{"id":8052,"date":"2019-03-05T09:28:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T16:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8052"},"modified":"2022-02-17T16:03:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T23:03:46","slug":"send-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/send-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Send It!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s post is by guest blogger, Guy Biederman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     For years I wrote\nwithout sending my work out for publication. Publishing, and rejection, seemed\nrather beside the point. I wrote because I was a writer. Felt the pull, found\nthe chair. Occasionally I’d send out a story. Some were published. I won a few\ncontests. But mostly I was content with writing and teaching. I created a\nliterary magazine, Bust Out Stories, and published books by others. One student\ncalled me a story midwife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Two years ago,\nfor whatever reason, I decided it was time to send out my work in earnest. I\ncreated a stable of revised stories and poems that felt ready to go and began\nto research and read \u2014 a lot. It was fun. I embarked on my own maniacal sending\nbinge, sending out work every day, or at least several times a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Since then I’ve\nhad over 500 rejections. I live for rejections. It means I’m sending. I’ve also\nhad 60 acceptances, published a book, received invitations to be a featured\nreader, and in April, I’ll be hosting The Floating Word, on commercial-free Radio\nSausalito.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     I share my research\nwith friends and they share with me. I believe in three essential ingredients\u2014inspiration,\ndeadlines, and a place to send the work. It was important to shift and change\nthe narrative of this process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of submitting, I send.  Instead of rejections, I’m declined. I record\nwhere, when, and what I send, and of course, the results. I record quality declines\nif I’m given feedback, especially from those who invite me to try them again. And\nwhen accepted, I write Yes! next to that entry in Zapfino font, just to party a\nlittle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     When someone\ndeclines my work, I send ’em two more.  Unexpected\npleasures have included correspondences and email friendships I’ve developed\nwith publishers and editors. They’re writers, too. They appreciate being\nacknowledged and respected. They appreciate when I buy their magazines and\nchapbooks and let them know what I like about their books. They appreciate\nknowing I’m not scatter-shot sending, but sending with care and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     I’ve had impersonal\nresponses, funny responses, encouraging responses with suggestions that\neventually led to that same story being accepted by another journal. Once I had\na story declined that I hadn’t even sent. It was like they had peeked into my\nfiles and said, ‘Don\u2019t even think about sending us that one, dude, don’t even\nwrite it.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Of course I sent\nit elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     To paraphrase Goethe,\nas soon as we begin, we put ourselves into the flow and things start to happen.\nLittle steps lead to big. It’s a numbers game. Send send send. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you send out a hundred times, with care and purpose, you’re\ngoing to receive some acceptances. Attend open mics. Listen to new voices, lend\nyour own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You’ll meet\npeople. Venn diagram relationships will form. Recently after a reading, I was\nhanded a flyer and invited to send my work to a journal. I did. They accepted a\nstory and a poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Last week a\nfriend forwarded me the link to an online magazine. According to the guidelines\n(editors are grateful when writers read and follow them!), submissions were\nclosed. I liked the magazine, made a small donation, expressed my admiration, and\ninquired about the next open submission period. That editor emailed back,\nthanking me. She had found my stories online, asked if I could send some work\nher way. I did. She accepted three. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This is what\nhappens when you send your work out and it starts getting published. You\ndevelop a presence online. People from all over the world find you, read your\nwork and get in touch. My stories and poems have appeared in New Zealand and\nEngland, as well as in the U.S.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still love print magazines, too. Some publications have both.\nIt’s not either\/or, but and\/or when it comes to publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     One of my\nconcerns with this new practice was that it might adversely affect my writing\nand\/or my teaching. It hasn’t. I still write at the same pace and my new work\nis being accepted. I may even be a better writer than before. I still teach. In\nfact, I now have an offering called Send It! for those who want to send their\nwork out but desire some tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing leads to another. Work appears in print and online. Friends are made. Poems and stories enter your world and change your life. For me, it started with the decision to send my work out. I shifted. I changed the way I looked at rejection and developed momentum. Now when I’m asked to share my experience and discoveries, I distill my advice to two simple words: Send It!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Write Spot Blog<\/a> has a list of places to submit your writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guy’s work has appeared in many journals including Carve<\/em>, Flashback Fiction<\/em>, Exposition Review<\/em>, The Sea Letter<\/em>, and The Write Spot: Reflections<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guy\u2019s\ncollection of short work, Soundings &\nFathoms<\/em>, was published last fall by Finishing Line Press. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty Owl<\/em> nominated his flash fiction\nfor Best of The Net 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His book can be purchased from Finishing Line Press<\/a> and on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a signed copy of Soundings & Fathoms<\/em>, email Guy at Guyb-at-sonic.net<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s post is by guest blogger, Guy Biederman      For years I wrote without sending my work out for publication. Publishing, and rejection, seemed rather beside the point. I wrote because I was a writer. Felt the pull, found the chair. Occasionally I’d send out a story. Some were published. I won a few contests. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-25S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8052"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11372,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8052\/revisions\/11372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}