Get ready for the shameless plug because I’m published for the first time!
There’s a local independent publishing house that got suckered into publishing two of my short stories. The journal is called Summer Legends and is available for $25 plus shipping.
I truthfully have mixed feelings about this publication. One hand, my writing is in print and some people will pay money for it! That’s incredible to me. On the downside, I’m not sure how widely this journal will be circulated and what kind of appeal it will have; All the authors in it are unknowns, myself included.
I’m so excited that I was accepted, but I wonder what kind of criteria was used because there are some pieces that I feel were falling a bit short. I wonder if this publication is something I would even want to include in a query letter because I don’t know if an agent would be impressed.
One of the nice features is that I didn’t have to pay to submit my work and received a complimentary copy of the journal. On the down side, I wasn’t paid for my work. I’m not particularly bothered by this because I don’t feel the pieces are the best reflection of my writing, but are still good enough that I’m not embarrassed for them to be in the public domain. I have another short story that I’d like to publish but I’m hoping to get paid for it or at least have it distributed to a wider audience.
Okay, Reader, time to engage in a conversation. What do you think about this publication? Should I be proud? Use it in a query? Look for more well-known journals in the future? Have you ever submitted to a small journal before and what was the outcome? Please leave a comment on any of these below and let me know your thoughts!
Taking On a World of Words 
Awesome, Sam!!! If you’re published, use it. Brag about it. Do cartwheels. Then get back to writing. 😉 (I’ve been there, as you know, and the above advice worked for me.) I’m so happy for you! 🙂
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Thanks, Jim!! It’s pretty darn cool no matter what.
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Sam, that’s sweet! Congratulations! I feel like this is definitely a good thing, even if the journal isn’t the most famous/legit. It’s like, if you start out your acting career in a cheesy B-movie, that’s fine — everyone knows you have to work your way up and it’s great that you’ve launched (plus, you might be the best part about it!). It’s only a problem if you start talking like you were in the biggest best project ever and now have first dibs on the next Spielberg movie. My personal opinion is this is something to brag about with your friends (it really is cool) but be more measured about (as you clearly are) when talking about it in the professional world. In that case, I think you’re going to get respect for getting your work out there but also for understanding the lay of the land.
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You would write the most elequant version of ‘congrats but don’t let it go to your head.’ Thanks, Katherine. I think it’s a good stepping off point.
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Start an online portfolio that lists all your publications. There are probably sites in place that will do this for you. This way if anyone looks you up, they can see everything you have in one place.
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Do you have a site that you know of? I’ve never heard of this service before but it sounds great!
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CONGRATS Sam!!! Very cool.
I’d just copy what Katherine wrote, ver batim. But also add that any place that asks you to pay to submit your work is NOT AT ALL reputable.
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Thanks, Alex!
I’ve been surprised at how many publications I’ve found that ask for you to pay to submit! I guess their circulation isn’t high enough to support reading submissions.
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I think you should be very proud. This is awesome! Congratulations. In every lit mag, there are pieces some of us will find are not quite as good or could use some work. I think that’s normal. So even if you don’t feel positive about every piece in it, that’s perfectly reasonable! And no reason to feel down about it. This deserves a huge congratulations! Go celebrate!
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Thanks, Paige! I think I’m becoming more excited about it now that I’ve shared the news. You make a great point about our feelings of all pieces in a Lit Mag. I remember I was an editor of our high school Lit Mag and there were pieces I didn’t want in, but others loved them. It’s all perspective.
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