Winning The Writing Lottery

There are two great pieces of writing advice that I've held onto:

1. Never throw away a piece of writing (no matter how bad or undeveloped it is).
And
2. You won't ever get published if you don't send out your writing. (A.K.A, you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket.) 

Even when my writing goes through dry periods, I always try to have something out in the world. That's when advice #1 comes into play.

Sometimes you won't always be able to write new content, whether life is busy or creativity is low, but if you keep all those old ideas and drafts then there's a piece of writing somewhere that you can edit and clean up.

Maybe it's reworking an old poem, or taking that short story idea and developing it a little more. Maybe it's even taking a piece that was rejected before and tweaking it based on feedback, or for a different audience.

The point is, as long as a piece of writing is submitted somewhere, that's a chance that it could get published. And as soon as you get that acceptance or rejection notice, then it's time to submit another (advice #2).

Now sometimes it's not always the story that's lacking, but where to submit it. Finding the right journal/magazine/publisher can be just as difficult as the writing itself. Here are things I do to keep my submission arsenal just as full as my writing arsenal:

• Regularly search out writing contests that match your piece's genre
• Check out university journals 
• Keep a list of journals and magazines that sound interesting to you (even if you don't currently have a piece that's a good fit, that doesn't mean you won't someday)

Now, you've polished up your writing and researched places to submit. This is where I'd like to add a third piece of advice: create a submission records document.

Trust me, it can be really easy (especially with how long it can take to hear back on a submission) to lose track of where all your work is. I prefer to use Excel to keep track of my submissions, and have a template you can download in this blog post if you'd like.

But if spreadsheets aren't your thing, just make sure your documentation includes the following pieces of information:

• The piece you submitted and it's working title
• The publication you submitted to
• The date submitted
• Any notes about the submission process:
  • Links to submission form and guidelines
  • Email contact for follow-up (if applicable)
  • Contest end dates
  • Submission fees (if applicable)
  • Response times
  • Publishing rights
  • Any other important info about the submission itself and the process
• Date published or date rejected
  
  • (After 6 months, unless stated otherwise on the submission guidelines, you can usually assume rejected--6 months is a pretty standard wait time in the publishing world.)
• Results
  • If published:
    • Date published
    • Royalties/payment/prize
    • Link to published piece (or link to where you can buy published piece)
  • If rejected:
    • Why it was rejected and feedback (if they provide any)

There you have it! Though it may seem like the odds of getting published are sometimes just as unlikely as the odds of winning the lottery, it's not true. If you keep putting your work out there and continue developing your skills, I know you'll find success.

So even when it's hard, keep playing the game and scratching that ticket. You never know, someday you may hit the jackpot!