How to Submit Your Writing Like a Boss

In Wednesday’s post I talk a little bit about not keeping your writing hidden. But how should a writer go about sharing their work with the world. Easy. By submitting them.

Whether it's poetry, flash fiction, short story or a novella. There’s a publisher/editor waiting to add it to their publication. But how to find them?

Well, there’s several ways to do that. Writer’s Digest has a listing of publishers, editors, agents, contests, etc to submit your writing. It’s called the Writer’s Market and has many editions based on genre and subject. It’s printed annually. And updated with information on editors. It also sample query letters, indexes showing if a market pays or not. And whether they accept new and emerging writers.

Can’t afford to buy the book every year? Here are a few free resources found online:

• Aerogamme Writer’s Studio publishes news and resources of upcoming open submissions.
• Poets & Writers has a literary and magazine database. All you have to do is sign up and search by genre and subgenre.
• NewPages Classified is a recent find. They have a call for submissions list for writing, art, and photography from magazines, publishers, writing conferences, and more. You can delve deeper by searching by genre and type.
• Published to Death is another recent find. They’re a great resource in finding publications that pay. As well as accept reprints, free contests, accept unagented manuscripts, etc.
• Blogger Rachel Poli blogs monthly updates of publications accepting submissions on her blog.
• Another resource is joining a social media group.  Members post and share information on upcoming submissions with each other. I've joined Calls for Submissions and Creative and Professional Writing Information Exchange on Facebook. And I'm a member of the Writing Resources community on Google+.

Now that you have at your fingertips a plethora of places to submit to what comes next is keeping track of them all. Most publications only accept digital submissions and use Submittable. Another submission manager is Duotrope but I use the former. Others have their own online submission manager like Agni.  Duotrope is a subscription-based submission manager. Like Submittable they track your submissions and it has a searchable market database too.

I take another step further and track my submissions in an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet shows me the name of the press/journal/magazine I’ve submitted to. The number of times I’ve submitted to them, the submission period and deadline. The pieces I submitted to them. And the genre and the date I sent it. It’s normal to wait 2-4 months before you hear back from a publication. If the allotted time has passed, then I'd contact them to inquire about the status of my piece(s).

Lastly I note whether it was declined and if any feedback was given about the piece. Which also determines if I’ll submit to them again in the future. Especially, if they used words like:

• although we enjoyed it, the poems weren't quite right for the us/issue/magazine
• made to last round of consideration
• received careful consideration
• welcome to submit again

And if the piece(s) were accepted I review the spreadsheet to find other submissions. Then contact the editors with a short and cordial explanation to why I'm withdrawing it. It's a rule of submission etiquette to do so just like following the submission guidelines.

The submission process is both a long road and a two way street. Just as you're looking for places to send your work. Publishers and editors are searching for writers to feature in their publications.  So do not take it to heart when your work was not accepted. It doesn't mean your writing sucked. But that it wasn't the right fit for them or that particular issue.  Yet, what wasn't right for them might be a better fit somewhere else. So don’t give up hope and keep submitting.

What resources do you use to find contests, anthologies, magazines, etc. to submit? Do you use Submittable, Duotrope or another submission tracker?

Where to Go

One thing I promised to do (a while ago...) was to provide links to help that new writer figure out this crazy thing we do--writing things with the hope of someday publishing them. You all have been so helpful in this. That's what's great about the writing community. You are there to help us newbies out.

For writing your novel, there are so many books out there. Just go to Amazon and search "writing" and you'll get a huge list. This is not an exhaustive list, but only some of the ones that more people seem to rave about (thanks, Carol, for your recommendations):

• On Writing by Stephen King 
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 
• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White 
• The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi 
• How to Write a Novel by Nathan Bransford 
• Hooked by Les Edgerton 
• Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder 
• Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

While you're writing, you may have some grammar questions. And of course, we all swear by the Grammar Girl.  

When I started out, one of the first blogs I followed was Nathan Bransford's. He used to be a literary agent, and his blog had all sorts of great tips for those of us starting out. He's since gone from agent to author, and I haven't been back to his blog in a while, but it looks like he still might be a good resource for those just learning about all of this. 

If you're planning on submitting your novel to publishers, you're going to need a query (whether you plan on getting an agent or querying smaller publishing houses yourself). A couple good places to start: 

• Query Shark
• The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment

As for marketing your novel, I've found a couple good successful self-published writers who offer their advice about how they got where they are and how one can follow in their footsteps:

• Lindsay Buroker
• Bree Bridges

And, of course, if you want to wade into the blogging community (which is a great place to network as well as learn from other writers on this journey of ours), you need to start with Alex J. Cavanaugh and/or join in (or just visit) the blogs doing the A to Z starting next week.  

I haven't even scratched the surface. But this is a start. What are some other good sites? Any other books to recommend to a newbie? 

Getting Started With Freelance

Since we've been talking about ways for writers to make money, I thought I'd talk about freelancing and how to get started. Monday, I said non-fiction often paid well with more venues to sell your work and the strong possibility of selling on proposal, before you've actually done the work. This is true, but there are other things you can write to make money. Press releases, copywriting(marketing), and some companies even hire freelance technical writers. If you're a fiction expert you can also edit.

When you're freelancing, you're basically in business for yourself. The start-up costs for a freelance business is low, but all the things you would think through if you wanted to open a bistro or hat shop still need to be configured. So how do you get started? One blog I read said just start somewhere. And I understand what she means. You'll never get anywhere if you don't try. But I think it's a better idea to start with a plan. So to help you out with that, I've gathered some resources. The Savvy Freelancer has a 31 day guide to start up any kind of freelance business you want. It wouldn't even have to be writing. And she says she learned a lot from Mom Masterminds. And if you think press releases might be something you want to try your hand at, I found this free ebook to help you write better press releases. I've written press releases before and am enjoying the book.

I've made the leap into the freelance industry. You can find out why and what I'm offering here. I'm also giving away a $10 gift card and a couple of one chapter critiques to help kick off. And I've started a new blog to talk about my adventures with my daughter, real estate, and freelance writing here. But I'll still host your favorite romance blog ;). I just started the new blog yesterday and currently have no followers. So you could be the first. Please be the first! LOL.