How Often Is Too Often To Submit to a Publication?
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
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There are certain questions about humor writing that Luke and James get asked more often than others, and every now and then, we like to tackle one of them for our subscribers. Today we're talking about submission frequency. And after that, we’ve got a couple of recommendations of things we’ve been into lately: a hilarious web series and a weird concept album.
How Often Is Too Often To Submit to A Publication?
JAMES: I wish I could give a precise formula here, but like all things, this is going to be a case-by-case situation that varies for each publication and editor. It should go without saying, but your first step should be to double-check a publication’s submission guidelines. Most sites have info on how often to submit, how many pieces you can send at once, what their policy is on simultaneous submissions, etc. To put on my managing editor’s hat, the only times I’ve felt like someone was submitting too often was when they were sending more pieces than we explicitly ask for, which at PIC is one at a time. If a site has specific guidelines about how many pieces to submit at once, or how often to submit pieces, you should of course follow those guidelines!
Beyond that, the problem, as I see it from the editor’s chair, is that the line between too-often and not-too-often tends to be an issue of sacrificing quality and craft in favor of quantity. If you’re taking a volume-first approach to your submissions and sending first drafts as fast as you can write them, or are always sending something new the same day you get a reply, that’s something that an editor might notice and not appreciate. Don’t submit work just for the sake of submitting, or to keep up an arbitrary pace of submissions.
My advice would be to ask yourself honestly how you’re feeling about a draft before you hit send. Have you rewritten? Gotten feedback? Rewritten again? Taken one last pass for typos? Make sure you’re always putting your best foot forward, especially if you’re getting a lot of rejections.
LUKE: And being honest with yourself about a draft is really hard--especially when you've been working on it for a while and get to the point where you don't know if it's funny anymore and just want to be done with it! I think it's usually good practice to give yourself a break from a piece before submitting. When you can't think of anything else to do with a piece and you just want to send it in and forget about it, step away from it for a few days. Don't look at it at all during that time. I find more often than not when you return to the piece with fresh eyes, you'll find things to cut, edits to make, and great new jokes to add.
JF: If you’re putting your writing through its paces, and working on improving your craft, there’s very little risk of over-submitting. One way of thinking about this is to reframe your goal: instead of just trying to get published, think of the project as getting better at writing. Again, don’t let quality suffer to boost quantity.
LB: I know that many people also get anxious that if they don’t submit a piece as quickly as possible, someone else might have the same idea and will get their version published first. In my experience, when it comes to evergreen pieces at least, it’s extremely rare for this to happen, and it can be counterproductive to worry about. Writing is tough enough as it is without making yourself feel like you’re in a race with someone who may not, and probably does not, actually exist.
JF: Another big-picture consideration that I find helpful: remember that editors get a lot of emails--a LOT of emails. Knowing that, I strive to always be respectful of their time. Respect is reciprocal, so don’t be rude and send an email you wouldn’t want to read, and be sure to consider if you’re arriving too often into what’s likely an already overstuffed inbox.
Finally, my read on editors is that most of them want you to succeed. Speaking for myself, I hope that every piece I open is something Points In Case can publish. It makes my job easier and more enjoyable; I like being an editor because I like short humor, not because I get a sick thrill from sending rejections. That’s probably a universal experience, since it’s safe to assume that anyone laboring on a short humor publication is in it for the love of short humor. There aren’t a lot of rich and famous short-humor editors out there.
Remember that you’re always submitting to a fan, and if you’re really sending your best effort, then every rejection is only temporary: “Not this one, but can’t wait to see your next piece.”
Some Recommendations From Luke and James
Luke Recommends: Ted Travelstead’s Vlog is one of the funniest comedy video series I’ve come across in a long time. I don’t want to give too much away, but (spoilers for the vlog if you click the following link) if you’re a fan of a certain legendary Mr. Show sketch, you will definitely enjoy Ted’s videos. Ted, who you may know from his McSweeney’s pieces, has created something really wonderful here. All the episodes are really short—don’t think about it too much, just dive right into the playlist with the first one.
James Recommends: This Italian record label Heimat der Katastrophe, that puts out creepy and atmospheric synth music for punks who like D&D, released a tape called Sicilian Dragon by COPLORD that I’ve been listening to a lot lately. HDK’s output tends to be very cinematic, and can often be classified as soundtracks for films that don’t exist — a real sweet spot for me in terms of premise. Sicilian Dragon is a conceptual soundtrack to a 1989 Italian computer-chess crime/horror TV-movie. As far as I can tell, this film doesn’t exist, but I love its soundtrack: The music veers from dissonant, to strange, to groovy, and is full of spooky dialogue samples. I’ve been really digging it as music to work along to — makes me feel like I’m racing against the clock to stop someone from being murdered by a deranged, chess-obsessed DOS program.
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
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