Waiting Reaps Dollars for this Writer

 

Several years ago, I posted a personal essay on a website for writers where anyone could post whatever they’d written. Some were very amateur in substance and execution while others were well done. I received an email from an editor who had read the piece at Our Echo (www.ourecho.com). She invited me to submit my essay to a Guideposts anthology. This was a paying market, whereas the other was not. They accepted my personal essay and sent me $50.

In midsummer of 2019, I happened to notice a listing for a magazine called Kaleidoscope published by the United Disability Services. Their guidelines at https://www.udsakron.org/kaleidoscope-magazine/submit-article/ stated that they liked stories written by people who had a disability, but would accept stories about disabilities from other writers, too. I pondered a while and then decided to submit “The Perfect Grandchild” since it appeared to be a fit for the magazine, and their website indicated they accepted reprints. 

Months passed with no response so I placed a big NO next to the listing in my Submissions Chart and moved on. More than a year later, an editor from Kaleidoscope contacted me with the news that they ‘might’ want to publish “The Perfect Grandchild.” If interested, I was to fill out a long form with information about me. Again, they restated that publication was only a possibility. 

What was there to lose? Nothing. I returned the completed form and then waited several more weeks. With no word from them, I figured it was a no-go deal. Not long after I had crossed the possibility off my list, I heard from the editor who said he would like to publish my work in the next issue. Again, came the statement inferring it might be pulled at the last minute. 

I felt a little like that donkey and the carrot dangling in front of its nose only to be unreachable. Another lesson in frustration.

A year and a half after I had originally submitted to Kaleidoscope, I received a link to the new issue of the magazine, including my story, and a check for $75 arrived shortly after. The quality of the magazine and the stories published in it pleased me. 

Even though it took some time and a lot of wondering on my part, “The Perfect Grandchild” found a home once again. We know very little happens in a quick 1-2-3 fashion in our writing journey. My two keywords as I have traversed my writing path are ‘patience and perseverance.’ I had to use a measure of both when submitting to Kaleidoscope. Would I do it again? Absolutely. 

Recently, I had a letter of acceptance from Chicken Soup for the Soul for a story I submitted in November of 2019 for a dog-themed book. I had long since considered it a NO. Yet, here was the letter saying “The Four-Legged Nanny” would be in a new book titled My Heroic, Hilarious, Human Dog to be published this coming September with a $200 check to follow. 

Perhaps it was put in a list of stories possible for later or an editor remembered it. I have been published 23 times in Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies, so my name is familiar to the editors. Another positive for submitting to the same publication over and over. Their guidelines at https://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/story-guidelines are detailed but clear. 

I learned two lessons through these experiences:  Reprints work and never count a submission out even when more than a year has passed since submitting.