If I've learned one thing about writing success, it's that there's really no way to guarantee it.
Literary magazines, for instance, tell you to read the submission guidelines and back issues so you can see what kind of fiction they publish. There usually is no connective tissue between the stories a magazine publishes. It seems to me that it is simply what they like when they read it, and the moods of editors -- like all other people -- can change twelve times a day.
A professor told me and my classmates that the only way to guarantee we get accepted is to keep submitting. Even that advice seems false to me. I've sent out stories to over 65 markets in the past two months and of the roughly 25-30 responses I've received, only one was an acceptance. And that was a shocker because the story was one of the few that I didn't consider very good.
While it frustrates me that there really is no way to improve my odds, I'm praying that my luck grows and that I start receiving more acceptances.
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1 comment:
Hi Rosie. Congrats on your sale. Like many other enterprises--- once you break the ice with a publisher be sure to follow up with them. If they get to know you and like your work they are more likely to buy more of your work and view it at the "top of the pile" of submissions. <3 you. Pop.
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