I\u2019m embarrassed to admit it, but I am a submission virgin.<\/p>\n
Wait\u2026that doesn\u2019t sound quite right. Sounds…naughty.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t ever submitted my work. There, that\u2019s better. I haven\u2019t ever sent out my writing. Not exactly. Well. I guess I sort of have. But that explanation comes later.<\/p>\n
What it comes down to is that I haven\u2019t ever sent out something I\u2019ve written to query a publisher or agent.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve thought about it. This year I even thought seriously about it.<\/p>\n
But I still haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Why not? Fear, mostly. I have a fragile ego and not much faith in my writing. I have a deep-seeded desire to someday have something of mine published, but for now I\u2019d rather sit on my work and wonder if I\u2019m good enough or not than risk finding out for sure.<\/p>\n
And sometimes I wonder if I\u2019m not even as afraid of actually succeeding as I am failing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m getting there. Learning how to do it. Gaining confidence and doing some market research. I\u2019m toying with the idea of submission right now as I watch my fellow Confabulators submitting their work and getting published. It\u2019s motivating but also intimidating. My writing group might be outgrowing me.<\/p>\n
So I not only have the desire to see my name on the cover of a book, but I also want to keep up with my writing family. I don\u2019t want to be left behind.<\/p>\n
Where does this fear of rejection come from, if I\u2019ve never submitted, you might ask. Well, this is where I explain the \u201cnot exactly\u201d part. I have two different experiences that rate similarly to querying.<\/p>\n
First, I applied for graduate school. I sent application materials, including a writing sample, to eight different Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing programs. Eight. Three straight out of undergraduate college, and five more just last year.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t get accepted into a single one.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve recovered from that rejection, for the most part, but I\u2019m still a little gun-shy.<\/p>\n
Although, again, I\u2019m slowly gaining back my confidence. Because my other \u201cnot exactly\u201d actually netted me a minor success.<\/p>\n
I have participated in a writing contest held at a yearly local science fiction and fantasy convention. The first year I submitted, I liked my story but apparently nobody else did. This past year, as I was writing my story, I decided it wasn\u2019t good enough to turn it in. When I was finished, I did anyway. What the hell, right? I\u2019d written the thing so I figured I might as well. \u00a0I didn\u2019t expect to win.<\/p>\n
Funny thing about that, though, is that I did win. Well, it was a three-way- tie win, but I am counting it as a win none the less. I even have the certificate that says so.<\/p>\n
So I’ve flirted with submission. And between this minor success, the encouragement of my fellow writers, and my dream of being published that just won\u2019t die, I plan on beginning the submission process soon. It’s time to go all the way.<\/p>\n
Wish me luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m embarrassed to admit it, but I am a submission virgin. Wait\u2026that doesn\u2019t sound quite right. Sounds…naughty. I haven\u2019t ever submitted my work. There, that\u2019s better. I haven\u2019t ever sent out my writing. Not exactly. Well. I guess I sort of have. But that explanation comes later. What it comes down to is that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1073],"class_list":["post-3226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writers-life","tag-story-submission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}