The Summer of Submissions
Yay! The semester, as well as the academic year is finally over! Now I can finally breathe! But, the work is never done. Now that I have some free time on my hands, I can work on my writing. Thus, I will be working on submissions this summer. In the past, I have tried to do this but one thing or another has always gotten in the way. This time, I have a plan.
1. Join a Listing/Newsletter
Every literary magazine gives you the option to be put on their mailing list or to subscribe to their newsletter. This way you can be first to know when submissions are open and when the magazine has contests. You can also join organizations such as the IAPWE, International Association of Professional Writers and Editors and Freedom With Writing, where you will be sent a list of magazines with open submissions and other writing opportunities daily. This way, you don’t have to scour the internet for opportunities, they will be sent right to your inbox.
2. Know Your Writing Genre
Knowing what genre you like or prefer to write in is very important. As you start to receive submissions, you’ll think to yourself “Ooh, that looks good. I can write that in no time.” And that may be true, but oftentimes, if we write outside our niche and do so for demand, it’s not usually our best work. Now you may be different, and that’s great, however, the point of submissions is to get your work out there. You want others, as well as maybe prospective literary agents and publishers, to see your best work. So don’t write in a genre you aren’t familiar with or confident in. Stick to what you know and write that. And as you gain confidence and get published more, branch out.
3. Know Your Deadlines
Each submission will have a deadline of when you must submit your work to the magazine. If you're anything like me, you think, “I can get that done by the end of the week.” And maybe you could write it by the end of the week, but did you edit it, revise it, proofread? If you can do that in a week’s time, great. My point is, allow yourself time to write, edit, revise and proofread and see how much time that will take. If a week, a month, or more, then you need to pick submission deadlines that coincide with your writing time.
4. Select a Time to Write
I have probably said this before in one of my other musings, but I’ll say it again, find a time to write that works for you. Me personally, 2 a.m. is the write time. (Get it? Lol.) That’s when I’m most open to anything and I seem to write uninhibited. Then when I wake up in the morning, none of it makes sense. However, I did write and I took the pieces I can work with and edit/revise those and leave out all the rest. If 2 a.m. doesn’t work, try first thing when you wake up or right before you go to bed, or maybe right after work before you start dinner or laundry. Whatever time you write, make sure it’s a time you can solely devote to just writing, not overthinking about writing or trying to multitask writing with something else. Just you, the words and let it flow.
5. Give Yourself Grace
None of us are perfect and sometimes things don’t go as planned. As you go through this process, know you are going to make mistakes and know that there will be rejection letters. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you or your work. It just simply means an opportunity to try again, somewhere else. Don’t take anything personally and move forward to the next thing. I promise, it will all work out.
So I wrote this plan for myself but maybe this plan can help some of you as you go through submissions or even just writing in general.
As always, thanks for reading.
