Submitting your writing to a magazine or a contest is a numbers game.. The theories I'm about to discuss have always held true. And they are true for any genre, screenplays, fiction, poetry, non-fiction.
Here we go- Let's say the place you're submitting to received 1000 submissions. They have five slots or five prizes. My theory: stage one - 75% of what they receive is crap.
There will always be people who want to get published who have no business publishing, god bless 'em. That holds especially true today with email, the process of submitting has never been simpler- every destination is deluged with submissions. Everyone needs an artistic outlet in today's world where so few are allowed to be creative at all. But just because someone writes something doesn't mean anyone outside of their immediate circle of family and friends will ever want to read it. It sure as hell doesn't mean it should be submitted for publication. Most of this 75% have may not have any talent in this field whatsoever or, they might, but have not learned their craft. I love the fact so many people write- I hate the fact that they clog up the system. Everyone wants to have their screenplay made or their poem in New Yorker. But many seem to think they deserve it without working for it, because, well, because they are them, and they're so special. They may be, they just can't write well enough that we agree.
So, if I'm right, and I am, that leaves 250 submissions that have at least some validity. They know the basics and may actually be worth reading. Now we come a hard, broad cut. To get seriously considered, these entries or submissions must have a special spark. Not that they're perfect, but have something hooks the reader, a great character, superb imagery, something well above competent. I'll be generous and say that one in five has this. One in five of the competently written work has "it".
Now we're down to 50. With five prizes that makes your odds 10 to 1. We've cut the field by 95% and your odds still suck. Personally, I'll take ten to one odds any day. So how do the winners get chosen? In a word: luck. That's it. Here's the skinny- your competent piece of writing with something truly special in it has to hit the right editor/judge in the right mood at the right time.
How do you make this work in your favor? You send out your work to ten places!! Now you've really got a good shot that one of them will hit home. It still may not in the short term but in the long term it always will. I've been through streaks of 6,7,8 months with rejection after rejection then I'll hit hot streaks with three publications in a row. It's a fact that even well published poets get rejected 90% of the time.
Make your writing the best it can be, learn your craft, be realistic if you really have talent, then send it out like a machine gun barrage. Don't get discouraged by all the rejections. If you have, say fifty in a row, maybe it's time to reassess what you're doing. But bad streaks of 20 or 30? That just the odds, baby. Keep sending it out, and if you're good, your time will come- in the submission numbers game.
