Beating the Numbers Game: Using Google to Access Submittable.
There are tons of books on the subject of getting published. Content wise they are often 90% about craft and 10% about the subject of getting into "print." I use quotes because the internet is not print, but there are paying gigs there. The reason these books are 90/10 split are the actions that will get you published are minimal --it's doing a lot of the same stuff over and over. A lot of those books end with “get an agent.” So let me drop few gems to make subbing easier while avoiding the term "craft."
I'm assuming you know how to write a snazzy story/book blurb that will hook an editor, a bio that is interesting, and you know how to format a manuscript. I have a link to a sample of how to format a manuscript at the bottom. Before you use it, make sure that is the format the publisher wants.
Once you have learned some craft, written a dozen or so stories, developed your own style and voice, and maybe read a few books on the craft of writing, you might be ready to submit a few of your stories, not that any of those things matter if you want to be published. What matters is understanding it is a numbers game. By the time you are done reading this post, you'll be sick of the phrase "numbers game."
What a kick in the ass after getting a BFA in creative writing huh?
Are you more or less just playing roulette? Hell no, the odds of winning roulette are 1/37, the odds of getting published are 1/100. I'm not being sarcastic in writing that. Most publishers and magazines have an acceptance rate of 1%. Too bleak? There are some magazines with odds as high as 1/20 or a 5% acceptance rate. Some magazines go a little higher. Why get your hopes up?
The importance of those numbers is that they are “numbers.” This is a numbers game, and you have to accept that. All things being equal,* all you need to do to beat a numbers game is to never stop playing. On an infinite timeline, every probability will be exhausted, and that is what you need to do. The bad news is the odds are slim, the good news is: submit enough times and you will be published. This is a battle of attrition, you just need to outlast the rejections to win.
Between the internet, anthologies, and working as a ghostwriter, I've lost count of the number of times I've been published. However, I have saved my rejection e-mails and letters. Those rejections are closing in on 500 as of writing this.
Between the internet, anthologies, and working as a ghostwriter, I've lost count of the number of times I've been published. However, I have saved my rejection e-mails and letters. Those rejections are closing in on 500 as of writing this.
Many magazines have a “no multiple submissions” policy. Meaning they do not want you to submit your work elsewhere. If you have to wait 6 months for a rejection from them, it puts a dent in your "infinite " timeline. To undent your timeline there is Submittable. Submittable.com is a website that works as a submission manager. It also has a “withdraw” option, so if you submit your story to 30 magazines and one of them takes it, you can then cancel your other submissions.
The catch is, the magazine has to choose to use submittable. If they aren't registered with the service don't ask.
The catch is, the magazine has to choose to use submittable. If they aren't registered with the service don't ask.
Submittable allows you to save your cover letter, contact info, etc. All you have to do is upload your story. The catch with Submittable is they are not that great at telling you what magazines use them.
The typical way you find out if a magazine uses Submittable is you go to the magazine’s website and click on its submission page. Next, you click another link taking you to their submittable page.
Since submittable saves you so much time, wouldn’t it be nice if you could just get a list of who uses submittable? Here is how to do that, Google search this:
“Horror” 5000 words site:submittable.com
I get not everyone is talented enough to be a horror writer such as myself (the "literary fiction" people just laughed at that,) so here is a template to use:
“Genre” total words** site:submittable.com
You should get a list of magazine’s names, the words “submission manager,” and under that be sure to check the URL for “submittable,” and a description of word count and what they want, for example:
Dark Moon Digest Submission Manager - Short Stories
https://darkmoondigest.submittable.com/submit/21846/short-stories
Your horror short story must be previously unpublished in any format. ... submissions should be a minimum of 1500 words and should not exceed 5,000 words.
These are direct links to Submittable pages. Open a bunch of those in new tabs, and submit in bulk. Even if your search returns only five pages, once you have set everything up in submittable you will be able to submit a piece in 1 – 2 minutes. This saves a lot of time versus searching out individual sites and then imputing your information from scratch for each one.
Because Submittable has a “withdraw” feature, you just have to make sure to stay on top of your submissions for when you get accepted somewhere.
A Numbers Game. A Numbers Game. A Numbers Game.
Because Submittable has a “withdraw” feature, you just have to make sure to stay on top of your submissions for when you get accepted somewhere.
A Numbers Game. A Numbers Game. A Numbers Game.
When you submit to a magazine your chances of being published are 1/100. When you submit to two magazines your odds are now 2/100 or 1/50. 1/50 is still bleak right, so why not do something about it?
After ten submissions your chances start looking “possible” 1/10. When you get to 20 to 25 submissions things are looking “good” with 1/5 and 1/4 odds. Getting published the first time is the hardest. To get my first short story published I was rejected 80 times before I got an acceptance. That was back in the days before the internet --so that was 80 stamps and envelopes.
After ten submissions your chances start looking “possible” 1/10. When you get to 20 to 25 submissions things are looking “good” with 1/5 and 1/4 odds. Getting published the first time is the hardest. To get my first short story published I was rejected 80 times before I got an acceptance. That was back in the days before the internet --so that was 80 stamps and envelopes.
Rejection hurts at first, but after a while, you stop getting form letters and you get rejections where they complement your work and ask you to send more, that's when you know you're close. In the internet age when everything happens “right away,” the publishing world has not caught up, nothing happens overnight. Be patient and remember: every "no" is one "no" closer to a "yes."
*By “equal,” I mean you know all the “style” and “craft” stuff. You have jumped through all the hoops and you are subbing a manuscript that looks professional and is in the correct format, story, and genre. By genre, I mean you do not send a manuscript about a lost kitten finding its way home to a splatterpunk magazine. That is unless the kitten is gang fucked and ripped to pieces by rabid chipmunks at the end.
**When you type in your total words, be sure to round up to the nearest thousand or nearest hundred if you are subbing flash fiction. I have yet to come across a publisher looking for a word count between 465 and 9115 words.
If you want to publish a novella or a novel and your search returns slim Pickens, try replacing the word count with “novella” or “novel.”
Manuscript format:
Publication statistics:
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