I recently received an email from a writer looking to get published. He wanted some input on what I have learned over the past few years. Here is what I told him.
1) Keep yourself busy so that you don’t “watch the clock” on the first story. You might find yourself looking at your email / snail mail all the time waiting for a response. Once you get a number of stories in the market that gets easier because there is always something coming back.
2) Compile a list of your favorite markets in the order you prefer to appear, then submit to the highest appropriate and available (meaning you have nothing there right now) market in that order. Not all markets will be appropriate for every story. For instance, the top of my list will include Analog, Asimov’s F&SF, Fantasy, Realms of Fantasy, Clarkesworld, etc. Obviously some of the markets I list take only vastly different material, so my hard SF story will automatically skip markets like Realms of Fantasy.
3) Create a spreadsheet now, while your story count is low. You’ll want one tab for where each story is, and another tab for each market. That way, you can cross-reference and make sure you don’t submit twice to the same market, or send a market two stories at the same time. You’ll probably add a “sold” page later, and perhaps a reprint-eligible page. You might even have a page for retired stories. Once you hit a certain number of stories, you won’t be able to remember where they are. much less the submission history.
4) Try to minimize the number of passes you give a story. Strive to be a first draft writer. Don’t rewrite, just go back and make corrections.
5) Don’t rush to market. Once you finish a story, sit on it while you write the next one. When the second story is done, go back and give the first story one more edit before submitting it. Then, start a third story before you go back and edit the second.
6) Back up your work. I use a flash drive for a quick and frequent backup, but I also write to disk for less frequent more reliable long-term archival. I also back up to an external hard drive from time to time. I also have a hard copy print out of every story in a file cabinet. I keep rejection letters in the same folder and sometimes I read them for amusement after a story sells.
7) Don’t give up on a story unless you have a good reason.
8) Let rejections bounce off you. Consider an editor’s suggestions to improve a story, but you get to make the final call. In the end, it’s your story. Letting rejections roll off like water from a duck’s back is hard at first. You want to analyze the rejection letter and ease the pain. With experience, you either want the story to sell or you just want it back so you can try another market. Personally, I find the “gentle rejection” letter to be a bit condescending. I’ll let that slide, but an unprofessional rejection will put a market onto my DO NOT SUBMIT list. Otherwise, don’t spend much time on rejection, just file it and get the story out the door again.
9) Beware of the easy sale. If you find a market that buys everything you send them and it isn’t SFWA-eligible, then start aiming higher.
10) Understand why you are writing short fiction. If that’s all you want to do, fine. If you want to write long fiction, then you should know why you are writing short fiction. Training? To get your name out there? Have an objective.
11) Don’t worry about where other people sell. You’ll sell your product to the people who want it. Don’t worry about other peoples’ success either. Everyone selling had a first sale.
12) Keep plugging away and block out any negativity. To quote Harlan Ellison, if you can be discouraged from writing, then you should be.