"I sent the first story I wrote to the Beloit Fiction Journal. I actually sent it out to twenty-five different places... I knew there was no way more than one place would want the story. And they took it--that was my first publication and it felt wonderful."
Wow. I'm proud of myself when I send a piece out to five literary journals at once. Now I'm going to start aiming high like Carol Roh-Spaulding. It's inspiring that her first piece was published, and I know it wasn't beginner's luck, but good writing and persistence.
Boloit Fiction Journal doesn't even pay. I think I'll stop limiting my first-round of submissions to journals that pay. Most of them don't pay much anyway, and I think that seeing something I've written in print is satisfaction enough.
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And hey anything published only improves your credibility as a professional down the track.
ReplyDeleteAl,
ReplyDeleteDo you think that "serious" literary journals -- say, Virginia Quarterly Review or Ploughshares, just as two random examples -- give any credence to publishing credits from fledging online non-paying markets? Say I'm published in an online journal called "Spitfire" which most people haven't heard of (and I just made up, but pretend it's real!) and I'm submitting something to VQR -- should I even bother to note in the cover letter that I've been published in Spitfire, or will the editors at VQR take me *less* seriously?