December 27th, 2009 / 10:01 pm
Behind the Scenes & Snippets

You do send your Very Best work Every time when submitting to a literary magazine, right?

81 Comments

  1. Mike Meginnis

      I have always found this mystifying. I would never send anything out that wasn’t as good as I believed it could be (more or less) but they seem to want me to compare all my stories and send them my favorite.

      How am I supposed to know which of my stories is my favorite? I don’t even know what that means.

  2. Mike Meginnis

      I have always found this mystifying. I would never send anything out that wasn’t as good as I believed it could be (more or less) but they seem to want me to compare all my stories and send them my favorite.

      How am I supposed to know which of my stories is my favorite? I don’t even know what that means.

  3. howie good

      Well, best for the moment. . . Isn’t best a relative term?. . . Best for me, but maybe not for him or her or you. . . Best compared to what I’ve done before or will do later. . . Best, given how I’m feeling at the moment. . . . . . Best in terms of what I’m capable of doing under current specific circumstances. . . Sometimes you need to have someone tell you this isn’t your best in order to get to something better in a revision. . . Writing is a process, not an act (cliche alert!), by which I mean best is what I’m striving for, even if never reaching

  4. howie good

      Well, best for the moment. . . Isn’t best a relative term?. . . Best for me, but maybe not for him or her or you. . . Best compared to what I’ve done before or will do later. . . Best, given how I’m feeling at the moment. . . . . . Best in terms of what I’m capable of doing under current specific circumstances. . . Sometimes you need to have someone tell you this isn’t your best in order to get to something better in a revision. . . Writing is a process, not an act (cliche alert!), by which I mean best is what I’m striving for, even if never reaching

  5. Rebekah Silverman

      I only send work that is “as good as it has to be for me to get published in X journal.”

      jk?

  6. Rebekah Silverman

      I only send work that is “as good as it has to be for me to get published in X journal.”

      jk?

  7. Roxane

      I’m quite certain that writers don’t always submit their very best given the quality of writing I’ve seen come into the PANK submission queue from “bigger name” writers who, I guess think we’ll be happy with their dregs. It’s quite fun disabusing them of that notion.

  8. Roxane

      I’m quite certain that writers don’t always submit their very best given the quality of writing I’ve seen come into the PANK submission queue from “bigger name” writers who, I guess think we’ll be happy with their dregs. It’s quite fun disabusing them of that notion.

  9. Mike Meginnis

      This is something people say about Puerto’s submissions pool as well, and I guess I’m confused about something other people understand intuitively. Because while

      A: we are definitely getting better submissions, on average, than we have in the past, and
      B: this seems to have happened as a result of some degree of perceived increase in prestige, or at least the increase in quality apparent in our last issue

      still, C: I do not understand how writers can successfully identify their weaker work such that they send it to us in the first place. I do have stories that I consider clearly weaker than my best stories, but I’m still very much a student — when I’ve written long enough to become a “name,” whether or not I actually manage such a feat, how will I know which of my stories are worse than the others? In theory my output should have smoothed, by that point, such that I can’t tell which stories are markedly worse than the others. It just seems like an incredible cognitive power, to me, to be able to intentionally send weaker work to certain magazines, and I don’t understand how people do it.

  10. Mike Meginnis

      This is something people say about Puerto’s submissions pool as well, and I guess I’m confused about something other people understand intuitively. Because while

      A: we are definitely getting better submissions, on average, than we have in the past, and
      B: this seems to have happened as a result of some degree of perceived increase in prestige, or at least the increase in quality apparent in our last issue

      still, C: I do not understand how writers can successfully identify their weaker work such that they send it to us in the first place. I do have stories that I consider clearly weaker than my best stories, but I’m still very much a student — when I’ve written long enough to become a “name,” whether or not I actually manage such a feat, how will I know which of my stories are worse than the others? In theory my output should have smoothed, by that point, such that I can’t tell which stories are markedly worse than the others. It just seems like an incredible cognitive power, to me, to be able to intentionally send weaker work to certain magazines, and I don’t understand how people do it.

  11. Mike Meginnis

      I guess my question is, how do you know (once you are out of your early and very formative years as a writer) what your strongest and weakest stories are?

  12. Mike Meginnis

      I guess my question is, how do you know (once you are out of your early and very formative years as a writer) what your strongest and weakest stories are?

