I just mailed work to a magazine for the first time!

Gretad08 · Aug 25, 2011

I've been on this site for over two years. I've read and read and read and I finally got the cajones to mail something off. I sent three kiddie poems to a huge magazine, so I expect to get a rejection, but I don't care! I actually sent it. Even a rejection will make me feel like I did something.

It feels like buying a lottery ticket. Ya know when you're waiting for the drawing, you pretend you've won, and you think of how you'll change the world with all that money? While I'm waiting for a response I can pretend they'll publish it. If they do, I'll frame it and put it on my bookshelf. I'm just too excited over this. Clearly, it doesn't take much.

seun · Aug 25, 2011

Good for you and big congratulations. It takes a lot to submit and a lot to deal with a rejection - if you get one. You may; you may not. The important thing either way is to keep writing and keep subbing.

:snoopy:

Gretad08 · Aug 25, 2011

Thank you. It really felt good to send it out. I didn't expect that

Maryn · Aug 25, 2011

The first time is the scariest. We wish you luck, but even if luck does not find you, the next time will be a little easier. Guaranteed.

Maryn, proud of you

Chris1981 · Aug 25, 2011

Yay!

The first one's the scariest. Eventually, you'll get to the point where you realize that you aren't obsessively checking the mailbox/e-mail account even though you have a handful of submissions out.

Gretad08 · Aug 25, 2011

Yeah, I wish this mag accepted e-mail submissions. They only take snail mail, and they ask for 6 months to respond, so the plan is to forget about it for awhile. Do you guys sub to multiple mags at the same time? Their guidelines didn't say anything about it, but I didn't think I should.

Chicago Expat · Aug 25, 2011

Congrats.

And I love your post. I think embracing all that happy excitement and enthusiasm not only feels great, but it's also very important. Finishing a writing project and then sending it out is a big deal and you deserve all the giddiness you receive from it.

Cheers.

Miss Plum · Aug 25, 2011

Good for you!

About multiple submissions, the etiquette is to inform the publisher/editor that you are doing so. Usually it's the last sentence: "This is a simultaneous submission."

You could do that going forward. Six months seems like a hella long time to wait to find out whether you can try somewhere else with it.

I hope you have another plan besides waiting -- namely, to keep writing and submitting other work?

Lady MacBeth · Aug 25, 2011

Congratulations! Fingers crossed for you.

Gretad08 · Aug 25, 2011

Thanks to everyone, and Miss Plum...damn! I wish I would have put that in the last line of the cover letter. Oh well. Like you said, I'll keep writing and try to get some more things sent out.

Maryn · Aug 25, 2011

In one of my genres, the two big markets each take about six months to respond, although sometimes rejections come more quickly. The longer you don't hear, the more likely it is that more than one person is reading it. And they don't want simultaneous submissions.

But if they don't say either way, I think you could still sub this same work elsewhere, even without that sim-sub sentence in the cover letter. If this is clearly the very best market for it, of course, you'd want to wait until they accept or reject, but if a small number of magazines would be equally good, I think you could submit it to several.

And while you wait, you write the next one, of course.

Maryn, cheering you on

heyjude · Aug 26, 2011

Congratulations, Greta!

I hope wonderful things come of it.

Susie · Aug 29, 2011

Hope it's a sale, Greta. Good luck!

regdog · Aug 30, 2011

IsisAnalysis · Aug 31, 2011

Congratulations and good luck.

I just mailed work to a magazine for the first time!

Gretad08

seun

Horror Man

Gretad08

Maryn

At Sea

Chris1981

Just Another Transman

Gretad08

Chicago Expat

Distracted

Miss Plum

Lady MacBeth

Out, damn'd spot! out, I say.

Gretad08

Maryn

At Sea

heyjude

Making my own sunshine

Susie

Thanks, special friend for my avi!

regdog

The Scavengers

IsisAnalysis

~fish ~fowl ~good red herring