Yes, I’m aware of the bad grammar of the title ^_^;
“At the beginning of next month, I’ll see if I can’t get this sucker published in a real magazine.”
Well, it’s the beginning of next month, and indeed, we shall see.
As you may recall, I’ve tried to get a few things published in the past but they all were met with failure. My first attempt was entering my first short story, ‘An Escape from Reality’, in a contest at my college back in late March.
When submitting something, I guess you have to follow the directions exactly or your work’ll end up somewhere far worse than a slush-pile.
Rules were:
-Work can be fiction/non-fiction, any genre, poetry, song lyrics, or an essay. (so … everything? A short story fantasy piece didn’t stand a chance.)
-Submit the work double-spaced and page-numbered, with a title page displaying the author’s name, age, address, and phone number. (Sounds like a school paper assignment, but with a stalker teacher.)
-Author must be a student. (*flashes student id*)
-Original work only. (Great, there goes plan ‘B’….)
-Winner gets 100 dollars. (Big wow, I know. But I didn’t care about the money.)
-Work has to be submitted by April 30th. (I had decided to enter this contest a month before the deadline, so I wrote under a self-imposed deadline for the first time in my life; another good experience. I should also mention I had to actually take time off of work to turn this because the student council office hours suck. :P)
I had read up on the submittal process in a few how-to books, and aside from following the directions to a ‘T’, it talked about being sure you’re completely comfortable with your work. It had to be 100% done. So I edited the crap out of it until I felt it was something I wouldn’t be embarrassed to look at years later. (Unfortunately, I’m a little embarrassed to look at it already from a storytelling standpoint. Maybe I’ll redo it again, someday. But it would need a major plot overhaul.)
Taking a deep breath and submitting something deemed ‘done’ was a huge step for me. It felt good to hand in something I was proud of. For the first time, it made me really feel like a writer, instead of some dude claiming to be a writer. I printed it out on a laser printer, stapled it together, and slipped it under the door (because the student council was watching a movie in there). :/
I never heard back from them. Bastards.
My second attempt was to submit my poem ‘Tangled Visions’ to an e-zine. It probably wasn’t my best poem. In fact, it’s probably the worst of my poems. But I felt it was pretty good, anyway. OK, I’ll admit I’ve actually changed and rewritten it since I’ve submitted it. And now, it reads better. But I wouldn’t have minded seeing it published as it was.
I never heard back from them, either. *sigh*…
So, I decided—right then and there—to hone my writing skills and submit a short story that’ll be so good, editors should seriously have trouble saying, ‘No.’ Well, I think I’ve got that. Of course, I thought I had that before, too. But time will tell.
To be continued…
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I have had three of my short stories accepted for publication. Two were for a British magazine which in the end, you had to buy copies for (not into that) and the third was for an eZine, which was very popular… and then shut down three weeks after I had sent my fiction off.
Yeah… talk about your luck. But ah well. Maybe somebody loved yours, kept them in secret and will publish them in some future Pulitzer winning novella.
Comment by RG Sanders — September 4, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
Comment by Alex Moore — September 4, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
Comment by Latrina — September 5, 2008 @ 11:16 am
“If you’re a freelance writer and aren’t used to being ignored, neglected, and generally given short shrift, you must not have been in the business very long.”
Poppy Z. Brite
That about says it all. :P
Comment by aeronwy — September 5, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
Comment by Steph — September 5, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
All the information is up on my blog.
http://bookbark.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/a-call-for-submissions/
Comment by Darcy — September 6, 2008 @ 5:46 pm
Comment by cirellio — September 8, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
The magazine you got accepted twice for, they required you to subscribe to the magazine in order to get published?
That kind of reminds me of something that happened when I was little. My mom got a poem of mine “accepted” to be “published” in a poetry book for children. In the end, it was a scam. They wouldn’t publish my poem unless my mom ponied up 98 dollars to buy the “leather-bound” book (100 bux was a lot of scratch in the 80′s).
Needless to say, we didn’t do it and I got an early taste of reality.
Comment by cirellio — September 10, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
@Latrina: Hey I could have beginner’s luck, too! Ya never know ;)
@aeronwy: thanks! maybe I’m being optimistic here, but I honestly don’t think any number of publishers can break my heart. I enjoy reading my stuff a lot and that’s all the ultimately matters. If I can share that with other people, even better.
@OS: And you shall! (me too!)
@Darcy: To be honest, Darcy, I haven’t read any Harry Potter… I’d feel a little bit out of place writing for Tears of the Phoenix, but thanks for the invite. I hope somebody here checks it out. :)
Comment by cirellio — September 10, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
Comment by Darcy — September 13, 2008 @ 3:37 pm