  13. Merzmensch

      That’s why I’m always in deep melancholy after getting rejection.

  14. Merzmensch

      That’s why I’m always in deep melancholy after getting rejection.

  15. sara

      No.

      I save my Very Best Work. I’ve thought about this quite a lot. I have 2 unpublished stories that I consider my “Best” and so far I have submitted each one only twice to competitions.

      I never knowing submit shit, though sometimes when I read a rejected sub it seems to crumble to shit before me. Then I’m embarrassed that I sent it out and just hope that the ed who rejected doesn’t think I was taking the piss. I think that I play around with flash a lot more than with short stories, and some of my experiments aren’t as successful as I may hope. But sure, I sub words that I don’t think are equal to my best, but I still think they are good words.

      I don’t think any writer consistently matches their own best, reading big name author collections there are usually stand out stories, it’s the same for all of us.

  16. sara

      No.

      I save my Very Best Work. I’ve thought about this quite a lot. I have 2 unpublished stories that I consider my “Best” and so far I have submitted each one only twice to competitions.

      I never knowing submit shit, though sometimes when I read a rejected sub it seems to crumble to shit before me. Then I’m embarrassed that I sent it out and just hope that the ed who rejected doesn’t think I was taking the piss. I think that I play around with flash a lot more than with short stories, and some of my experiments aren’t as successful as I may hope. But sure, I sub words that I don’t think are equal to my best, but I still think they are good words.

      I don’t think any writer consistently matches their own best, reading big name author collections there are usually stand out stories, it’s the same for all of us.

  17. Blake Butler

      i actually hate this distinction

      what is very best work?

      am i supposed to have a tier of work, that i then take the best piece off of when i think i want to send something out, and then wait for another piece to float to the top when i publish that ‘best’ piece?

      send me your interesting work. whether it’s your ‘best’ or not, whatever.

  18. david erlewine

      yup yup

      i’ve sent some stuff out that seemed okay but then a month or two later after a slew of rejections…i read it and think wtf am i doing

      some writers wait months/years/decades to sub anything until it’s “ready” – i can’t go to the extreme but maybe i am trying to wait longer these days before sending anything “new” out

  19. Blake Butler

      i actually hate this distinction

      what is very best work?

      am i supposed to have a tier of work, that i then take the best piece off of when i think i want to send something out, and then wait for another piece to float to the top when i publish that ‘best’ piece?

      send me your interesting work. whether it’s your ‘best’ or not, whatever.

  20. david erlewine

      yup yup

      i’ve sent some stuff out that seemed okay but then a month or two later after a slew of rejections…i read it and think wtf am i doing

      some writers wait months/years/decades to sub anything until it’s “ready” – i can’t go to the extreme but maybe i am trying to wait longer these days before sending anything “new” out

  21. Lily Hoang

      i agree with blake. there are stories i know are tighter than others, but are they really “better”? i’m not so sure. then again, i don’t submit so it doesn’t actually matter what i think…

  22. Lily Hoang

      i agree with blake. there are stories i know are tighter than others, but are they really “better”? i’m not so sure. then again, i don’t submit so it doesn’t actually matter what i think…

  23. mjm

      There are some poems where I think they’re good. And I usually hate stuff (‘nother story), but I send these poems I think are good, out. I do this and they get rejected, sometimes with a note of “we liked it” or sometimes with a form that says “Dear writer”. I go into a deep depression. And then, because its likely a simultaneous submission, or that I sent it out again after a couple of months, it gets accepted. This has happened more than once.

      Now, you can say a poem can be a weaker one and an editor can still accept it, but I believe whenever I am sending work that the whole shebang is pretty top counter. That these editors have a pretty discerning eye and the like. So…

      What the hell is ones “best work”? Don’t you strive to kick ass every time? Make everything great? I read this article where this poet made the claim, “I came to the realization all I maybe really need are three or four great poems in my book.”

      Call me Tom Clancy but I strive to make every poem dope as shit. Every line. Every word. And if I don’t take a long time on one specific poem, if its a quick jot down of a sudden idea or something, that doesn’t necessarily equate its quality. It is what the poem called for.

      I am still very much confused by this question.

