To start with Tip #1: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/tips-for-developing-submission.
On Friday, May 6, The Submission Mission had its first live chat among SheWriters. Out of that conversation emerged some tips, which I'll post as we prepare for our second chat on June 3.
TIP #2: HAVE A LIST OF PLACES TO SUBMIT.
One great list of calls for creative work of all kinds is Creative Writers Opportunities: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crwropps-b/. Run by poet Allison Joseph, this list is updated almost every day. Recent entries include a poetry chapbook contest, notices from Palooka and Tidal Basin Review requesting submissions in a variety of genres, two flash fiction contests, and a call for true stories about breast cancer. I found a several opportunities that fit the work I had waiting.
A great database of literary magazines is at Poets & Writers online: http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines. This listing allows you to search by genre or see the newest listings. It also gives you the reading period for each magazine, as well as the link to each magazine’s website. When I tackled my submissions on the day after the live chat, I went to the last page of this database and worked backwards alphabetically, choosing eight possibilities from which I eventually submitted to four.
I found contests in the MAY/June print issue of Poets & Writers. I added four contests to my mix of submissions, but I limited myself because contests have reading fees. The entries are alphabetical, and at the end of the section, there’s a page that organizes the contests by deadlines. If you’re interested in poetry book contests, the current issue of Poets & Writers has a special feature on that topic, with information straight from the mouths of people who run such contests.
Of course, if you’re querying agents with a book proposal, you’ll need a different resource, such as the Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents or one of the online resources. No matter what your specialty, there’s a list out there these days.
The point is to have a list handy so that wondering where to submit doesn’t slow down your regular submission habit. Even when you have a list, you may still need to poke around online to research particular venues or make final decisions about where to send a given piece. But you don’t have to start from scratch, and you don’t have to worry about running out of options.
