Credits
Lel513 said:
I started sending out stories to various magazines a few months ago but still have yet to be accepted anywhere. My question is if and when I get that first story published, does it then become easier to get published in other places? Does having that credit on your cover letter, even if it's only one credit start to open up doors?
First, not all credits are created equal, and some credits are just plain bad. Rather than impressing an editor, the wrong credits will make that editor wonder why you were silly enough to list them, and the impact will be negative.
Second, no one is going top publish you any faster because you have credits, and credits make it no easier to get published anywhere.
Credits are valuable, but in short story writing they are only valuable in the sense that your work will be read faster, and often by a higher editor. But no editor anywhere is going to publish a story of yours because you have previous sales.
The reason it sometimes seems easier for writers with credits to get published is simple: the writers has credits because he's reached the stage where his talent and skill have come together and he is now, at least part of the time, writing the kind of quality stories editors want.
Writers with credits get published more often than writers without credits purely and simply because writers with credits tend to write better stories than those without credits. If those without credits were writing stories as good as those with credits, they would have credits of their own.
It does not get easier because you have credits, it gets easier because you have talent, you've honed your skill, and you're now writing the kind of stories editors are willing to buy.
Short story credits can also be very valuable to those who wish to write a novel, and for the same reason. When an agent or editor sees good credits, it means an editor thought enough of your writing to pay hard money for it. So an agent or an editor will look at your writing faster, and it will probbaly be read by someone higher up the totem pole.
But the writing still has to sell itself. It never gets any easier, and the one and only way you will ever sell a short story or a novel is if that short story or that novel is good enough to make an editor believe people will pay money to read it.