submit my writing for publication

I’ve had upwards of a half-dozen manuscripts out at any given point so far this year and I’ve had three pieces either accepted or published so far this year.

So, I’m marking this done. The secret is just to drop the envelope in the mail or click on “Send.” If you get comments, actually read them before sending the mss. out again but, honestly after the first acceptance, the rejections are a LOT easier to take. And while you’re waiting for the first acceptance, just keep sending out your work.

Since last I wrote, I’ve submitted two more stories. One I’ve already received a “No Thank You” on and the other one I’m still awaiting response. I’ve got another story just about ready to go too. I always want to have at least one mss “in the mail.”

I discovered two very useful resources: duotrope.com and ralan.org (I hope I have those URLs correct) They’re on-line lists of markets for writing. Both of these are weighted toward speculative fiction though they include other publications as well. What I love is the immediacy. They track the actual response rates of each magazine as well as the current status. It used to be as much effort figuring out who to send something to as it was writing the piece in the first place.

One of my stories was accepted for publication this week and even better, it’s a paying market! The response time also was wonderfully fast.

The event has encouraged me greatly and I’ve written diligently all week. I’ve nearly finished a draft of another story.

I also discovered an online writer’s group, for lack of a better description. It’s focused on speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror) so it’s not appropriate for all my writing but it’s a great free resource. http://critters.org In order to get ones own story critiqued, each member must critique the stories of others, roughly 3 stories per month. Seems like a good deal.

“Deal” came back with a “No Thanks.” (Doesn’t that sound better than a “rejection?”) so I sent it out for comments from someone outside my usual group of co-conspirators. He had some very perceptive comments which I’ll take into account the next time I revise it.

I also completed another extremely short story, just under 500 words that I sent off to a webzine that published flash fiction. We’ll see.

I sent out the story titled “Deal” to Fantasy Magazine On-line this week after I learned that GlimmerTrain passed. I am quite happy with that story, quite confident of its potential. I don’t have a lot of work that I feel that good about.

I find that the different stages of writing seem to take different kinds of energy. There’s the first flush of enthusiasm that carries me to the first full draft. I can usually do that mixed in and around the muck of life. I carry notes with me all day on 3×5 cards for when lines or phrases come to me. I used to use a Palm but honestly, I find cards easier to manage.

The second stage is the messy autopsy phase where the whole thing gets taken apart and analyzed, tightened and put back together. Hopefully the creature gets back up off the table a little steadier on its legs than when it arrived. I need LONG stretches of uninterrupted time for this, like a whole weekend or longer depending on the story. I need to go into the “zone” and not come out. And table space. Each draft is a little less traumatic, unless I get to a pretty polished manuscript that I suspect still has a deformity somewhere deep inside. I’ve got SEVERAL of these right now that will require taking a scalpel to their oh so beautiful surfaces to fix something structural underneath. I’m still in denial.

Finally, it’s cosmetic surgery and makeup and out the door.

I submitted “Deal” to GlimmerTrain’s Very Short Fiction contest just a couple days ago. I really like the story now after a bit more surface work. I entirely re-wrote the first paragraph since it seems I was “burying my lead” as the journalists say. Now, it starts off with a bang, which is good for a story of less than 1,000 words and still has an understated joke at the end of the first paragraph. I also changed some of the specific words throughout the story which seemed to draw a bit too much attention to themselves.

And I also see that I didn't mention something I sent to the on-line horror publication "The Harrow" a couple months ago. It was rejected but at least the rejection came in a reasonable amount of time and came with some nice comments--basically, "good story but it's not horror."

My personal goal…which is what 43things is all about, right?... is to get something else out in the mail by the end of the week.

I received a very hasty rejection from an application I sent out recently so to combat abject despair I sent out three manuscripts tonight after work. One went to GlimmerTrain’s Winter Fiction Open contest; another to Hobart-Online; a third to Mid-American Review. I need to crank up the rate of my submissions in general and this is a good start. I clearly have enough material. Maybe I’ll set myself the challenge of an average of one submission per week. That’ll add up to about 50 submissions this year. Folks can’t publish what they haven’t read!

I read a short-short of mine on Thursday at a school-wide reading. (I work at an alternative high school in a town with a thriving slam poetry scene so there was quite a bit of talent there.) I realized that it had been awhile since I read in public because my hand was shaking as I held the mike! I had to steady it against my chest to avoid getting a tremolo effect on my voice. But the story was really well received. One of the English teachers said I should try writing Young Adult Novels since she thought I got the tone just right for them and another English teacher wants me to come speak to his composition class because I told him the first draft of the story was roughly twice as long as the draft I read. (I got it down to 882 words, just long enough to get in and get it done.)

Now all I’ve got to do is mail some more of this stuff out the door. Glimmertrain is still accepting until January 15th (or is it the 31st) so I’m go to shoot something their way.

I know the next publication I’m going to try, a nifty little journal called Hobart. Folks, ya gotta check out at least their web-site at: hobartpulp.com They print a web-zine every month, I believe, and the work is not bad. I know exactly which story I’m sending, one which is oddly resembling my life at this particular moment, unfortunately. Wish me luck.

I just sent a story off to GlimmerTrain, that lovely publication. So few print journals really seem to be worth killing trees, I think but GlimmerTrain does just about everything thing right: High quality fiction (that is well-compensated for); interviews with notable authors. There’s even a column every issue about a writer somewhere in the world who is either imprisoned or otherwise silenced. GlimmerTrain also sponsors a contest twice a year for unpublished writers and THAT’s what I just submitted to. It’s a really nifty on-line submission process as well. So slick.