GET YOUR WRITINGS PUBLISHED
To get your writings published with increasing regularity calls for an organized and persistent approach. All freelancers work to schedules, and would quit the business if the odd rejection slip interrupted the creative flow. Here's what to do:
make a longish list of outlets, the best prospects at the top.
group your poems into batches, each specific to a particular outlet or group of outlets.
work through the list, sending your batches out to several outlets at a time. Pay no attention to the usual demands for single submissions to literary magazines. Many are hopelessly amateur, will keep you waiting for months, lose your MS, or not reply at all.
send a polite reminder if stated response time is very much exceeded.
keep a record (see below) of submissions, acceptances and any remarks.
always keep several batches in circulation, sending the batch off to a new outlet the very day you get a rejection slip from the previous magazine.
rearrange batches and their contents as necessary.
don't abandon a poem until you've exhausted all possibilities.
learn from the pattern of response times, rejections, acceptances and comments. Read magazines/ezines more carefully as a result, but accept that some editors will never take your work.
Your 'Get Your Writings Published' submission record will look something like this:
Batch Name |
Submitted To |
Date |
Response |
Date |
Comments |
Suggestions |
'red iron' |
Thumbscrew |
2/1/05 |
all rejected |
25/4/05 |
none |
submit 'northern blues' |
'northern blues' |
Thumbscrew |
25/4/05 |
all rejected |
7/10/05 |
liked 'moontown' |
submit 'carlisle castle' batch |
'red iron' |
London Poetry |
25/4/05 |
'old foundry' accepted |
19/6/05 |
more like this |
reorganize batch |
etc. |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Detachment is the key. Get your writings published regularly by turning anticipation into a routine. An acceptance? Right: make a note in the record. A rejection? No matter: send the batch to the next on the list. Submitting work takes time and patience, an immense quantity of both, but the strategy at least is within your control.