“I Don’t Exist!” – Maintaining Your Submissions Folder

“I checked my submissions folder this week and realized I don’t exist!” My friend, a poet, mentioned this the last time we had coffee. The L.A. sun shone brightly and we’d snagged a table beneath a tree. Yes, we were both sitting there, sunglasses on and iced coffees in hand. No, she wasn’t talking about our existential existence. She was talking about her existence in “Writers World.”

 

In “Writers World” we feel like we don’t really exist unless we have at least one poem, story or book out on submission somewhere in the known universe. If we write articles, we need to at least have one pitch out to an editor somewhere. We need at least one query letter out to an agent if we’ve completed a novel or other type of book.

The memory of the known writer ‘verse is short. In the “Movie World” you’re only as good as your last film. In “Writers World” you’re only as good as your last submission. Even if you haven’t been published in a while, you want to keep the submissions rolling in so the editors and agents don’t forget who you are, or at least that’s the deep down suspicion that lurks in the hearts of writers.
Oh, you might be able to keep in touch with those same editors and agents and readers via twitter, Facebook and other social media, but it’s not the same as having at least one good solid submission out to a market, their market, hopefully more, at any given time.

Whole methods of tracking submissions have developed in “Writers World” as a result of us needing to feel like we still exist. Some writers use a simple system of writing down submissions and dates in a notebook. Others keep a folder with a hardcopy (or ecopy if it’s on the computer) of their work tucked into that folder until they hear back from the market. Some people set up charts, use Excel spreadsheets. Duotrope Digest will keep track for you if you sign up as a member, letting you know how many days out your submission is and whether or not it’s time to query. Writers Market has something similar on their site, but it’s not as extensive.

My own system includes using Duotrope Digest, an Excel spreadsheet AND a submissions folder. (I guess I really want to exist. XD )

In the end, though, whether simple or complex, all these systems do is prove to writers that they exist in “Writers World.” It’s part of the carrot being dangled in front to keep them (us) writing something. Because if they (we) aren’t writing something, then they (we) can’t submit something. And if they (we) can’t submit something, then they (we) don’t exist. And then one day you’ll see them (us, or me) sitting in the L.A. sun, beneath a sunbrella, sipping on iced coffee and slowly fading away…