I posted earlier that you send your work off and you wait and you wait and you wait. Well, I waited.
And it paid off.
Two stories were accepted for publication today. “Code Blue” and “Dudley” are being published in an anthology later in the summer.
I’ll post details when I have them, but today, I celebrate.
But only for a little bit.
And then I’ll get back to work.
So you’ve sent off your short story to a contest, or your query letter to an agent, or your manuscript to a publisher. And you wait. And you wait. And you wait.
It can be agonizing.
What’s a writer to do?
This is the age of instant gratification. If you need an answer immediately, go to a conference. There you can sit down with an agent or editor and have a face to face chat and find out immediately if you have what their agency is looking for. You may not like the answer you get, but at least you’ll get an answer. Immediately. If you don’t like the answer, don’t give up. Pitch to a different agent or editor. If you keep hearing “no” well, then maybe you should write something else.
If you’re willing to wait the two months for the competition, or the answer to the query or the manuscript submission, then there’s nothing you can do but wait the time out. And while you do, don’t twiddle your thumbs. Keep writing.
Someone may want to read a sequel.