I heard writer Wendy Wimmer speak at a Barrelhouse Conversations and Connections conference in April 2024 in Washington DC. Wendy is nurturing of writers, with a “you can do this” sensibility in how she talks to them.
I had lots of takeaways from her session, which are now part of my thinking and my daily writing. For those alone, I’m grateful to Wendy.
A distinct idea from Wendy is the “Submission Century”. A submission century is making 100 submissions of your writing to publishers in 100 days.
When she mentioned this, I thought it was insane. Then I almost immediately laid plans to do one.
I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories, and seek only readers, not fame or fortune. There are hundreds of online literary journals that seek writing like mine and make it available, often for free, to readers. So submitting–getting my work out there–should be routine, not sporadic and neglected, as it has been for me.
This May, as I looked out over my life in about a 100-day span, I didn’t see a fit for a 100-day sprint, so I planned a submission blitz of 100 submissions in 20 days, with a 5 submissions per day quota. I worked with 13 of my flash fiction and short stories.
I just completed my “century” yesterday. I submitted 101 times total. So far, I have found homes for 2 stories, so I consider this effort a complete success. I’ve gotten plenty of rejections, but expected that. As of today, I still have 72 submissions out for decision.
The stories that found a home were some of my older ones, veterans of past unsuccessful submissions. This is teaching me to not give up on a story I believe in.
Stats on my effort, results so far
Day 1 — May 22, 2024 through Day 20 — June 10, 2024
Submissions: 101
Acceptances so far: 2
Rejections so far: 19
Withdrawals by me: 8 (of stories accepted elsewhere)
Still out for decision: 72
Key takeaways
Submitting is its own thing, and it is different from the work of writing. It is administrative or clerical in flavor, detail-focused, and may not be a given writer’s preferred kind of work. It is work that has to be done, however.
It was essential to have a set of stories (I had 13) fully ready; revised, proofed, etc. All were either flash (up to 1,000 words), or short stories, 1,000 to several thousand.
Publishers can be persnickety. You have to closely study their guidelines and get the details right. Word counts are routinely stated and enforced.
You get better at the flow and process of submitting as you go.
I can also imagine, with just one story in hand, doing a blitz for just it, submitting perhaps 10 or 20 times, with a careful targeting of publishers.
Or, with just one story to focus on, I might prioritize and target places I’d like that story to end up, and do one at a time, waiting for a response before submitting elsewhere. But nevertheless treating it as a submission campaign.
A lot of publishers accept multiple pieces at the same time. Often it’s up to 3, so having sets of three stories in single documents ready is useful. Submitting multiples is helpful to the cause of reaching 100 submissions in a short time.
Duotrope is a service for writers that tracks publishers and publishing opportunities. I’ve found it valuable for both finding publishers and keeping track of my submissions. It costs $50 per year.
Duotrope tracks, via user data, acceptance rates for publishers, if they have enough data to calculate a rate. I favored publishers with enough data on Duotrope that they had a calculated acceptance rate.
In my submitting, I targeted journals with low, but not ‘impossible’ acceptance rates, so I tended to reach for opportunities in the 3% to 10% range.
I sought publishers who put stories online, favoring those with free and open and linkable content, so I could share my stories to family and friends and on social media. While it’s thrilling to be in a printed anthology (I’ve had this experience once), my goal is to get more readers.
About a quarter of publishers I submitted to charge a nominal fee, usually $2 or $3, to defray expenses. I am OK with that, and did not discriminate against them. If they had a much higher fee of, e.g. $25, I did not submit to them.
I avoided most contests, which quite often have an entry fee, theme requirements, and other hurdles for the submitter. With (often) cash prizes, I suspect they also may get flooded with submissions, and I wanted to avoid my pieces getting limited attention.
I did not explicitly favor publishers who pay writers. The payments out there are generally nominal anyway, and if I am leaving those for others more needing than me, I feel good about that.
Having dozens of stories out for review means getting, sometimes, multiple rejections a day, which takes some getting used to. On the other hand, the stakes are not as high as if you were waiting for just one beloved story to be reviewed by a publisher.
It’s easy to loosen one’s standards by doing a blitz of submitting, taking less careful a measure of where you are offering your story. I tried and mostly succeeded at being discerning.
Tracking submissions and publishers for the process is critical, and makes the effort more efficient. I used Duotrope for reporting and tracking submissions, but also kept a spreadsheet where I could log, assess, prioritize, and choose publishers to submit to, and a log of my stories, and their word counts
I tended to favor certain stories and submitted them more than others. This is about having darlings, and may or may not reflect quality and readiness. I tried, partway through, to balance my submitting so more stories got an equalized chance.
I found value in this process and will do it again.
Thanks Wendy!
