How I Play Submission Jenga 🎲

It all starts with my monthly list.

Click here for the big list for May:

I hunt down every call for submissions that catches my eye, sticking mostly to the speculative genres. I have two firm rules when I’m scouting markets:

* They have to pay.

* No submission fees. Ever.

Then I look for the ones that genuinely intrigue me. The Apex Flash Fiction calls are a personal favorite — they’re always a little weird, a little off-kilter, exactly my flavor. When something hooks me, I sit down and bang out 1,000 words.

Fun side story: that’s actually how Roxy Vega was born. She started life as a flash fiction response to a prompt from Apparition Lit (RIP). The image was a man smoking a cigarette in this dank, vaguely alien-looking bar. Cool vibe — but I didn’t want to write about a man. I wanted to write about a really rough woman. What if she was a space trucker on break? What if she had a terrible gambling addiction? And just like that, Roxy Vega walked into the world. She’s now a serial on Substack.

https://angeliquemfawns.substack.com/s/the-chronicles-of-roxie-vega

My Submission Process

Here’s how a story moves through the system:

* Draft at 1,000 words and send it to a flash market.

* If it doesn’t find a home, expand it — maybe to 2,000 or 3,000 words.

* Send it to the next market on my chart.

* Keep meticulous notes on where each story has been so I don’t accidentally send Neil Clarke the same story 25 times. (He would notice.)

* Track rejection times so I know which markets are fast (looking at you, The Dark) and which ones will leave me waiting six months to a year.

* Eventually, string related stories together into a novella — that’s exactly how Roxy Vega came to life, and I’ve got a couple more brewing.

I do this old school with Excel charts.

I know everyone loves Submission Grinder, but I remember the day it went down and the mass panic that swept through my writing group. Charts are pablum for my brain — I genuinely love filling them in, ticking the little boxes, watching the data build.

The Rules I Live By (Mostly Heinlein’s)

* You must write.

* You must finish what you write.

* You must put it on the market.

* You must keep it on the market until it sells.

* You only revise to the needs of an editor. (Okay, this one I break. My craft keeps improving, and sometimes I reread an old piece and think “what was I thinking with that opening?” So I’ll go back in, tighten the try-fail cycles, and send it out again.)

The Real Secret

I don’t take rejections to heart. I really think that’s what’s set me apart in the writing world — I just keep subbing. And subbing. And subbing. It’s a numbers game:

* More stories out = more chances to sell.

* More stories out = more editorial feedback.

* More editorial feedback = a better writer.

Look at this list of rejections…

But honestly? We have to remember to have fun. We’re doing this because we love it. I’ve looked for the money in fiction writing, and it’s hard. There’s far more money in nonfiction, which is why my day job is journalism — though it does feed nicely into the market research I do for all of us.

Anyway, I appreciate every one of you. Good luck with your own submission Jenga, and I hope to meet you at a con one day. Conferences are my new love — they’re so energizing, and every single time I go to one, my career and my dreams take a step forward.

Okay — toodles! 👋

All this stuff takes me time, and I will be bringing in some pay walls, please join the next tier! Selling short stories is what we do.