At Chuck Palahniuk’s writing workshop last week, one of the members brought a copy of the Buckman Journal, Anthology of Portland Artists & Writers. The lovely journal had a beautiful cover in black and red. “My story is the last one in here,” said Colton and everyone’s eyes lit up. Last year, my short story “Be Worthy of Your Heritage” was published in the Wising Up Press anthology, Flip Sides. I’ll plan to bring that book to the workshop next time and pass it around. Touching these books, seeing the name of someone you know in print, and glancing at their stories inside a real book can’t help but bring excitement to anyone who dreams of being published. Yes. You, too, can get published!
I remember reading Stephen King’s book “On Writing” many years ago. He said he pinned every rejection letter he received in the mail to his wall with a nail. “By the time I was fourteen,” he continues, “the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.” I understood from reading King’s memoir that if I wanted to be a serious writer, I was also going to have to collect my share of rejection letters.
The submission process now is a lot easier than it was in Stephen King’s time. It’s all online now but it still requires dedicated time, effort and planning. Here is how I do it.
I subscribe to the Duotrope website. The site has a huge database of current fiction, nonfiction, visual art, and poetry publishers. But I find it not easy to maneuver through their website or use their search engine. I like to go to the Interviews tab, see their Editor Interviews and start there. The interview gives you some idea of the magazine’s mission. Then if the interview looks promising, you can click onto the magazine’s listing, and finally their website. Be sure to look carefully at each magazine’s information to see whether they are open for submissions, and whether they will take your story in terms of genre, word count, and subject matter.
Once you find a good fit, you will need to follow the magazine’s submission guidelines. Many use Submittable. Submittable was designed to help publishers manage submissions for publications and contests, but it’s also very helpful for writers to stay on top of their own submissions. https://submittable.help/en/articles/904856-how-can-i-submit If the magazine doesn’t use Submittable, you’ll need to keep track some other way. I often jot the name of the story and the magazine down in my paper calendar.
Submitting a piece to Chuck’s workshop keeps me writing and revising. Once a story’s been revised and road tested in a place like the Hindsight reading, submission to a magazine is a good step. Set yourself a deadline of, say - submitting to three magazines a week - and you’ve got your system going. Collect those rejection emails! Remember, the more rejection emails, the closer you are to an acceptance. So even if you don’t feel like doing the hard work of writing, revising or researching, at least you can submit pieces.
This post is wonderful. I will try it today.
Tom, can you bring your award-winning collection of short stories? I'd love to see the book. If you show me your book, I'll show you mine. :)