A chance to reflect.
As I mentioned in last month’s post on the subject, one of the important things to do when writing a first novel is to try to get other work, particularly short stories, in print. It demonstrates to any agent who may consider you as a client that you are capable of producing publishable work. That is what this month’s main post will be about.
Yesterday, I submitted a short story for publication in a literary magazine for the first time. I’m pleased with how the story turned out, and there’s an enormous sense of relief that comes with having it actually submitted. Will I still obsessively read it over, and fret about the details here and there? Obviously.
But I can now do that fretting in the knowledge that whether what I have made is to the satisfaction of the editorial team is now utterly out of my hands. There’s nothing more I can do with that story until I hear whether it has been accepted or rejected, which will be at some point in the middle of next month (June 2021).
If it has been accepted, the main thing that will mean is that I have a foot in the door with this genre of literary magazine (speculative fiction). It will also bring some wide readership of my work for the first time, which will be an important step toward building a base of readers who choose my work to read because I wrote it. But let’s not get ahead of things.
There’s a lot of people who submit work to literary magazines, and an enormous wealth of talent hoping to be showcased. It is likely that my story will be rejected. It is not a snub to be rejected, and the magazine to which I have submitted this story has a reputation for providing good feedback to writers. A rejection, especially one with solid feedback, is a chance to look over what I have written through an outside perspective.
This is something that I try to do throughout the writing process itself by bothering available close friends and family with drafts and read-throughs. Quite reasonably, loved ones are often the only people who can be reliably expected to put up with that, which is one of the reasons these people so regularly figure in a published book’s dedication, especially when a dedication offers praise for their patience.
Feedback from people who know you well, however, does have one serious and unavoidable downside: They are people who already know you.
This familiarity means that you are having these conversations about your work with people who already vibe with you. They know and understand the way you think, and because of that, they are in a different position than any prospective editor, agent, publisher, or reader.
Feedback from strangers or near-strangers is an important metric for assessing whether you are doing enough to get your readers onto your wavelength, which is vital for making what you write enjoyable for them.
So once this feedback has arrived, what are the next steps?
First off, to not be discouraged. Any feedback from literary magazine publishers is good feedback. It means they don’t think you’re a lost cause. That isn’t to say that getting no feedback means they think you are. Publishers are busy people, and many of them simply don’t have time to give it for every submission they receive.
Secondly, read the feedback. Take it for what it is, someone whose job it is to work out what is and isn’t a good fit for the publication in question, telling you what they felt worked and what didn’t. These people love to read, and want to read things that they enjoy, and are trying to help you make your work more enjoyable for them.
Accept what they have to say in good grace, and reflect on it. Make edits and changes, fiddle with things, try to come up with a version of what you first submitted that takes that feedback into account, then compare this new version with the original. Is it better?
If it is, then congratulations, you have grown as a writer and can carry those lessons into future writing. The process of improving one’s writing is lifelong, and this is another step in that process.
Sometime next month, I’m going to be putting out a post talking about manuscript formatting, as it’s an important part of the mechanics of writing, which if overlooked can doom even the best writing to going unread.
Rainbow Samphire 