The Name of the Writing Game is Patience

A surprise acceptance that confirmed not to give up and to keep going with the writing.

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

I was having a Gomer Pyle moment when I walked in the house carrying the mail yesterday.

I’d gone out to check the mail and found two envelopes. One was a letter from my friend in New York, and another business envelope from Good Old Days. I almost threw that one in the recycling bin on the way back into the house.

Years ago, I’d had a story published by Good Old Days, but the past few years I haven’t submitted much to outside publications with everything else going on in my life right now. The thought crossed my mind that it was probably a solicitation to subscribe to the magazine.

But, fortunately, my ‘just in case’ mentality kicked in and I opened the envelope out of curiosity to see what it really was.

It was an acceptance letter and a contract!

Not for a huge amount. I’m not going to retire on this acceptance. But it will buy a nice dinner or two lunches.

I saw the article name — The Seasons of Canning. It seemed vaguely familiar. I think I’d written something about Flora Luper and her canning, taken from excerpts from an old five-year diary of hers that I have. (1948–1952)

The first thing I did, before even opening the letter from my friend (Sorry, Cindy!) was to come in and check my Submissions List. When I started writing seriously in 2015, I started keeping a list of submissions, and marking when something was accepted or rejected.

In 2015, I had 97 submissions. That’s since tapered off as life has taken a few twists and turns since then.

2020–35 submissions 2021–35 submissions 2022–8 submissions 2023–7 submissions 2024–4 as of 2/24/24

Of course, in 2022 Medium entered my life and has nudged its way into my writing priorities.

I started scanning through the list, looking to see when I’d submitted The Seasons of Canning to Good Old Days.

January 30, 2019!

FIVE YEARS AGO!

My first acceptance for Chicken Soup for the Soul took a long time too. Although not five years long. I submitted a story on 3/16/15 and it was accepted 5/2/16.

Another publication has a long lead time on acceptances. Secret Place publishes devotions, accepting three a month. So, on 3/27/15 I submitted three devotions. They were all accepted … on 5/29/15, 2/8/16, and 3/5/18.

Making money from writing is not for the faint of heart.

It’s a world where you can’t submit and then hold your breath waiting for an acceptance.

But yet, when these late acceptances do come trailing through, so long after the submissions first went out, it makes me think that I wish I would have scattered a few more seeds back then and not given up so quickly on certain publications.

This also makes me thankful for the quick turnaround time on Medium payments.

Yes, it’s true that we can’t count on anything here. We can’t publish a story and know for certain how much we’ll make from it. It could bring us $5, $10, $100+ — or even bomb and be in the cents. But one thing I do know is that I can check my stats every day and see exactly where I’m at, and know that come next month, between the 8th and 10th or so, I’ll be getting a deposit into my account. It won’t come trailing into my life two or three years from now.

My current writing plan remains the same — a large portion of my writing time goes to Medium, but I’m still submitting a few pieces here and there to other avenues.

But I wanted to share this for the other writers here, to encourage you to keep submitting, keep putting your stories out there — even if you’re not hearing back. Hang in there. Be patient. Because acceptances can come rolling into your life long after you’ve forgotten the story you sent out into the world. And then you’ll have your own –

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

You can find me on Newsbreak

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