Tag: submissions

The Calm Before the Storm



Right now, it’s the calm before the storm for me — school starts in two weeks, and I’m taking what I like to call my vacation, which is a blessed period of doing absolutely nothing important. Time enough to get worked up about immersing myself in small-room teaching for a high risk clientele that doesn’t mask.


But I’m not falling completely fallow. Yesterday, I attempted to get rid of my writers’ block by submitting a few pieces to literary journals through Submittable. This was recommended to me through a graphic artist at Gateway Con as a way to wait out finding an agent and publisher. 


I have gotten a couple publications this way — mostly on web sites, an honorable mention on a major journal (on a story that was very much genre fantasy!), and a couple other journals and zines. So surprising to me that my work is finding traction. 

So today I will be doing something. Submitting more materials, writing flash fiction, getting back to my book, sending a query letter in for more critique. Something to do with writing.

What I’ve learned by using Submittable

When I went to Archon, a conference for writers in St. Louis, a few people advised me to start submitting shorter items, poetry and short stories, as the novel market has been so capricious. One person tipped me off to Submittable, a web page/app which helps writers identify potential publishers (literary journals, writers’ web pages, etc.) and streamlines the submission process.


What I’ve discovered from using Submittable:

1) Many journals have submission fees, so submitting in bulk can cost some money. The lowest fee I’ve seen is $5.00, the highest fee I’ve seen is $30. The more “literary” or exclusive the journal, the higher that fee.

2) There are a lot of themed calls for submissions — fantasy, horror, romance, cross-genre and more.  Some of these offer a prompt — one of the ones I entered had the prompt “Catch up”. 

3) I have a ten percent success rate, which has kept me from the despair about not finding an agent/publisher for my novels. 

I get a lot of rejections for my work, but because there’s always more contests, and more hope, I feel better about trying.

Belief and Doubt

I sent the first three chapters of Apocalypse off to Tom Doherty Associates (TOR) yesterday. I have several story submissions out and the manuscript for Prodigies at DAW. I have several queries on Apocalypse out to agents.


And I am filled with doubt.
 
I believe I’m a good writer, or else I wouldn’t push myself to improve, and I wouldn’t try to get published. I just feel doubt every time I submit. But I keep submitting anyhow. 

Doubt is just a feeling. It is not reality. Some might point out that getting all the rejections I’ve gotten is a reality and that I should just give up. But I believe the process is subjective and that, sooner or later, my work will speak to someone. 

My belief and doubt coexist; I choose to act upon my belief.

The Daily Submission

Strangely, the daily rejection submission gives me more hope than might be expected.


To those who haven’t been following my log, I have started submitting flash fiction/poetry and short stories I’ve written on a daily basis, one per day, using Submittable. This means that, given the odds of being published with all the submissions coming in, I have been receiving a rejection a day.

I don’t focus on the rejections, strangely. I focus on the fact that I, at the moment, have six submissions (counting Prodigies at DAW, a manuscript for a novel) out. 

I don’t know how much longer I can continue this exercise, because there are little readers fees nickeling and diming me — four dollars here, six dollars elsewhere. But so far, it’s given me hope. 

About Waiting

Sometimes, all you can do is wait for something to happen.

You’ve put out resumes, or queries, or submissions to a literary magazine. You put yourself out there, and then you wait.

While waiting the interminable wait, how do you look at your venture? Do you assume the worst hoping that you’ll be pleasantly surprised? Do you bask in a glow of possibility, entertaining the fantasy of success? Are you one of the few who can go on as if you haven’t handed your heart and soul out to strangers?

I myself wait impatiently to hear results, giddily checking Submittable and Query Tracker and email too many times. This is how I know that it was exactly 113 days (or 9763200 seconds) since I submitted Prodigies to DAW.

I have three other submissions out (two short stories and a poem) and one query out (Prodigies again). I know from the conference that rejections may not mean one’s work is not good, but that it doesn’t match current consumer demands. The odds are high given the number of competitors that I will get rejected all the way around. But I remain optimistic, because I need that vision of a change, of the possibility of bursting out of a cocoon having remade myself into an author, to season my days with sweet cinnamon and success.