Multiple Submissions

Multiple Submissions

A question that I am asked from time to time has to do with multiple submissions. People ask me if they should float their queries or proposals to several potential buyers at the same time. At first glance, this may seem like a good way to go. But in reality, it is not. You can burn bridges quickly. Acquiring editors do not want multiple submissions and they will remember you if you send them a project that their competitors are reviewing.

Few writers and authors have the power to enter into a highest-bid auction. There are literary agents that pull this off and some authors, but it is not common. In general, you are more likely to hurt your future prospects than to help them.

My advice is to do your homework. Do competitive research. Know your potential markets inside and out. Market your proposal or query to the publisher who best meets your criteria. Then, wait and see. Granted, you may wait for what seems an eternity. That is just the way it is. That is why you need to be an assembly line of ideas, concepts, and projects if you want to thrive as a pro writer.

While multiple submissions are a no-no, there is no foul to sending out twelve different proposals or queries. I am not saying to chum the waters with mediocre offers. Make each offer concise and important. But, if you want to make real money, get a bunch of them out there. How do you do this?

When I started out I went to a motel for a weekend alone. My wife understood my mission. I started with magazine articles. As an avid outdoorsman, I tried to capitalize on my experiences in that venue. It worked.

As a young man I was a hunter with both a gun and a bow. That gave me two different markets. My experience as a wildlife and nature photographer gave me two more. Hiking and camping gave me two other markets. There was a time in my late teens when I was a trapper, and that opened another market. Then there was fishing, and there are lots of types of fishing, so this role gave me many markets. Are you getting the point? I dissected my experience and strength and then found the markets for them.

I had never planned to be a writer. During my life I read a lot of how-to books. Learning was interesting to me. It turned out that all that reading had taught me how to write how-to articles and books. Frankly, I didn’t know it at the time, but it proved to be true.

English class was not my friend in school. I far preferred history. Yet, I made it as a pro writer working full-time and earning a 6-figure living. It did not happen overnight, but it did happen quicker than I would have ever imagined. In fact, I never really thought I would get published, but I enjoyed what I was doing with my spare time and it paid off and has for about 25 years.

I never made millions at a time. My best year that I can remember was around $150,000, but that was enough for my family and I to live comfortably and I had the advantage of working from home, where my children were.

I don’t want to mislead you. Making a full-time living as a freelance writer is very difficult. I remember one year when I wrote 13 books that ranged in length from 50,000 to 100,000 words. Twelve-hour days were not uncommon.

You can’t get up, wander around the house, write a few thousand words a day and pay the bills that most families have. If you can, please tell me how to do it. I worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. as a writer and then went to work as a salesman to sell new projects. I made myself write a minimum of 6,000 words a day, and 8,000 words was not uncommon. Believe me, it was a serious commitment.

You have to keep a lot of balls in the air to make it in publishing, but don’t use the same ball. Switch up your game. The game has changed a lot over the years. Our present economy has hurt book sales in my venue. Since most of my current books are based on construction topics and the fact that construction is nearly nonexistent my sales have suffered.

As a book producer, I have seen a lot of work being moved to offshore contractors for cheaper prices. All of this has hurt greatly.

It is possible to make it has an independent freelance writer, but you are going to have to work for it. Magazines are disappearing as we once new them. Brick-and-mortar bookstores are going away. Ebooks and electronic databases are gaining ground. Big publishers are buying out small publishers. It is a changing world. Step carefully. Publishing is a close-knit community. If you make mistakes with one editor others are going to hear about it at lunch.

Do your homework. Be professional. Know when to nag and when to wait. Most of all, make your work irresistible.

Dodge