Ride The Ferris Wheel

Do you take regular rides on the ferris wheel of submissions? If you don't, you should. Submitting your work for possible publication needs to be done on a regular basis. You can't send one story to an editor, then sit back and wait for the good news.

As soon as you send one submission, move on to the next one. A ferris wheel has plenty of seats, and it's up to you to keep them filled. One submission per swinging seat on the ferris wheel. Remember what a thrill it was to hop onto that seat and latch the safety bar, then move up to the sky and over, down and back again? It tickled your tummy, made you squeal sometimes. As I grew older, I learned to appreciate all that I could see from the top point of the ferris wheel, and I didn't want the wheel to stop.

The thrill of a submission ferris wheel is there, too. You feel it every time you receive good news from an editor for one of those stories you've sent. That seat's empty again, so find another piece of work to fill it up. As for those submissions that come back with a standard rejection notice, put them right back into another seat. Find another market and send it again.

Annette Gendler noted on facebook the other day that she'd received two acceptances in one day. Must have been a very pleasant surprise for her. If she'd only had one submission sent out, that might never have happened. Multiple submissions is the way to go. Yes, it's unusual to receive more than one acceptance on the same day, but, as you can see, it does happen.

I can hear someone saying, "But I don't have a file filled with lots of finished work." My answer to that is to spend a more time writing so you can build up that file. When a Call for Submissions comes out, you can go through your files to see if you have something that fits.

Keep a ferris wheel of submissions going at all times, and you'll reap the benefits.