Publishing Takes Patience! How to Keep Things in the Pipeline

I recently received a literary magazine in the mail. It was my complimentary copy of a magazine that my story had appeared in. When I opened the envelope, I was completely surprised — I had almost forgotten that I had gotten the story published! You might think that’s strange, but let me explain the typical, very long timeline of a story’s journey from conception to print.

I wrote the story “Shooting Range” when I was a junior in college. That would be in 2007. I finished the first draft very quickly (two weeks), then put it aside until the end of the semester. That spring, I sent the story out to a few magazines. Five months later, in senior year, I began revising the story to be part of my senior thesis. A year later, in the spring of 2008, I found out that a magazine wanted to publish the original version of the story. Of course I was wildly excited, but I’ve been published before, I know how long the wait can be. I was patient and after sending in a final version of the story, I let time pass. And pass it did — I didn’t hear a thing for the rest of 2008 or for any part of 2009. Occasionally I would check the website: it still had the same issue listed as its most current one. In the spring of 2009, when a year had passed, I emailed the editor to make sure I was still on the radar, but got no response.

One full year later, I got a package in the mail. It was the issue of the magazine with my story in it. One story journeyed from 2007 to 2010 — and that is a very typical trajectory for a story. The path is usually even longer for a book. It should be a reminder for you how much patience you need to have on the publishing trail — and how you should always be moving forward, continuing with other work while you’re waiting for older stories to appear.

The expression says to “keep things in the pipeline”, and that’s crucial if you don’t want to waste years of your life on getting published! While one story is accepted and you are waiting for publication, another story should be sent out to magazines, waiting for word back. At the same time, one story should be finished but getting edited, and at the same time, you should be working on new stories. Only by having stories continually moving on and out in this way will you feel yourself moving along the path to literary success.