"You Tube: Cycle of Life - If you haven`t seen this video yet, perhaps you should. It is a little hard to watch, especially if you are coping with a loved one who has dementia, but it is thought-provoking.
Also, Sue Harrison`s latest…"
THE SUBMISSION MISSION: A Project Statement
THE SUBMISSION MISSION
TO JOIN THE GROUP, click HERE.
The Submission Mission Live Chat
First Friday of the Month at 3pm ET (Noon PT)
Instructions for Live Chats: http://www.shewrites.com/page/live-chats
Instigating Topics:
MAY 6: Developing Submission Habits
READ about tips: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/tips-for-developing-submiss...
JUNE 3: Where To Submit
READ about resources: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/where-to-submit
JULY 1: Poetry, Stories, Essays, Etc.—Genre & Submissions
READ IDEAS FOR SUMMER: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/the-submission-mission-idea-1and http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/the-submission-mission-idea-2
AUGUST 5: Contests, Grants, Fellowships, Residencies with Guest Host Erika Dreifus
SEPTEMBER 2: Agents, Self-Publishing, Other Options, Etc.
OCTOBER 7: Print/Online, Envelopes/Submishmash, Etc.
A PROJECT STATEMENT
In February, I got riled up. Word leaked out that gender disparity existed in literary publishing. This wasn’t news, but we finally saw the numbers. VIDA: Women in Literary Arts released a report that pie-charted top literary venues, including Granta, Harper’s, and Poetry. Darn those editors, I thought, for ignoring good writing by women.
But then, editors started responding. Tin House pointed out that the gender disparity in what they publish represents the gender disparity in submissions. Let’s submit, I thought. I put a call for “A Submission Movement” on Facebook and SheWrites.
I challenged every woman writer to send out a dozen submissions by the end of February, which gave us two weeks. Sending the same story or poems to twelve different venues was fine. The point was to let a dozen editors see my work and, on the larger scale, to change the submissions numbers. I didn’t want editors to blame women writers for their own lack of representation in The Threepenny Review or anywhere else. I didn’t want to reject myself from The New Yorker by not even sending them a poem.
Several women thanked me. One said my call just the kick in the pants she needed, and another received acceptances within a couple of weeks. It worked!
Except I didn’t send out a dozen submissions myself. I sent out three, but they were applications to residencies, not getting my work into the hands of editors. I rationalized that these applications took more time. I let myself off the hook. Another month went by.
Finally, in the last ten days of March, I submitted work to eight literary journals.
What took me so long? Why haven’t I sent a dozen submissions out in the last seven weeks? When I did submit, how did I decide where? How did I decide what piece(s) of writing to submit where? How did submitting encroach upon or fuel my writing time?
These are questions I hope will energize a wider discussion. When I posted that nudge, a friend wrote that a dozen submissions was too much. She thought a regular habit of submitting was more important to cultivate, and she’s right.
That’s why I formed a SheWrites group today and why I want to gather once every month, on the cusp of each first weekend. Let’s talk about why we submit and don’t submit, share strategies for making submitting a regular habit, and point each other to venues for our writing. Let’s set reasonable goals for getting our work into the hands of editors, and let’s achieve those goals! And when we fall short or receive rejections, let’s not give up!
TO JOIN THE GROUP, click HERE.
Comment
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Comment by Lynn Fisher on May 11, 2011 at 7:13pm
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Thank you for this. Setting goals and then following through...that's what I need. My usual setting writing goals and then following through with a quarter of them, is not serving me.
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Comment by Anna Leahy on May 7, 2011 at 5:27pm -
THIS WEEKEND, Megz Pokrass is hosting a LET'S SUBMIT event on Facebook. She posts there: "have gotten lazy about submitting- if we (a group of us) do it we can celebrate and motivate and... oh crap. I'm lazy. So the goal is 10 submissions by the end of the day. Saturday. Tomorrow." She has reported that she's done 8 and that she hasn't done this sort of thing in a year.
I'm submitting too--not sure how many, but several before the end of the weekend. You should too!
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Comment by Rebecca Phillips Dahlke on May 2, 2011 at 4:46pm -
Very nicely done, thanks!
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Comment by Anna Leahy on May 2, 2011 at 4:26pm
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Pamela, good point about being psyched and then weary. I think that's probably all too common. Maybe The Submission Mission can even out the weary periods.
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Comment by Pamela Booker on May 2, 2011 at 12:12pm -
Yes, thank you for your feedback. My pattern mirrored yours, in part, with applications to several residences (two of which have been awarded for the summer) along with a frenzy of journal submissions. Of the at least a dozen plus submissions, I've so far received two rejections. others are pending over the next several months. I must say that initially I was psyched every time I opened up my vast excel sheet, comprised ofa series of columns that helped me navigate deadlines, which stories to send, and weblinks for quick reviews. as the months have dragged along though, I've grown weary and less enthusiastic. your posting has renewed my momentum!
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Comment by Anna Leahy on April 30, 2011 at 8:35pm
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Thanks for all the feedback and participation on this project. If you haven't looked through the comments here, do that because there are some links and some good tidbits!
And there's the group that's part of The Submission Mission, so feel free to join that: http://www.shewrites.com/group/thesubmissionmission.
And the first chat is on Friday, May 6--tell all your She Writes friends!
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Comment by Emily Lackey on April 30, 2011 at 12:34pm -
I had to share this article on here. I read it today and have been totally inspired to get organized, do my research, and begin submitting in earnest!
http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/what-editors-want-mu...
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Comment by Elizabeth Bales Frank on April 28, 2011 at 5:38pm -
One more article we might like to look at in advance of the discussion:
http://beyondthemargins.com/2011/02/submitting-work-a-womans-problem/
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Comment by Margo Roby on April 27, 2011 at 4:09pm -
Thanks, Anna.
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Comment by Anna Leahy on April 27, 2011 at 3:49pm
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Ah, I didn't put THE SUBMISSION MISSION GROUP URL in the blog post. Here it is:
http://www.shewrites.com/group/thesubmissionmission.
I added two Discussions today too, one about successes that are emerging from The Submission Mission, and another about the different kinds of systems we create or use to do and track submissions.
Latest Activity
Lynn A. Davidson replied to the discussion 'What did you blog about today?' in the group Bloggers: Let's Make It Work!Lynn A. Davidson commented on the group 'Bloggers: Let's Make It Work!'"You Tube: Cycle of Life - If you haven`t seen this video yet, perhaps you should. It is a little hard to watch, especially if you are coping with a loved one who has dementia, but it is thought-provoking.
Also, Sue Harrison`s latest…"
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