  24. mjm

      There are some poems where I think they’re good. And I usually hate stuff (‘nother story), but I send these poems I think are good, out. I do this and they get rejected, sometimes with a note of “we liked it” or sometimes with a form that says “Dear writer”. I go into a deep depression. And then, because its likely a simultaneous submission, or that I sent it out again after a couple of months, it gets accepted. This has happened more than once.

      Now, you can say a poem can be a weaker one and an editor can still accept it, but I believe whenever I am sending work that the whole shebang is pretty top counter. That these editors have a pretty discerning eye and the like. So…

      What the hell is ones “best work”? Don’t you strive to kick ass every time? Make everything great? I read this article where this poet made the claim, “I came to the realization all I maybe really need are three or four great poems in my book.”

      Call me Tom Clancy but I strive to make every poem dope as shit. Every line. Every word. And if I don’t take a long time on one specific poem, if its a quick jot down of a sudden idea or something, that doesn’t necessarily equate its quality. It is what the poem called for.

      I am still very much confused by this question.

  25. adam j maynard

      what’s your very best work?

  26. adam j maynard

      what’s your very best work?

  27. mjm

      this is how:

      take a wish bone shaped object from inside your chicken, or, if you’re a vegan, break a stick off a bush that looks like a two-forked thing, and then print out your poems and lay them all on the floor.

      stand above them.

      hold this forked object out with your index finger and thumb. tenderly.

      the piece your forked object wavers towards is your best.

      duh

  28. mjm

      this is how:

      take a wish bone shaped object from inside your chicken, or, if you’re a vegan, break a stick off a bush that looks like a two-forked thing, and then print out your poems and lay them all on the floor.

      stand above them.

      hold this forked object out with your index finger and thumb. tenderly.

      the piece your forked object wavers towards is your best.

      duh

  29. Sean

      So “interesting” work is easy and OK to define, but not best?

      You are saying, you as a writer, don’t have any idea what is best” to you, yourself?

      I think you have some idea. So the question is then: Do you send out different works to different markets, depending on what you feel about that market?

      Or is it: should you?

      Or: Should I start drinking wine now, or in about four minutes?

  30. Sean

      So “interesting” work is easy and OK to define, but not best?

      You are saying, you as a writer, don’t have any idea what is best” to you, yourself?

      I think you have some idea. So the question is then: Do you send out different works to different markets, depending on what you feel about that market?

      Or is it: should you?

      Or: Should I start drinking wine now, or in about four minutes?

  31. Stu

      It’s not my very best work until it’s smudged with my own blood and semen, so no.

  32. Stu

      It’s not my very best work until it’s smudged with my own blood and semen, so no.

  33. Blake Butler

      i don’t send work to markets.

      i send work to people. if i send it at all.

      the market is where i buy apples.

  34. Blake Butler

      i don’t send work to markets.

      i send work to people. if i send it at all.

      the market is where i buy apples.

  35. Blake Butler

      shitty work is often interesting; ‘best’ work is often boring as a peep

  36. Blake Butler

      you should not drink wine.

  37. Blake Butler

      shitty work is often interesting; ‘best’ work is often boring as a peep

  38. Blake Butler

      you should not drink wine.

  39. Sean

      markets are people, scrooge.

      interesting writing is often shitty.

      any work with semen and blood I’m OK with.

  40. Sean

      markets are people, scrooge.

      interesting writing is often shitty.

      any work with semen and blood I’m OK with.

  41. Father Luke

      Only if I want it published, do I send out my best.

      – –
      Okay,
      Father Luke

  42. Father Luke

      Only if I want it published, do I send out my best.

      – –
      Okay,
      Father Luke

  43. Nathan Tyree

      I’m glad you said this.

      I’m mystified by “best”. Everything I send out cannot be my best, I just have to feel that it is at that moment. Your best story (poem, essay, whatever) is like highlander: there can be only one.

  44. Nathan Tyree

      I’m glad you said this.

      I’m mystified by “best”. Everything I send out cannot be my best, I just have to feel that it is at that moment. Your best story (poem, essay, whatever) is like highlander: there can be only one.

