Never Submit Your Work To a Publication Without Doing This
A lesson I learned the hard way.
Submissions in a writer's life are as common as coffee stains in restaurants. Because we often seek support from publications to reach a larger audience.
After giving the story a final scan, we submit it to a pub and move on to the next project. That’s our rinse-repeat routine as writers.
If you look at it, submission is a very binary transaction—the outcome is either an accept or a reject. Or, at most, an acceptance with some changes. That’s it. Nothing really goes wrong there. Right?
Wrong.
Something did happen to me once that left me in quite a shock.
After that, I knew never to assume the process and take better measures to never be in that situation again.
The Cinderalized story…
Back then, I was a new writer, drenched in the newness of writing, with the energy of a kitten with a yarn.
I was frantically hunting for new publications to showcase my work. I had a whole list of them (my middle name is ‘List’…I love them…I have one for everything). I would study their guidelines and, if I felt okay, submit my stories.
