Haven't Been Submitting and Don't know why!

**Ramon Rozas** · March 18, 2010 @ 4:38 PM

I can't seem to motivate myself to look for markets to submit to recently. I just updated my spreadsheet with this week's rejections and realized - I have NO stories presently out. Five short stories, 4 flash stories and a novella in my folder and NOTHING in circulation, because I've become suddenly averse to market-hunting through Duotrope.

What do people do to motivate themselves to do market research? I've been writing, but I haven't been sending.

**Rob K** · March 19, 2010 @ 2:09 PM

I don't have to market hunt, because I keep my own personal lists of markets. That way, I know where a short story should be headed once it's written. For example, I have a list of horror markets, a list of sword and sorcery markets, and so on. Then I check back to Ralan.com for updates before I make my submissions.

Motivation? Of course there's more to it than that. I think for short fiction you have to enjoy the challenge of getting your work published. Otherwise you could just post in on your own website and then try to draw readers there through some means like a blog. I think selling the short fiction is half of the fun, so that keeps me motivated to keep submitting it. And obviously, you're more likely to make sales if you have more stories submitted. If you have five short stories, well, that's not a whole lot. You should easily be able to keep those five stories circulating among the paying magazines. I'm aware that getting too many rejections can rob a writer of motivation (for example, I know of some writers who have given up trying to crack the biggest markets due to being rejected too many times), but really, submitting is as easy and picking a market and sending the darn thing off to an editor. My only other suggestion is to send your stories to markets where they match up the best, so you're not just tossing out rejection fodder over and over. (I think constantly tossing out rejection fodder is bad, because editors may grow tired of seeing you beat your head against a wall with submissions that just don't match what the magazine is printing). So my advice is study your markets and write up your own list with notes, and that should help you stay motivated to submit your stories.

**Keralen** · March 22, 2010 @ 12:11 PM

I wouldn't worry about it, Ramon. I say, if the writing is flowing, go with that. It's so much better to get the words out first and then worry about where to send them. You can shop markets whenever the words run out (and then you'll have a bunch of stories to shop around!).

**Ramon Rozas** · March 23, 2010 @ 12:07 AM

Thanks for the advice, folks. I will keep up the writing and maybe dedicate a few hours one Sunday to just hunting through Ralan's and Duotrope for ideas. Excelsior!