  45. Nathan Tyree

      I know what the “best” thing I ever wrote is. It’s been published. I can’t send it out anymore. Everyone has to settle for second (third, fourth, fifth) best

  46. Nathan Tyree

      I know what the “best” thing I ever wrote is. It’s been published. I can’t send it out anymore. Everyone has to settle for second (third, fourth, fifth) best

  47. david erlewine

      the question mark sealed this one. nice

  48. david erlewine

      the question mark sealed this one. nice

  49. david erlewine

      this blake – sean stuff is popcorn-worthy, the kind you buy at the movies not the market

  50. david erlewine

      this blake – sean stuff is popcorn-worthy, the kind you buy at the movies not the market

  51. david erlewine

      sometimes i send out pieces that aren’t their best b/c i’m so impatient and deluded that they are ready. i used to do this a lot more to places with quick turn around times (hi, lee!)

      i have gotten better about such things, for the most part. i can control such tendencies and do another edit on the story with ‘fresh eyes’ and maybe then another and another before sending out. also, i used to carpet bomb journals i liked and now i try to tailor my subs a lot more.

      so i guess my answer is hopefully i do a better job but probably still no.

  52. david erlewine

      sometimes i send out pieces that aren’t their best b/c i’m so impatient and deluded that they are ready. i used to do this a lot more to places with quick turn around times (hi, lee!)

      i have gotten better about such things, for the most part. i can control such tendencies and do another edit on the story with ‘fresh eyes’ and maybe then another and another before sending out. also, i used to carpet bomb journals i liked and now i try to tailor my subs a lot more.

      so i guess my answer is hopefully i do a better job but probably still no.

  53. Mike Meginnis

      It seems like often “best” means “most like our boring-ass story template with one vaguely interesting variation or gimmick that will reassure us we are not always publishing exactly our template.”

  54. Mike Meginnis

      It seems like often “best” means “most like our boring-ass story template with one vaguely interesting variation or gimmick that will reassure us we are not always publishing exactly our template.”

  55. howie good

      i also wonder about standards of best. whose holds sway? is there an immutable set of standards that should be applied in every situation, for every type of wrork? or does best change as what you’re writing or hoping to achieve changes? my lyric poetry can’t be judged on the same basis as my dystopian prose poems; or, rather, they can, but it would be stupid and unfair — like criticizing a dog for not purring like a cat.

  56. howie good

      i also wonder about standards of best. whose holds sway? is there an immutable set of standards that should be applied in every situation, for every type of wrork? or does best change as what you’re writing or hoping to achieve changes? my lyric poetry can’t be judged on the same basis as my dystopian prose poems; or, rather, they can, but it would be stupid and unfair — like criticizing a dog for not purring like a cat.

  57. howie good

      i empathize with this. . . that is, i’m living it.

  58. howie good

      i empathize with this. . . that is, i’m living it.

  59. Brandon Hobson

      It’s confusing. At the Cimarron Review we’ve gotten some shitty stories by really good writers. You still have to reject the shitty stories. Surely this isn’t their best work. Not even close.

  60. Brandon Hobson

      It’s confusing. At the Cimarron Review we’ve gotten some shitty stories by really good writers. You still have to reject the shitty stories. Surely this isn’t their best work. Not even close.

  61. reynard

      i’m thinking about clipping my toenails into points

  62. reynard

      i’m thinking about clipping my toenails into points

  63. darby

      part i. its not a simple thing to send something somewhere. I never think, is this the best, or even, is this the best this can be, but, is this good enough. thinking like ‘is this the best’ is an abstract irreality. if i thought that, nothing would ever get sent because everything can always be better or everything can always be worked on longer until i find a new avenue in it that makes it slightly better. at some point i settle for when something feels good to me. i can’t compare that ‘good to me’ to the infinite number of things i could possibly do to a story to determine its potential bestness. we can never be x. we can only ever be the limit of x as x approaches perfection.

      part ii. but my mood is not constant. either. one day i say oh this story i’m tired of it, its good enough, no harm in sending it somewhere, i’ll get a rejection, at least i’ll know its a rejection from there. other days i sit on things and say, i think theres more here, i’ll find it another day. somedays i’m desperate for attention and want someone to publish anything i happen to write right now. other times i never want to send anything again ever anywhere because i just want to read. some days some days. i have a thing in a doc up now, 200 words maybe, that has been sitting for a few weeks. i have had no thoughts on sending it anywhere. because. seasons. who cares?

