Hello Hello, everyone. I am Moonlily A new member here. Some of you might have seen me around and I figured I should post a little. I am now waiting to see if I can get into two online lit journals. Having to wait for anywhere from a few days to weeks is nerve-wracking. Anyway, I wanted to know if anyone has also submitted their work. How did you deal with the nerves and wait? For those who haven't let me know if theirs any journals or magazines you want to try writing for I might have some tools or tricks.
This is a super late reply, but nice job! Submitting to your first journals can be pretty intimidating! I think the nerves and wait become severely less of a concern the more you submit. It's just like really anything else in the world. The first time you cook, the first time you drive, the first time you apply for a job, etc. it's really scary! But then it just becomes extremely normal. I recommend submitting to lots of different places, and submitting often! Having multiple submissions floating around out there makes any one individual rejection feel much less stinging. I think it also has helped me to see what the other side of the process is like. I read for one pretty well-established lit mag, and I am one of the head editors of an indie lit mag I founded (along with @alliyah). And the process behind the scenes of both of these magazines looks really different, but both of them have made me realize that there really isn't anything to fear. There's always just regular people behind these magazines, and it's a casual space where people are just making subjective choices about whether they like certain work or not. At the end of the day, it says nothing about you as a writer if you don't get published in certain journals. But it does say something about you as a writer if you're able to take rejection in stride and keep trying and improving :]
And if you haven't heard back yet, good luck!
Instead, he said, Brother! I know your hunger. To this, the Wolf answered, Lo!
Oh, hey! The late response is fine. Thank you so much for giving me advice. Getting used to this stuff is a skill all on its own. I hope to get better at rejection and appreciate the insight on editing. However, could I ask what the magazine is called? I am very curious.
Sadly, it will be a week more before the first email to see if I got in. I will update everyone when it comes!
