desk. I once read an interview with an editor who stated she didn’t like anything written in first person. Another editor stated he’d read too many stories with someone dying of cancer and thus had no intention of publishing one in his magazine, regardless of how well it was written. Discouraging to writers? Yes. I try not to take rejection personally. I will my skin to add additional layers, to become nice and thick. It’s a tough world.
What I do keep track of is “nice rejections” asking me to submit again, one even told me I didn’t even have to wait until the next submission period, if I had something else ready. I didn’t have something ready. But it was a small ego boost.
To my fellow writers seeking more publishing credits, I suggest you submit as often as possible. Persistence is crucial. Repeated rejections of a particular piece however, may be sending you a message that it is time to re-evaluate your work. Read it out loud. Did you really need that first paragraph? Does your writing contain unnecessary adjectives and adverbs? Does each sentence or line add a significant component to your structure?
Be ready to delete unneeded words, sentences and paragraphs. Be ready to rethink the title if it doesn’t adequately capture the spirit of the story or poem.
Creating art is a process, forever shifting and changing. Whether you crumple a page into a ball and throw it in the trash, or press the delete button on your computer, discarding what doesn’t work can be liberating. A fresh start provides opportunity.
So, write something new, put it away, and read it in a week. If you still like it, start editing.
Thank you for reading and if you haven’t already signed up on WordPress, Medium, or Substack to follow me for free, please do. You can read more of my work, including what made it past the slush pile to be accepted by various publishers at: Nadjamaril.com.
Originally published at http://nadjamaril.com on March 7, 2024.
