I don't know about you all but my work is constantly interrupted. I get in rhythms and flows with my writing. Currently I'm trying to find time to work on my sci-fi novel. It's coming along great by the way. When my streak, stride, or flow is broken and I'm not in that same headspace, I don't want to walk away so I end up taking the time to send off submissions. This week I've been alternating my days, leapfrogging them between sending off my horror anthology "Sharp Items & Bad Intentions" and a screenplay of mine.
When submitting, I'm not going to lie, I don't exactly stick to a standard way of doing things and have been a bit haphazard about going about it in the past. I've cleaned up my methods these days but still, when I submit things, I email everybody and their brother. I send out as much as I can to anybody I can. Some might say this is sloppy and stupid but that same "method" if one could call it that, got me published and set me up for future projects. The things Supposed Crimes and I are coming up with are fantastic and I wouldn't have come up with said projects without them, a publisher I found by throwing my poetry book at EVERYONE I could find.
A lot of people say "Get an agent" and, sadly, it's easier said than done. When sending screenplays out to countless agencies, almost every one of them has sent back that they don't take unsolicited material. It's a bit mind boggling to me, as if it's a big circle of agents sending things around and not letting anyone else in. And now I sound like a bitter child, "They won't let me play with them" but in all honesty, it feels this way a lot. So while people say "Just find an agent, let them do it" it strikes me funny and let's me know that they haven't gone through this process of writing and submitting.
I've gotten emails back that are simply "Please take me off your mailing list" and of course the "We're not taking submissions right now". It's going to happen. As I've stated before, being rejected doesn't suck so much as being ignored. The only thing about the submitting process is it's so tedious. My mind says "I should be writing right now" while at the same time reminding me "This is part of the job, part of the process."
I just spoke to a friend of mine last night about the feeling of being a toxic writer. The toxicity is something I often feel in the submitting process. I send out so much and when I get emails like "Ugh, don't email me" I feel like "Oh shit, it's already happened. I'm toxic. Nobody wants to work with me." My friend had told me I'm not toxic and it's just always a rough start. But it IS a hard feeling to shake when nobody wants to give you the time of day. I know I'm just being silly as my career is in its infancy and other writers were once ignored as well and had feelings of doubt.
It used to be more grueling for me than it is today. I used to dread the process with feelings of "What if they don't like me? What if I'm no good? Should I keep going?" I think being published and having other works on the horizon has helped. Also, I've learned so much more from when I was originally submitting work. I think back on things I used to send out and think 'How did I think that would sell? Was that even complete?' I still email everybody and their brother but I have more substantial product behind it that I'm more sure of. I don't want to ever stop learning. And until the day I have a manager or agent I'm going to keep writing and sending.
These days I do pay a little more attention to what publishers are looking for, rather than sending something anyway knowing and not caring what they want or represent. I've been submitting my horror anthology and when before I would've sent it to EVERY publisher still in business, now I actually look at what they do and what they want/don't want. A certain stubbornness will only take you so far. Writing is one of the only things I've ever felt I was good at and I, like many writers before and after me, believed my shit to be great from the jump only to realize it was far from it and that just because I'd want to read something that doesn't mean every (or any) publisher would want to put it out.
I do suggest alternating time and the leapfrogging method though. Choosing days for working and submitting. If you have multiple projects to send - pick different days. As I said, I'm doing a day of sending a book, a day of sending a script. Some days you want to set aside purely for work. Now, on these submission days, it's good to fit in work if you can but don't force it. The break from your work on such submission days will be good for when you return to it. All things I've found out by doing so. As my wife states, I'm hard headed and tend to learn my own way.
It's kind of a strange profession we choose to be in, isn't it? We write because we want to and have to. Then we send it out to people in hopes that they believe in it as we do, almost like door-to-door salesmen pitching our dreams. We get the door slammed in our faces plenty. We get some who like our product but are in no position to purchase at this time. We get some who see us from the window and won't come near the door. But we keep on and even though the submitting process is imperative in the beginning phase of a career; hoping, praying, knowing that someday we'll be known enough someday that we'll be heard without having to beg.
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