This week, I’ve been blogging about three aspects of the writing life that can be major thorns in writers’ sides: submitting our work, working with editors, and self-promoting. My overall point is that, handled the right way, these tasks can all be transformed from painful to fun. To help with that transformation, here is this week’s Great Stuff for Writers, with a focus on submitting, editing, and promoting.
How to Submit Your Writing to Literary Magazines: A No-Fuss Guide to Getting Published. This blog post by Marcia Trahan is about getting past the fear of submitting through understanding the process. She is writing ostensibly for beginners, but, as the editor of a literary journal myself, I know how many writers don’t know follow these basic procedures. For example, “Always read submission guidelines before submitting your work”! This post is old, but the rules haven’t changed. It’s well worth a look, especially if you’re new to submitting or haven’t been having much luck at it.
22 Things I Learned from Submitting Writing.Once you get past Blake Butler’s self-consciously casual style, this post is pure gold. Butler speaks from years of experience and a lot of insight, and he goes way beyond the usual “Keep on trying and eventually you, too, can be a published author.” All the way to gems like:
“This submission/publication thing is ephemeral. Yeah it’s nice and fun that it exists, and to get somewhere you need to go hard. But keep your head on. No one on Facebook cares. Keep it yourself most of the time, the struggle. Eat the struggle. It’s meat.” In short, READ THIS POST!
Five Writers Talk about Their Book Editors. Want the scoop on what it’s like to work with a book editor? Here it is, plain, clear, and simple, from five different writers with distinct takes on the process. Nothing shocking here, and no brilliant insights, just a lot of “Hey, this is what happens.” The words “useful and informative” come to mind.
Ten Tips for Working with Editors and Publishers. Clear-cut, precise, and right on-target, these tips from comic romance novelist Shirley Jump should be read by anyone working with a book publisher, or hoping to. What I like about this post is that it includes a number of non-obvious suggestions. Most people know they should meet deadlines, but how many think about thanking their editors, sending them a note when they get a good review, or going out of their way to ask what they might do better on the next book? Great advice. Check it out.
Robert Lee Brewer’s April Platform Challenge. Throughout April of this year, Brewer presented an action a day designed to help writers develop a platform. My first advice to anyone with writing to promote is to start on Day 1 and complete an action a day for a month. Not every step is ideal, and Brewer repeats himself on occasion, but by the end of the month, you’ll have a great start on developing a web presence and getting your name out there.
This reminds me of a particular class where the professor asked us to discuss our thoughts at the end of the semester. I noted I had been terrified of writing an academic paper. But after going through the process – not alone – I realized it was manageable and even enjoyable. Thank you, again, for tearing down the mountain and making it small rocks to cross!
Wow! What a nice comment. You’re most welcome.