This week we’ve discussed how to submit your work. While we’ve focused on submitting to literary magazines and online literary markets, many of the same ideas also apply when querying agents. Today’s prompt works equally well, whether you’re a writer of short fiction or poetry and looking for markets for your work, or if you’re ready to query a novel or other book-length manuscript.
Regardless of what you submitting, every writer needs one thing: a submission schedule.
Weekend Prompt: Make a Submission Schedule
Set aside time specifically for working on submissions. The key is to send work out regularly but also not to let the submission process cut into valuable writing time.
This block of time is when you’ll research agents or literary markets where you’d like to submit work. This is also when you’ll write your query letters, format your manuscript according to the different guidelines and keep track of all your submissions. Determine, how many submissions you can complete and send out during the allotted time each week, then try to complete this number of submissions weekly until you’ve feel satisfied with the number of agents/editors you’ve contacted.
How frequently you schedule time in your schedule for submissions will depending on where you are in the writing process. If you have only one short story read, then you may be able to send out all your submissions in a week or two. If you’ve got several pieces ready or are querying your book you might need to spread the work out over several weeks or months until you’re satisfied with the number of submissions you’ve sent.
The idea here is to make a schedule you can stick to and to spread the work out so that it doesn’t overwhelm you.
Write on!
