If you’re lucky enough to have the whole weekend ahead of you, and you’re preparing to submit to many of the fantastic anthologies and magazines with November 30th deadlines, I have a few pointers. These are all lessons learned, lovies, so take them or leave them. Think of this as learning from my mistakes. 

When it comes down to deadlines, my anxiety rises, I get panicky, and despite knowing exactly how much time I had to write, edit, review, polish, and write a synopsis, I often find myself scrambling up to the last minute to get my story in on time. 

November 30th is a Friday, one week from today, so there’s time. Not a lot of time-it still might feel like a lot of time, but it’s not. There’s a lot you need to do in your busy week which likely involves many hours of your “real” work where you get “real” pay. Unless you’re a rare unicorn who makes a living writing stories. In that case, why don’t you tell me how to go about all this? Because I still have to show up at a job I really don’t like, a job in which I think at least 45 times a day that I wish I was writing for a living. Anyway, back the the topic.

If you haven’t looked over the submission guidelines for your story, do it now. Seriously, go there and look at the guidelines. It is probably several paragraphs long, with a lot of information. Read every paragraph, every word. Keep that tab open as you polish up your story. Refer to it to remind yourself in your final edits what your story needs to be.

Quick question: does your story actually match the place your are sending it? The submission guidlelines will tell you what kind of piece they want. Don’t make the mistake of sending a raunchy sex crime to a Christian mystery magazine. This can happen if you’ve gotten a list of publications that are accepting pieces, so make sure your great story might is a match for the genre or sub genre to which you’re submitting.

Pay attention to word count. If there is a limit, make sure you’re within it, no exceptions. Your story might be awesome and just fifty words over the limit, so the editor will let it slide right? Wrong. Believe me. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Unless you’ve been invited to write a story, and you have some back and forth with the editor, don’t do it. And don’t lie about the count either. It’s disrespectful. 

Spend some time on your cover letter. It matters as much as your story. Make sure you put your title where the editor wants it, make sure your format as directed. If you are unfamiliar with formatting terms, ten minutes before midnight next Friday is a rough time for the crash course. Make sure you attach your story in document form asked. If all this is like reading a foreign language, I strongly urge you to take time to familiarize yourself with submitting guidelines. 

You love your story so much because it’s perfect, right? Get someone to read it now. They will see the misspellings, repeated words, missing words, missing commas, all things that you just can not see because you’ve been looking at it too long. Do not lose your shit with your reader because you think all he/she is doing is picking apart the story you spent so long writing and that you love so much. Pay attention! If your reader spotted any mistakes, you better believe the editor will see them ten times faster, and you’re rejected. If your reader has questions or concerns about something not making sense, again, do not lose your shit. Listen! It’s not too late to make adjustments.

Give yourself enough time to look things over before you hit send. If your reader is still talking to you, have him/her look it over before you submit.  Then sit back and let the feeling of complete calm wash over you. Let it last as long as it will before your start worrying, wondering, and feeling it’s impossible to wait to hear back. And good luck.