If You Don’t Suceed at First, Try, Try Again

Back in the day, in this case back in the day before the Internet consumed and controlled our lives, when you wanted to submit a story or poem to a literary magazine or similar journal you had to send off your writing by mail and then patiently wait for the mail to bring you the answer you hoped for: an acceptance.

Before I set out on this life of an expat living and teaching in Asia, back when I was still a graduate student at Western Illinois University, I sent off a couple of stories–ones that I had written for my Master’s Thesis–to some literary magazines in the Midwest. Although I didn’t get published, I did get some encouraging rejection letters from magazines like The Beloit Fiction Journal, who told me to try them again.

It took me 20 years to get around to sending off my stories and poetry to literary magazines again. Why so long? I wish I had an answer for that–at least one that would make sense but I can’t come up with one.

Although some literary magazines still want writers to submit by mail, these days many accept and in these Eco-friendly and green times, encourage electronic submissions. Living overseas where sending mail to the States can take as long as a week to ten days, not to mention having to pay a couple of dollars for postage, the ease and convenience of sending material to magazines–both print and e-zines–have encouraged to submit more.

In the past three months, I have submitted over 150 poems and stories (many have been multiple/simultaneous submissions) to numerous print magazines and e-zine courtesy of Duotrope’s Digest, an on-line writer’s resource that lists markets and then allows you to keep track of all your submissions. This summer alone I have written twelve flash fiction pieces–six of which have been published.

Some of these e-zines are fledgling; others have been around for awhile. I haven’t made any money, but I have been spreading the word, if you can excuse the pun, which can be helpful down the literary road I am traveling upon. And yes, I have gotten more than my lion’s share of rejection email in the past three months. Unlike having to wait a couple of weeks, in some cases a couple months to find out if your story or poem has been accepted, some times I find out in a few days.

I have gotten all kinds from form rejection email to personal rejection email–ones that have encouraged me to “try them again” — and that’s what I have been doing since June. Writing, re-writing and submitting again. The rejections make me take another look at my writing; maybe there’s another way that I can say this or maybe this isn’t clear enough.

This is not to say that I am going to drastically rewrite a particular story because some editor’s objective view doesn’t think my story is good enough for his or her literary magazine. But I will take another look at my story and see if I can improve upon it.

Above all, rejections encourage me to write more. There is that turnaround factor to consider. As soon as I find out a story has been rejected I am sending it off again and that has also encouraged me to write more and make me hungrier for having my stories and poems accepted.