Hit it to Submit It

This week I started officially submitting one of my short stories, and - oh boy - I was not prepared for this process.

Me realizing I was thoroughly unprepared

Let me start by saying I'm a definite type-A personality. I'm a proud INFJ. I've never been nervous in a job interview because I know I'm an excellent employee. Responsibility is one of my main drivers. When given rules, I don't just follow them; I check them thrice.

So, you'd think I'd approach the submissions process like a beast. Nope!

Here's the thing: every literary publication I looked at has different rules. Their submission policies seem intentionally oppositional. Tabs! No Tabs. Use a header for this one, not allowed for the next. Heck, I couldn't even find a standard format for a short story manuscript. Cover letter preferences vary as well.

The easiest part (and the most fun!) has been the research. I sucked it up and paid for a Duotrope account to search for publications, track submissions, and more. Any publications I think are a match, I've been adding, labeling, and sorting in my writing Trello boards. (See - there's that Type-A bit right there). Then there's the actual reading of the potential publisher. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't actually do this; they just submit to anything that sounds like it might, maybe, possibly be an okay fit. I'm not submitting anywhere until I've found and read something they've published that I've thoroughly enjoyed.

After hours of extensive work this week, I've submitted to just three publications. Yes, you read that right - three.

Learn & Move On

I've learned a lot of lessons on this process already and got some tricks and shortcuts ready to go. This was a bump in the road, but it's a learning opportunity. Going forward, I have a much more realistic expectation of what to expect. I have another short story I'm about ready to submit, plus I drafted another one yesterday. Given all this, I'm going to try to slow down. If it's such a laborious process, why rush it? A few extra reviews and revisions (or fifteen) won't do me any harm when I know one submission a day is now a reasonable goal versus ten in a week.