For the past two weeks, I’ve been chatting about a few of the ways authors submit their work. I don’t mean “online” or “in hard copy” or “by owl,” but rather the attitude behind the process.
I began with the Humble Offerer who sees editors as gods, acceptance as a blessing bestowed only upon “good” writers, and rejection as damnation to the Purgatory of Hacks. I then wrote about the Great Benefactor, who approaches the submission process as if she or he were born to greatness and anyone who doesn’t see it is an idiot. The former are often crushed by rejection. The latter are usually infuriated. Neither approach works very well.
Today, I’m going to cover two additional “types” of writers: the Contributor and the Scatter-Shooter.
The Contributor finds a narrow niche that works for him or her and sticks with it. That niche becomes a comfortable place for the writer, and brings a degree of success. The author comes to know the niche market inside and out and learns how to publish in it. It becomes a sure thing.
I used to know a writer, for example, who wrote exclusively flash fiction for small, rather obscure online journals. Do not think for a moment I’m putting down either flash fiction (I love it) OR online journals (I edit one). And I’m not saying there is anything wrong with finding a niche that works for you. In fact, contributors often get a lot of publications because they know their market and fit it well.
The only problem with this approach is that it keeps authors from trying new things, challenging themselves, and growing artistically and professionally. If you know how to write in a specific genre and have venues where you can be pretty sure of getting published, why try something new? Why step out of your comfort zone? Why risk rejection?When you’re operating in this mode, you’re a lot like the person who goes to the same restaurant every Friday evening at 6:30 and orders the same entrée each time. You always know what you’re getting. What you will never know is what you could get if you tried something new.
Scatter-Shooters are the polar opposite of Contributors. These writers submit to everything. They have the idea that, if they send as much stuff out as they possibly can, they are bound to get published somewhere.
When I first started writing, I was a classic scatter-shooter. Once I sent out 100 queries to 100 regional magazines in the space of a month and, at the same time, shipped off 10 queries to the same romance-novel publisher. My thinking: Even a 10% acceptance rate would mean 10 whole publications. The result: 0.
I soon realized I would be much better off researching my market, figuring out the best fit for me, and crafting a few superb queries. Once I did that, I started publishing frequently and soon had over 60 publications under my belt.
So there you have it: Four different—though often overlapping—approaches to the submission process. Although I’ve made a point of bringing out the negative aspects of each of these approaches, they all have their advantages—when they’re used in the right balance.That will be the focus of the final post in this series, next Tuesday, when I discuss various ways to combine the four approaches to keep you excited about submitting, unafraid of rejection, and energized, rather than depleted.