Keep 13 in Play: How to Manage the Submission Process as a Freelance Writer

As freelancers, we are told to submit often. We are told how to accept rejection. But we aren’t taught much on how to keep up with the in-between.

(4 Key Places for Writers to Find Those First Freelance Clients.)

How do we remember what we have submitted? How many times do we submit at one time, or in a certain time period? How do we keep up with it all?

In my earlier years as a writer, I pitched as many times as I could in a day, not keeping up with anything other than a note on my calendar as to when I sent something off and to whom.

But two weeks later I’d catch myself wondering had I heard back from that one, or if I could afford to send a certain magazine a pitch, unsure if they’d replied to the one pitched some time ago. How many had I sent out already, and what if—miracle of miracles—all of them replied in the positive?

Worse, had I submitted to competing magazines on a similar topic? Without naming the magazines, I actually did that during those early years. One of the magazines accepted the piece and told me when it would appear. A month later, the competing magazine accepted the other piece, not telling me which issue it would be published.

To my horror, they both published in the same month. I found out by receiving my contributor’s copies of both magazines—on the same day. One magazine rolled with it, not upset. The other, well, let’s say the editor was not happy.

I did not want to make that mistake again.

I needed a method to the madness, so I created a system called Keep 13 in Play that has served me well for two decades.

I needed to keep up with markets, gigs, contests, all submissions. On a spreadsheet, I posted columns containing the date, the article/story title, the market submitted to, the contact person submitted to, and a follow-up date.

What is the 13 for? I just chose a number that would stick in my head, that I would have to stay attentive to. Frankly, I was thumbing my nose at fate by using the bad luck number. It just had a ring to it. You can choose 6 if you want to write part-time or 25 if you are intent on giving freelancing your all.

By choosing a number, 13 in my case, I married myself to an obligation to keep that many submissions outstanding. That spreadsheet kept me atop the details. (You can keep a list or a table, too.) Finally, I had a system but soon realized I needed more.

The first spreadsheet told me which articles went where in chronological order; however, duplication of markets or articles remained a possibility, so I created a second spreadsheet that looked more like this:

The story’s title is listed and to its right will list all the markets it’s had the honor of visiting—since a good story is worth submitting to another market if it doesn’t find a home the first time. This way I could make sure where the same story had been submitted to competing markets or didn’t get duplicated to the same market (yes, that can happen when you are slinging submissions fast and furious).

But there was still another issue, much akin to the one in which I submitted similar articles to competing magazines. How did I keep up with what I’d sent to the same market, and what was pending at any time with a particular market?

Why is this important? Because many markets ask that you wait to hear from them about a prior submission before submitting again. Also, some markets become your favorites, and when you have editors who love your work, you submit to them continually—but don’t want to deluge them, either.

On this sheet, you see MARKET first and in the next column, under STORY, you’ll see how many stories you’ve pitched that market with your assorted ideas, each time giving you a better feel for what they prefer and how long they take to respond.

I’ve used this sheet to determine whether or not to pitch a market again. I’ve used this sheet to determine my favorite markets and learn their uniqueness.

While having DATE, CONTACT, and FOLLOW-UP DATE on all three spreadsheets seems redundant, having that information on all three keeps you from having to flip from sheet to sheet. For instance, if I had a wonderful idea for a travel piece, I might open Spreadsheet 3 to see which of my favorite markets is still considering something and which remains open.

With a glance you can see where a story has been submitted over its life, and how many times successful. Flip a page and you can see the markets that love your work more than others and which to submit your latest grand idea. Flip yet another page and the chronological order shows IRS at tax time what you did for the previous calendar year to warrant calling yourself a hobby, part-time, or fulltime writer.

If you feel industrious and wish more columns, you can add data like AMOUNT PAID or PUBLICATION DATE or NOTES to remind yourself how many times you had to edit or if the market has quirky requirements on formatting.

This system is so generic that you can keep track of what you’ve pitched to contests, markets, agents, or even grants. The goal is to manage your submissions, regardless of what kind.

The goal was to keep 13 submissions outstanding at all times. The minute one was accepted, I marked the three spreadsheets (highlight, strikethrough, etc.) noting that submission fulfilled. But that dropped my number down to 12 stories pending. My immediate task became to bring that number back up to 13, and I mean immediate. All else took a back burner for it. I would seek another story to push into the world. It became almost an urgency to maintain the number.

However, when I received a rejection, I earned two new opportunities. I would send the rejected article (with whatever tweaks it may need) to a new market. Then I would send the original market that rejected the piece a new article while the editor hopefully remembers who I am.

Suddenly my number was 14, and I’d bought myself some breathing room.

It’s a simple process. While it helped keep me organized, the Keep 13 in Play system did something else. It kept me ever looking forward to keep my number up, rather than looking behind me for a rejection or acceptance. It soon became second nature to move forward, and honestly, gave me a more positive attitude about freelancing.

Being better organized not only made me more efficient, but enabled me to watch my freelance career advance and succeed, one entry at a time—without upsetting any more editors.