How do they do it?

You just build it, they will come.

awaitingthemuse said:

In the Woman's World post someone wrote that they would submit until they got used to her name. I like the sound of this, but how does the selection process take place at WW and the British Weeklies. Do they employ readers? How likely is your worked to be viewed by the same person?

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The person who said that was not being truly serious. If you read the thread, it kind of got off on a tangent about submitting a piece a week, but not to the same magazine. Her comment was more off-the-cuff. And yes, the larger magazines have several "first readers."

In the Woman's World post someone wrote that they would submit until they got used to her name.

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Well, after rejecting two or three of your stories, they'd probably write you off and return your stuff when it comes in. Then it turns out to be a big waste of postage.

In the UK women's mag system, your stuff is read by the fiction editor. If she likes it, it's passed to the Second Reader. If she likes it too, then you're in.

As I've said in earlier posts, I submitted over 40 before I sold my first - so presevere.

Good luck.

I agree. Persevere and you'll get there in the long run. I did.

And I'm sure my writing improved with each submission

Submitting

Submitting over and over until an editor buys something is a good practice. It's the best way I've found to get published, assuming you do have the talent. And it's been going on a long, long time.

William Saroyan received close to 4,000 rejection before selling a story. When he did sell one it was because he sat down with the intention of writing and submitting a story every day for a month, all to the same magazine. About two third of the way through the month, he wrote a story called "The Daring Young Man On the Flying Trapeze" and a legend was made.

More recently, Joyce Carol Oates received thirty-nine rejections from The Atlantic Monthly before convincing C.Michael Curtis to buy one of her stories.

There are magazines, such as The New Yorker, that want you to limit submissions to a couple per year, and other magazines that ask you to wait until you hear from the first story before submitting a second, but I've never known an editor to get mad and reject a writer out of hand because he submitted one too many stories. An editor who would do this is in the wrong line of work.

At the very least, a story a month should do no harm pretty much anywhere, and I've certainly submitted more often than this without getting in hot water. Or even lukewarm water.

As for readers, most large magazines, and some smal ones, have a first reader or two. At large magazines, these are usually assistant editors, and the same reader will probably read your stories far more often than not. Few, if any, magazines can afford to have people solely devoted to reading manuscripts.

Now, if you're a truly lousy writer, editors and readers aren't going to pay much attention to your manuscripts, but this is true whether you submit a story per week or a story per year. If you're any good at all, most editors look forward to reading your next story in hopes that this time it will fit the magazine well enough, and be good enough, to buy.

Too many writers seem to be a bit afraid of editors, and build walls where there should be open space. Editors aren't the enemy, and a good editor always looks forward to another story from a writer with any talent at all, even if he never buys one of them.

Thanks Jamesritchie,
That sounds like good advice.
Besides, they say the more you write, the better you will get so hopefully, eventually you might hit them with a saleable piece.