Freelance Writing and Submitting

I’ve been making a conscious effort this year to get as much of my writing as possible ‘out there’ – again! If we’ve been writing for many years, it’s inevitable that a little pile of finished, rejected, and soon-to-be-completed work builds up over the years.

Like many writers, I begin full of good intentions - sending work out in hope, then ignoring it for a while if it doesn’t sell and moving on to the next one on the list. As many of you know, I write in a variety of genres and sometimes neglect one in favour of another. I’m trying to earn some kind of living from writing, so I also do occasional adjudicating, and speaking about writing to supplement the paltry income, and am lucky enough to be invited to do so a couple of times each year.

This is all part of being a Freelance Writer and, as well as being fun, it brings variety to the writing year. But when it gets down to basics, we still need to write, edit, and send work out if we ever want to be consistently published. And we all have to start somewhere – even if it’s in small press, lower circulation magazines, or websites. Being published at all means your name is getting known and that’s all grist to the mill if eventually publishing novels.

So here’s a little breakdown of my submissions and results (so far) since the beginning of 2012 – (5-6 months). At least I think that’s all!

Tween Novel Published – One!

Short stories to editors/comps: 22 sent out. Two accepted; 1 competition win and published online; 3 rejections; 16 awaiting reply/results.

Articles to editors/comps: 3 sent out. One accepted; 1 not mentioned in comp; 1 awaiting reply.

Children’s stories to editors/1 comp: 5 sent out. One acceptance; 1 rejection; 1 not mentioned in comp; 2 awaiting reply.

Children’s short novel: 1 sent out. Awaiting reply.

Adult novella: 1 sent out. Awaiting reply.

Flash Fiction: 2 sent out. Awaiting reply/results.

Letters to magazines: 2 sent out. One published; 1 waiting reply.

Synopsis and 3 chapters of mainstream novel: 3 sent out in UK (same novel). One reply (no thanks); 2 awaiting reply.

Photos for Competition: 2 sent out. Awaiting results.

I’ve also sent a couple of poems out but don’t write as much of that these days so I won’t hold my breath with those, although I’ve had some published and some gaining a place in past competitions.

As you can see, the vast majority of submissions are still awaiting a reply of some kind – and that’s the bane of a freelance life. So what we most need is patience, perseverance and sheer determination to keep sending that work out. And the more we send out, the more chances of being published!

Good luck with yours.

Rosemary