Writing Submission Do's and Don'ts

I'm on a horror movie kick today. Which made me think of the horrific two years I worked as a slush pile intern at a small press in Baltimore, MD. I didn't get paid but it looked nice on my resume and they gave me all the manuscripts I could ever read. It also counted as course credit for my school which was always a plus. Anywho, as decent as some of those manuscripts were, there were a million and one bad ones that I had to drudge through reading. I'll never forget one manuscript was on lilac paper with teal font. I couldn't even read it. When I opened the package the manuscript came with big flakes of glitter fell out onto my lap. It was a mess.

So from my perspective as an intern for two years, here are some of the submission rules I've come up with for any writer.

1. Write the best query letter in the world. But make sure you finish it up with an out of this world manuscript. I can't tell you how many times I've been blown away by a query, gotten very excited to see the finished manuscript, and then was let down. I was always looking for new and exciting work. I was also more than willing to work with writers who had obviously put time and effort into their products but were having a little trouble. I refused to settle with writers who wasted my time by only giving me fifty percent instead of two hundred. When you think everything is in tip top shape and ready to sell, keep working. Someone will notice and your hard work will pay off.
2. Edit 100% from the first sentence to the last sentence making sure every sentence packs the punch of your first sentence. I wouldn't always go by a writer's tell tale first sentence to judge a manuscripts merits. Because I knew it was an accepted rule for writers to nail down their first sentence assuming it would be the first thing that was read, I often refused to read it first. I would flip to a random page in the manuscript, start from there, and work my way towards the beginning. If I liked what I read then and the first line was a go-getter a writer was good on my list.
3. Don't try to stand out with weird fonts, odd cut off points, and twisted point of views. Unless specifically asked for experimental pieces such as post modern, flash back, POV shifts, etc don't deviate from the rules of syntax and submission. Each publishing house has a style they like to see come through their mailbox. Make sure you are conforming to it in all the important ways or you'll be a rejection slip. If they are looking for experimental pieces then your piece should be clear and easy to read without having to stop and think too hard. A piece can be well written and still be experimental.
4. Regardless of rejection slips keep revising, keep writing, and pick your criticism selectively. For every one submission there is bound to be at least one rejection slip. When you get it allow yourself to feel like complete and utter crap for at most two days. Ignore the rejection slip in those two days of mourning and when you come back to it see if there is any constructive criticism. If there is anything that you agree with once you get past your pain, use it and submit again somewhere else. Then stick the slip in a folder. I always find it makes it easier to collect them because no matter how many I get, I'm still writing, so I must be doing something right.

One of the best rules I've ever heard when it came to writing as if you aren't still doing it after your thirtieth rejection slip, you weren't made too.