This is exciting! My heart is pounding!
I’ve just sent in my very first story submission to a publisher.
I’m not expecting much, as short stories are not my strong suit. I like my idea, and it follows the guidelines set forth in the anthology. Should I be accepted, I’m told to expect royalties, so it’s a paying gig.
If they reject it, it would be awesome if they had notes.
Either way…accepted or no, it’s really irrelevant. This is a SUCCESS! I have completed a project AND sent it to a publisher. In my post about goals here I mention that I intend to get five rejection letters this year. This might sound like a major downer to some, but let’s think about it for a minute. What does it mean if I have five rejection letters?
It means that I have completed five projects and sent them out to be sold.
The goal here is not just to write, but to submit, to get out there! Yes, it would be great if I sold something, and I DO have a good feeling about this short story, BUT the success part is that I’m doing it at all! I’m advancing my writing by leaps and bounds just be going this far.
Now…time to get back to work on two things I’ve neglected for this submission: My novel and The Expensive Universal Instrument serial.
Time for some FUN writing!
The Basement Office 
I know exactly what you mean by this! I have been working hard to reframe my thoughts on rejection. I’ve always been hypersensitive, and actually let fear of it keep me from submitting for longer than I want to admit. I’m finally over that hurdle and learning to see it as an adventure and a sign that I’m doing what I set out to do rather than just sighing and saying I wish I could. I shed a little tear over my first rejection back in March, reworked the story the teeniest bit, and sent it off to the next on my “try” list for that particular piece.
Oh man isn’t it the worst? Yeah. I worked really hard to change my thinking when I realized that a large part of my procrastination was that fear of rejection.
Sadly it’s not the ONLY reason I procrastinate 🙂
Now, I think I’m actually eager to get that rejection. I figure I’ve done it once now. THAT fear is gone. Once I get that rejection, then maybe I’ll get over all of it 100%.
The way I see it, the ONLY thing I can control is my writing and the act of sending something out there. Selling something is out of my hands, so I can’t really define it as a personal success since it’s not my decision. I’ve succeeded at everything I can do.
Sadly, this story will likely not be rewritten for submission elsewhere. It was written for some pretty specific shared universe guidelines.
I might put together a critique group eventually and put it out THERE because I’d still like to learn about what went wrong (if anything) with it.