What I Wish Someone Had Told Me in April 2003
(which is when I started submitting short fiction to magazines)

I'm glad no one said "Don't." There's a lot of pithy writerly advice out there that very snarkily and in-jokingly says "don't", and a lot of people who may actually be sincere who also say "don't." But no one I actually knew, no one I actually trusted said "don't," and that was a good thing. Not that I would have listened.

And I see the rationale in telling people "don't." Because the last thing anyone wants is another writer of mediocre ability and drive whining about rejection. Well, that's the last thing anyone wants at a dinner party, anyway; I don't see that there's much of a problem if someone whines privately in a corner of the internet.

Second... well, someone did tell me this next part in April 2003, but I wish I'd been told sooner, since I made submissions before that, and very unprofessionally, too.

The second thing is the practicalities of submitting:

• Market research is vital. At the same time, you aren't going to figure it out immediately. It takes time. But you're never going to go wrong with checking the usual sites:
  • Ralan's
  • StoryPilot
  • Write Market
  • The Market List
  • and whatever else you find that you like
    
  Ultimately, respect the market. If you really can't figure out where to start, well, I always choose the markets with the highest pay and the shortest response times first. As far as I can tell, this hasn't paid off in any material way, but it makes me feel like I have a strategy. In my opinion, the market that is the apex of the pay/response time pyramid is Fantasy and Science Fiction... at least, on the days that I don't think it's SciFi.com's SciFiction (defunct as of January 2006, and oh how we miss it).
  
• Read the guidelines. Follow them to the letter. Send a query letter if you don't understand them. Find another writer to explain it to you. Whatever. Just read and follow them. If you can't follow them, then reconsider submitting to that market. If they don't take horror, don't send them horror. If you exceed the max wordcount, don't send it. And so on. If you don't have anyone else to do a reality-check with, feel free to drop a question on my journal.
  
  A corollary to read the guidelines is get the editor's name and gender right.
  
• Get the paper ducks in a row.
  • Use proper manuscript format. Links to that can be found here and here and here. Most of the advice agrees. Certainly the relevant parts do. The parts that don't agree aren't that important, and you should choose what you like.
  • Send everything, paper-clipped, with a self-addressed stamped envelope, in a flat 9 X 12 envelope. You may choose to send manuscripts as disposable, or you may want manuscripts returned. If the latter, make sure the return postage and envelope match the out-going. Get a postage scale and a wide selection of stamps; save yourself some trips to the post office.
    
• Wait patiently, but not too patiently. When you've waited long enough (generally, whatever the guidelines stated, plus your personal patience factor (I always give at least an extra month), plus what you hear through the grapevine--and oh, yes, the grapevines are Speculations' Rumor Mill and Duotrope and a variety of other places, like The Black Hole--when you've waited long enough, then submit a (polite) query letter. Don't forget the SASE again.
  
• While waiting, keep writing.
  
• Find your peers. To talk about writing, to critique your work. By peers, I mean other freshman writers, maybe a sophomore or two. You learn more by critiquing other people at your level than you do by being critiqued by people much further advanced than you are. It's great to have a mentor, and power to you if you get one, but a good peer group is worth a whole mentor at this point.

Junior Year Update:

I wrote this blog entry about rejection and the freshman year experience recently... I think it would have helped me immeasureably in my freshman year.