Launch Your Writing Career with the Snowball Strategy
Writer shares her personal publishing strategy
Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.
I’ve received hundreds, maybe thousands, of rejections from literary magazines, but when it came to publishing my chapbooks and poetry collection—I had a wonderful, surprising experience. Both my chapbooks were accepted by the first presses I sent them to. Zero rejections. Later, after only a month of submitting my poetry collection, I received two rejections and three offers of publication. What was going on? How was that possible?
When I returned to creative writing and started submitting for the first time in 2021, I was a stay-at-home mom with no MFA, no literary connections, no idea how literary publishing worked. Since then, I’ve published more than 100 pieces of writing (mostly poetry and flash fiction/nonfiction) in literary magazines, and had work selected for Best Spiritual Literature, nominated for Best of the Net, and longlisted for WigLeaf Top 50. How? I believe my “snowball strategy” played a huge role in my success. In fact, I think any emerging writer who employs this strategy will see tremendous progress in their writing career. It creates momentum that builds, slowly at first, then faster and faster, like a snowball rolled down a hill.
Study Hard
This strategy has four parts. The first is considering oneself a lifelong student of writing. I fell in love with writing as a child and wrote throughout my growing up years. But after college, I started writing as part of my job—first for a regional lifestyle magazine and later as a copywriter for an advertising agency. As I wrote for my day job, I lost my drive to do any personal creative writing. When I returned to creative writing in 2021, I quickly realized there was much I didn’t know about literary writing. I needed to see myself as a student again. For my 29th birthday the only gift I asked for was a writing class. I took that class (a flash nonfiction course taught by Chelsey Clammer hosted by Women on Writing) then another and another.
At first, I exclusively studied flash nonfiction—I read five craft books and two anthologies of creative nonfiction writing. Later, I did the same thing for flash fiction, even joined SmokeLong Fitness, a year-long flash workshop. Then, I studied prose poetry. Then free verse poetry. Now, I’m starting to explore formal poetry. I followed my muse and interests in writing, but with each new form I committed to studying it thoroughly. I took classes or webinars or workshops, especially any free ones I could find. I read craft books and anthologies. I kept writing and writing and writing. I also joined or started three writing groups—receiving and providing feedback to other writers.
Plus, I engaged with writers and editors on social media. I followed writers who were writing in the genres I was interested in. I paid attention to what they were reading, what they were writing, what they were discussing on social media. When I was confused or unsure about something, I asked questions—both to individual writers and to the writing community as a whole. I asked things like—How many places do you send out one piece to at a time? How many rejections before you edit? What’s the difference between flash fiction and micro fiction?
Having a student mindset also meant realizing when I should seek help. For one of my chapbooks and for my poetry collection, I hired a professional editor. Taking on these large projects was new to me. I knew I needed help to be successful.
When I was confused or unsure about something, I asked questions—both to individual writers and to the writing community as a whole.
Invest Wisely
The second element of the strategy is that I treat my writing career like a start-up business. Whatever money I earn from writing or editing or teaching writing webinars, I invest it back into my writing career. As a mother to two toddlers, I cannot justify spending our family’s primarily income sources on my writing-related expenses. To cut down on expenses, I use my local library as much as possible for craft books and anthologies. My first two classes were gifts, then after that, I’ve used whatever money I’ve earned from writing to take classes or workshops, to buy books, and to hire editors when needed. When I won my first writing contest with a $500 prize, the first thing I did was buy some craft books and sign up for a workshop. (I recognize that it is a privilege to not need my writing income to live on. That said, if you can afford it, investing back into your writing career does pay dividends in improving your craft, even if not always in dollars.)
Submit Strategically
The third element of the snowball strategy is a bottom-up submission method. When I first started submitting, I didn’t know which magazines were more prestigious and which were easier to get into. I just wanted to be published. And wow, getting that first publication was such a rush! I had to get another and another and another. Once I realized the hierarchy of literary magazines, I wanted to see where my work fell and then work my way up the ladder, one rung at a time. Quite a few of my early publications were at brand new lit mags. Then at some more established ones, then more prestigious ones, and so on, until eventually I started to get acceptances from lit mags I never dreamed I would break into. Using this strategy created incredible momentum. It got me writing more than I ever had and publishing more than I imagined possible. In fact, in 2022, I had 52 pieces of writing accepted for publication. (For comparison, in 2021 I had just two.)
I started to see submissions as a numbers game. In order to win the game, I needed to submit aggressively and without fear. Rejections were not a “negative one” in the game. They were simply zeros. They were merely neutral. As I continued to gain confidence as a writer and realized that rejections didn’t matter, then I stopped self-rejecting. I started submitting widely, including more prestigious mags because I wasn’t afraid of rejections. In fact, I still don’t track rejections. Once I receive a rejection, I simply remove that submission from my active submissions list. It’s as if it never existed.
After I gained enough momentum in publishing in literary magazines, I started submitting to contests as well, but only selectively and only with money that I earned from writing. Here’s a blog post I wrote about that for Chill Subs if you’re interested in learning more about my contest considerations.
I started to see submissions as a numbers game. In order to win the game, I needed to submit aggressively and without fear.
Set Goals
The only way you can know when to stop and celebrate is if you set goals. When 2023 hit, I set my writing goals—both for the year and for the long-term. I decided my long-term goal was to get a full-length collection of my work traditionally published with a small press before I turn 40 (I was 30 at the time). My short-term goal, by the end of 2023, was to get a chapbook accepted for publication.
I put together three chapbook manuscripts from all the many pieces of writing I had written over the past two years. I researched chapbook publishers. I purchased and read chapbooks (and full-length) collections from various small presses. I asked questions from other writers. I decided I wasn’t looking to win a contest or get the most prestigious publisher, I just wanted to get my work out into the world with some reputable publishers. I also developed relationships with some small presses on social media. For example, I was extremely impressed with Belle Point Press and co-founder Casie Dodd. I admired what they were doing as a press so much that I designed my nonfiction chapbook manuscript with them in mind. And was delighted when they accepted it (Take Me Home, forthcoming June 2024.)
After I had two chapbook manuscripts accepted for publication, I started working on my larger goal, a full-length collection. When I started putting together my poetry manuscript I realized I needed help—that’s when I hired Megan Merchant of Shiversong as a developmental editor.
After Megan helped me organize and refine my collection, it was time to start submitting it. However, I’d heard it takes years to get poetry manuscripts published. I saw one tweet where a poet lamented spending four years and more than $1,700 on fees and yet her manuscript was still seeking a publisher. (And this was a poet with publications in top poetry magazines.) I wasn’t willing to wait around for years to win a contest or spend an exorbitant amount on submission fees. Instead I submitted to open calls for manuscripts, most of which were free, some charging up to $15. In the end I had three offers of publication and got to select the press that I felt was the best fit for me and my work. It will be around my 33rd birthday when Lightning is a Mother will be published with ELJ Editions in February 2025.
Whether you are an emerging or established writer, I believe you can benefit from the snowball strategy. As you continue to learn and improve your craft, invest back into your writing career, submit widely and with increasing difficulty, and set practical, escalating goals—I know you’ll start to see your writing dreams come to pass. I can’t wait to hear how quickly your snowball will grow. I’m rooting for you!
Love this approach! Someone once told me they use money earned from their art to buy art. Reinvesting in your own art is the same concept and probably more compelling for my students.I will share this with my students in our sr. Seminar for creative writers.
Thanks, Bethany. I've been at the submissions numbers game (and I wholeheartedly agree that it is a numbers game) since 2010. The top magazines still elude me. But I'm inspired to connect more via social media and find just the right places for my work, including my full-length poetry manuscript.