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Part Two: A Submission Walkthrough

© Laura Elvin

To remind you... This article is a practical run-through of the submission process, from selecting a story to selecting which magazine you'll send it to; from preparing your story to sending it off and following up on its progress.

Everyone does this differently, and I am in no way trying to tell other writers what to do. I will, however, show you a step-by-step version of how I submit a story because there may be something I do that will spark a new idea for your own submission process.

Last time was PART ONE of the submission process. We got as far as selecting 10 potential markets for the story we're trying to publish.

And now to continue...

Here's what happens after I pick places to sub one of my stories to:

Sixth step...

Decide who's first:

rank your 10 chosen markets in order (1 to 10) for where you want to submit to first. This is a very personal thing, usually, as some are more concerned with trying for the "big score" first while others might consider trying to "start out small" and work their way up. Others might rank paying markets as much more important than non-paying, while others rank prestige over everything else.

Seventh step...

Prepare the manuscript for submission:

meaning I've written notes for each of my ten market listings stating their particularities for submission. So starting with my #1 ranking, I do what the guidelines say. If they want hardcopy only, I prepare a copy for mail (see previous article on this subject). If they want email subs, I either prepare a file for attachment or I format the story to place in the body of an email (again, editor's preference). For this example, we're going with my story called "Connections" and we're submitting it to "Twilight Showcase". I chose that as my #1 choice based on the following facts: the guidelines make it sound like this story would be a good fit for their magazine, they pay (not big, but they DO pay), it's online and although I've been reluctant to publish in ezines... I like this magazine and being published in it would be a good opportunity to get some of the online exposure I've been curious about.

Eight step...

Submit the story:

Twilight Showcase is a good example of a mag with hard to find submission guidelines. I finally found them, after bunches of bios in the "about" section of the magazine. I check to make sure I'm doing things the way they want... then "woosh", off my story goes into submission land.