Welcome to what will be the first of many weekly Thursday posts. Quotable Thursdays will be a series of posts revolving around a quote from a particular person, using said quote to hone in on a particular aspect of writing. Now, these persons will have a diverse background. Many, if not most, will be a authors, but others could be journalists, artists, celebrities, historical figures, fictional figures, and even people I know personally. So, here's our first quote.

What this essentially means is you, as a writer, need to constantly be working ideas in order to submit them to publishers. You need to be proactive, going out and searching for publications that your ideas would be a good fit for, or, better yet, coming up with ideas for publications that you know and are familiar with. I'm sure everyone has been guilty of bitching about the challenges inherent with the industry, or about the fickleness of the muse, but the energy wasted on said bitching could be much better spent on your projects.

Now, upon immediate study of this reading this quote, one would think that it only applies to journalism. It certainly proves accurate, given my own experiences. One of the best ways to work regularly with a newspaper or publication is to make yourself indispensable and to freely share your ideas with an editor you've worked with in the past, within reason. Sending a bunch of poorly organized and half baked ideas will likely annoy them, but, if you take the time to develop your ideas and plan out how to meet them, you can make pitches that demonstrate your knowledge of your chosen topic and how diverse your ideas can be.

I won't go into the nitty gritty details of how to submit to a magazine or other publication, you can find out how to do that through many other sources and, often times, at the websites of whatever publications you might be interested in. What I will say is that pitching ideas is what a writer does. A lot of the time you'll have the benefit of having a complete manuscript, allowing story/article to speak for itself, but you should be equally adept at being able to supply editors with ideas for stories that they can mull over, then pass on or accept at their leisure. Even if an idea you submit doesn't click with one editor, keep trying to other applicable ones, and that editor will probably remember you when you try submitting again. Writing as a career is about making connections with other professionals in the industry, and a pitch is the equivalent of a first impression. Make it as good as you can.

This concept is also equally applicable to fiction submissions or pitches as well. If there's an open call for stories, be it at a magazine, an online outlet, or an anthology, and you have one that fits, I suggest submitting as soon as you've had the opportunity to polish your manuscript. The more manuscripts you have circulating the more confident you'll feel.

Submitting more frequently will inevitably lead to more rejection slips coming in, which, believe me, can be taxing. Despite this, I urge any writer of any skill level to keep trying and to dedicate themselves to submitting their work professionally. I myself was rejected over 70 times before I got my first story published, at the age of 20 no less. Even if you don't get an acceptance letter for some time, there are a number of rewards that may not be immediately apparent.

Among these benefits are the simple fact that you'll gain more experience dealing with submissions. Whether it's writing a cover letter or formatting your manuscript, there are a number of aspects of submitting a piece that you only discover through the actual act of submitting. You also become familiar with a publication through doing this, finding out their editors' names, how long it takes for them to respond, and what sort of rejection letters they send (IE: automated, personal, or, very rare, personal with feedback). These can be used for later on when you submit a different manuscript to them. There's also the fact that if your name pops up in their slush pile repeatedly, the editors there are probably going to start remembering you. This will be helpful when you start working with that publisher after your first manuscript is finished.

Overall, putting yourself out there is how you get critical, unbiased feedback, and it's better than malingering around. Wallowing doesn't get much done.