{"id":3340,"date":"2012-06-15T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=3340"},"modified":"2012-06-15T11:00:17","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T16:00:17","slug":"what-internet-taught-me-about-ubmission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=3340","title":{"rendered":"What the Internet Taught Me About Submissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a weird relationship with sharing work and submissions. I’ve done it; I have my little pile of rejection somewhere in a box and I’m totally okay with it. For one: there’s something funny about how after something is rejected, you start to look at it and go, “Oh yeah, that totally wasn’t ready.”<\/p>\n

But my opinion of the submission process is very much affected by the way I’ve been sharing my writing since I was 17 — the Internet! (Ooooooooooh.)<\/em> When it comes right down to it, the handful of submissions to small magazines and the single experience with sending a novel query is a minor experience compared to how I handle sharing most of my writing. <\/p>\n

Allow me to make this point with math! (Ahhhhhhhhhh.)<\/em> Then I’ll tell you what the Internet has taught me about the submission process.
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\nBy the Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only counting the two archives that offer word counts — not accounting for stuff that never got posted, or things that never made it onto these two archives — I’ve written and shared 356,498 words of fan fiction since I was 17 or so. (We’re not going to even pretend that those are all great, worthy words — but they were submitted for consumption by my fellow fans.)<\/p>\n

By pulling up every piece of original fiction I wrote in the same time — three and a half novels, and a bunch of short stories that never got more than a couple hundred words (except one I’m working on) — I’ve written 200,321 words. Of those, two novels are probably forever relegated to trunk status, and all but one of the short stories may never again be opened.<\/p>\n

Bringing It Back to Submitting Fiction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Submitting writing online isn’t just about throwing your words out there and hoping for the best. You often pick up a friend or stranger to help beta read and edit your work, sometimes multiple friends for long pieces. When the time comes to post, you have to evaluate the process accordingly:<\/p>\n