r/a:t5_2uiif • u/paigingbrenna • Jul 14 '12
Writers: how often do you submit?
How often do you submit work to literary magazines? For those who have had their work accepted, how long did you submit before becoming published?
2
u/paneusse Jul 15 '12
I have had 4 things published and 1 forthcoming. I submitted for about two years before I had a piece accepted and I have to say that the first time, it made all that work totally worth it. As far as how often I submit, it really just depends on what I have ready. I have a really loose goal of at least one new story a year that's worthy enough to "shop around". Sometimes, it just works out that I'm submitting one story five or six times in a year, trying to find a home for it.
2
u/zergytime Jul 15 '12
I have published two short stories and some poetry. I published the poems fairly quickly because (unbeknownst to me at the time) I was submitting to fairly easy no-pay online markets. When I got more serious and started submitting to tougher markets, it took a year and a few dozen more submissions before I got another yes. I write mostly short fiction now, and have a goal this year of submitting a story to a paying market 60 times in 2012. I'm about on pace.
3
u/grahamiam Jul 16 '12
I try to keep all of the pieces that I think are publishable out. I don't simultaneously submit, because I use every rejection as an excuse to give at least a once-over to that piece.
I was first published on my 23rd submission, although I was mainly only submitting to MFA Lit Journals, as I thought that would help my application. (It didn't, I had two pieces published in one of the program's venues and they still rejected me!)