photo courtesy of ginnerobot on Flickr

“If there’s time, put it aside for a bit,” said Dr. Theresa Crater, Metro English professor and published author. “Then look at it with fresh eyes and revise.”

One of the biggest mistakes Crater sees new writers make is trying to publish something before it’s ready.

“Go back to it and figure out what you are really trying to do with the piece,” agreed Dr. J. Eric Miller, also a Metro English professor and author. “Figure out where you’re succeeding, where you’re failing and get a truly strong rewrite in. You don’t want to send something in before it’s truly ready. Not only is that piece doomed forever with that editor, but you as a writer might not get full attention the next time you send something in. You don’t want to look like an amateur.”

While your work is set aside, Crater and Miller advise taking the time to become familiar with your genre from a publishing standpoint. For short stories and poetry, this is also the time to make a list of magazines for submission.

“You want to send your piece to some really big-name magazines, ‘cause it will change your life if you get it in,” Miller said. “But you also want to submit to more realistic, smaller, less-known journals, because the bottom line is you want people to read your work. That’s what it’s about: people you don’t know reading your work. They’re not your parents, they’re not your friends, no teacher assigned it to them, nothing — they just picked it up and read it.”

Miller suggested narrowing your list down to about 10 magazines, journals, or, for novels, publishers. As for simultaneous submission, Miller said, do it.

“It’s the best problem you can have: more than one magazine wanting to publish your work,” he said. “Not submitting simultaneously is almost absurd — even if the piece is really good, it’s got maybe a one in 10 chance of ending up with the right editor just when the journal needs it — and you’ll outgrow the story if you wait six months between submissions.”

Also, for short stories and poetry, it’s not realistic to expect to be paid the first time you submit — although a free copy or two of the magazine or journal is fairly standard.

“Even journals with really good circulation often can’t pay,” Miller said. “They’re barely keeping themselves afloat. What they are doing is helping you get to a place where you can make a bit of money.”

But when you’re looking for submission opportunities, Crater said, also beware of scam artists, who prey on new authors who don’t know the ins and outs of the publishing world yet. Crater recommended checking out the “Writer Beware” blog ( http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/ ). “Poets & Writers” magazine offers a similar resource at http://www.pw.org/top10_faq.

Miller just advises reading contracts with your eyes open.

For short stories, he said, “Every publisher’s going to typically offer First North American Rights. That means they can print it one time, and then it goes back to you. If they’re doing anything but that, you probably want to know why — you should be maintaining rights to your work.”

That’s the point for Crater, as well.

“Don’t sign away your rights because you’re so happy to have an offer that you don’t read the contract,” she said.

If it seems like publishing is a lot of work, it is, but it’s worth it, according to Crater.

“Those who get published are those who never give up,” she said. “Persistence is everything.”

Tags: English, poetry, Publishing, short story, writing

People: J. Eric Miller, Steve Musal, Theresa Crater