  64. darby

      part i. its not a simple thing to send something somewhere. I never think, is this the best, or even, is this the best this can be, but, is this good enough. thinking like ‘is this the best’ is an abstract irreality. if i thought that, nothing would ever get sent because everything can always be better or everything can always be worked on longer until i find a new avenue in it that makes it slightly better. at some point i settle for when something feels good to me. i can’t compare that ‘good to me’ to the infinite number of things i could possibly do to a story to determine its potential bestness. we can never be x. we can only ever be the limit of x as x approaches perfection.

      part ii. but my mood is not constant. either. one day i say oh this story i’m tired of it, its good enough, no harm in sending it somewhere, i’ll get a rejection, at least i’ll know its a rejection from there. other days i sit on things and say, i think theres more here, i’ll find it another day. somedays i’m desperate for attention and want someone to publish anything i happen to write right now. other times i never want to send anything again ever anywhere because i just want to read. some days some days. i have a thing in a doc up now, 200 words maybe, that has been sitting for a few weeks. i have had no thoughts on sending it anywhere. because. seasons. who cares?

  65. Mimi Vaquer

      My fiance says that every new thing I ever write I think is my best. I guess it’s just the excitement over having something finished. I go through phases where I love all of my work, and other phases where I think I’m just a hack. I have started to try sitting on pieces and coming back to them before I send them out. Typically if I don’t like something, I stick it a folder where it is NOT getting submitted to anybody. The work that lives in the active pile is all stuff that I guess I consider my best. Mostly I just try and match work to a certain journal. Whether I’m good at that or not is anybody’s guess.

  66. Mimi Vaquer

      My fiance says that every new thing I ever write I think is my best. I guess it’s just the excitement over having something finished. I go through phases where I love all of my work, and other phases where I think I’m just a hack. I have started to try sitting on pieces and coming back to them before I send them out. Typically if I don’t like something, I stick it a folder where it is NOT getting submitted to anybody. The work that lives in the active pile is all stuff that I guess I consider my best. Mostly I just try and match work to a certain journal. Whether I’m good at that or not is anybody’s guess.

  67. mjm

      dude dont do it. dont do it!

      I had this one toe nail that grew crazy long because i was on the streets and had no nail clippers. then when i get back to having a consistent roof over my head, my family gave me an air mattress and i punctured a hole in the damn thing with my toe nail man.

      so i got the back up air mattress and i punctured that one!

      plus, on some real stuff, i put holes in my socks and tore up some sheets.

      think i’m fucking with you i’m for real. dont do it!

  68. mjm

      dude dont do it. dont do it!

      I had this one toe nail that grew crazy long because i was on the streets and had no nail clippers. then when i get back to having a consistent roof over my head, my family gave me an air mattress and i punctured a hole in the damn thing with my toe nail man.

      so i got the back up air mattress and i punctured that one!

      plus, on some real stuff, i put holes in my socks and tore up some sheets.

      think i’m fucking with you i’m for real. dont do it!

  69. rachel a.

      Much more keen than my sense of what is good work and what is bad work is my knowing which work flowed out and which work didn’t. Generally the work that flowed out is the better writing. However, I’ve placed enough pieces that were struggles to keep my hope intact regarding all the pieces on which I am currently struggling.

  70. rachel a.

      Much more keen than my sense of what is good work and what is bad work is my knowing which work flowed out and which work didn’t. Generally the work that flowed out is the better writing. However, I’ve placed enough pieces that were struggles to keep my hope intact regarding all the pieces on which I am currently struggling.

  71. howie good

      woke up this morning to two rejections — have a nice day! — one form, one personal and filled with compliments about my writing (yeah, weird). now everything i have written lately is under a shadow.

  72. howie good

      woke up this morning to two rejections — have a nice day! — one form, one personal and filled with compliments about my writing (yeah, weird). now everything i have written lately is under a shadow.

  73. howie good

      Late afternoon acceptance. . . Wow, my stuff just got so much better.

  74. howie good

      Late afternoon acceptance. . . Wow, my stuff just got so much better.

  75. Mimi Vaquer

      At least the submissions void is waking up. At this point I’d rather have rejections than silence.

  76. Mimi Vaquer

      At least the submissions void is waking up. At this point I’d rather have rejections than silence.

  77. Rebekah Silverman

      So sweet.

  78. Rebekah Silverman

      Seconded.

  79. Rebekah Silverman

      So sweet.

  80. Rebekah Silverman

      Seconded.

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