MARKETING IS EVERYTHING

Do you want to end up like Emily Dickensen, dead, unpublished, and drawers filled with beautiful writing? Hope not. But marketing is boring and takes time away from writing. I understand often THE MUSE will seduce you with the sheer joy of words and no market in mind. For example, I sold an alternative history story to HISTORY THROUGH FICTION last week that I wrote in 2006. The right market appeared, I submitted, and now it will be published and paid in May. Of course it passed through several critiques and revisions by the WUTA Gestalt. I'll be posting the link to the published story in May. Teaser: what if Herod beheaded Yeshuah of Nazareth by mistake, and not John the Baptist?

Back to marketing. www.duotrope.com is an excellent service giving periodic updates on new markets, closed markets, agents, response history, and more. They charge for this service but offer a free trial. My other favorite is www.ralan.com a free service providing current markets and their submission info. Both services give you links to the market page for submission guidelines.

John Newmark, a talented poet and member of WUTA, observed that my acceptance rate on submissions was around 10%----the same as bulk mail. I can't argue with that. But, what matters is the stories were ACCEPTED and PAID. Any comments?