A Map to Success

When it comes to getting published as a writer and for it to really make a difference for your career, it’s tough. But I had sat back in reflection for a while and did some high-to-medium-quality thinking. I had a theory, a whole big plan… a manifesto? I had to look up the definition to be certain. Sort of? I detailed a lot of it here if you’re interested in the long explanation.

The short explanation, I wanted to get published in publications that have a decent level of prestige and/or publications that the title gives the feeling of prestige. Getting published is always fantastic, but I also want to be able to say I have been published [here] or [here] and for people to be like “Wow. That’s pretty big.” And before you thinks me an egomaniac, it’s not for the sake of having someone be impressed by me. I’ve tripped in a few too many gopher holes in my life for me to think that anyone would garner a 100%-impressed-perception of me. And I don’t mean metaphorical gopher holes. I mean literal gopher holes. Cute buggers, eat my leftover veggies and fruits, but man are their holes hazards. But I’m going off on a tangent. It’s not that I want people to be impressed by what I’ve done. It’s that I’m really trying to get my writing career to take off. In order to do that, you need to open doors. An “impressive” resume is key. “Impressive” publications are a must.

My idea… look for publications all over the country (which also spread to several other countries besides just the U.S.), ones with college or state or city or region names in the title, or are affiliated with colleges, or for similar reasons have a level of prestige or sound like they have that level of prestige. (Typically if they sound like it… they do.)

So, I began with my endeavor slowly in April, May, and June. There weren’t many of my targets open during those months. There were a few more in July. But once I hit August and September… the motherlode! October and November both had quite a few open as well. Another key was that I was looking for publications that allowed simultaneous submissions so that, specifically for this endeavor, I could submit a story to multiple places at once. I had a handful of stories that I felt could work for these types of publications, somewhere between 15-20 I’d say, and I just started submitting them all over. I knew I’d do this and get rejected a ton, and that would be fine, I’d just turn around and try my stories at the other publications. If Story A failed with Publications 1, 2, and 3… well, I could then try it out with Publications 4, 5, and 6… once Story 2 had been rejected by the same publication. As it goes with submitting, right? You just got to keep sending stories out to different places you think it could work and after many rejections you hope that it sticks somewhere.

This became a fun project for me. I loved how I had so many states and countries and territories involved. I started envisioning it as a map. And then I thought, wait, there should BE a map. So, I made one. This is a visual representation (semi-professional, semi-whatever) of all the states, territories, and the odd extra country which was the place that these publications were based out of… and how many submissions I made to those states. I hope you enjoy this as I did.

As you can see, like any good mapmaker, I made a legend. Had to split it up so you could see which places I submitted to more. But the places that got more submissions aren’t because I liked them more. It’s because they had more publications that I was able to submit my stories to, and that happened to be open at the time that I was attempting to do so. Sometimes these publications take breaks, they expect to be open but they are catching up on submissions, etc. New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and California all have a ton because, well, they just have a ton. There were places like South Dakota, New Hampshire, and Minnesota where I found several publications, but for several reasons, I was unable to submit to many. Otherwise, they’d have more.

But there it is. I did my best to get to every state, and more of the lower Canadian territories, but I couldn’t get a story in to every single one. I do have a few I am still waiting to be able to submit to again. Tracking their windows, waiting for replies to the emails I’ve sent. But for 15-20 stories, I’ve spread them out to DOZENS of publications. Hey, I got a few to the U.K. as well.

My assumption was that this endeavor would require a lot of patience… and a lot of thick skin. You submit more… you get rejected more. That part, I was right about. I assumed I wasn’t going to get accepted into any of these until after I’d been rejected by all of these publications at least once and then did another wave. However, I was pleasantly surprised because in the past few months, I’ve been accepted by three of these publications! Two had already come out, and one is still on the way for later this month. And yes, I got a lot of No’s… but also… with the Yes’s, I had to withdraw some stories from other places, so they got lumped in with the No’s.

Some places said no to me a lot. Like Texas. Boy, they must dislike me in Texas. Kidding, of course they don’t. Actually, that’s neither here nor there, I shouldn’t say OF COURSE. They very well might. The point is, it doesn’t have to do with that. I was going to get turned down a bunch and Texas just so happened to be a place where it happened A LOT. It happened a lot in New York too, but as you can see, I was also accepted there once too. That’s why we got the cool stripeys.

And in fact, the only three Yes’s are places where there were also No’s, I suppose, inevitably. That’s why the only green you see on the map is also accompanied by varying shades of red… Louisiana and Massachusetts being the other two. Maybe this is all goofy and just for fun, or maybe there is a lesson there. There is no solid green state. Does that mean you won’t get accepted until you get rejected dozens of times first? Probably. Is that something that could be learned by reading the fortune inside your cookie? The only way to succeed is through trying and failing first. Lucky Numbers: 4, 7, 11, 18, 56. (You ever get one of those where the numbers are always all under 20 and then the last one is randomly high? How high do they go? I’ve never seen someone get a lucky number in the 90’s. What does that say about numbers in the 90’s? Are they ALL unlucky? I’ve gone on another tangent, haven’t I?)

I’ll tell you what, looking at this map that I made, makes me want to get published by more of these places. Maybe my attempts in getting published by more states will result in good things? It can’t result in anything bad, right? And with that, what’s still left pending?

Short answer, still a lot. In fact, most of the places I have submitted to are still pending. But I’m getting answers, mainly rejections, all along. I got quite a few still pending in places like California, Massachusetts, Illinois, and yes, New York too. Still waiting on some up in British Columbia and Saskatchewan… the latter of which I spell incorrectly EVERY TIME. If they pick me for that one I’ll have to hunker down and master the spelling of that territory finally.

And I got some more coming up… some windows opening up. I have some more attempts that I will make in December and January and so on. But there’s a lot still pending. It’s great. With more pending, I got more chances, and each rejection hurts much less.

This endeavor turned out so well for me. I’m glad I did it. I have even another story to still share when it comes out, I’ve found some great new publications, I’m able to get my stories out there in new places, and the more you write and submit and get feedback… it just makes you a better writer. I can say definitively, I am a better writer today than when I started this.

I’ve also learned a bit. Many people will tell you there are levels to the prestige… levels to the different publications. There are other strategies to be employed within this strategy. I’m learning this as I go along, seeing what other people would do in similar situations. Perhaps I should group these publications in tiers next time around, that way, if a story gets accepted by one publication and I have to withdraw it from other publications, I won’t feel so bad withdrawing it from a big one that I’m left wondering if I could have gotten into. But I have no regrets about how I did this. I also won’t be so stubborn that I won’t recognize all the improvements that I can make when I try again.

I have a handful of remaining publications I will try to submit to in the next couple of months, but after that, I will retool, and gear up for Wave 2. Wave 1 was a success! I got published twice and have a third one impending. In fact, I even have a special fourth story related to all of this. That will be out later this month as well, but I will share that once it is out.

All in all, this idea of mine was excellent… I have to say. I don’t want to make myself sound too great or too intelligent. I’ve got a lot of ideas that don’t turn out well at all. That time I tried to make my own ripped, beat-up jeans to save from spending more money on worse-looking jeans… when that was a big style. I almost went on another tangent there. I won’t… except to say… that didn’t work. But this idea… this one was good. This one panned out for me. And this idea will continue on, I only see it growing from here.