My Kids Are My Literary Agents
Marcy Luikart -- October 2, 2005
What do you do with a house full of unemployed child labor? Well, put them to work, of course.
Submit, submit, submit. I knew I couldn't get published if I didn't submit. So I bought the Novel and Short Story Writers Market, I studied the submission guidelines, I marked the appropriate pages, I bought the literary magazines, I did my homework. Then I sent out my first round of submissions and I got my first round of rejections. So far so good.
Except my story didn't go out again. And the four other stories that were waiting their turn never even made it to the copy machine. I wasn't upset by rejection; I was upset by the prospect of making more copies, printing labels, licking envelopes, buying stamps. The drudgery of the administrative tasks.
So nothing else got submitted and I didn't get published.
Then last summer while I was attending the Santa Barbara Writers Conference; while I was immersed in the creative process, barely sleeping, my brain percolating with ideas, I had an epiphany. I realized that I didn't actually have to be the one sending out the stories. I could hire someone. What a concept! In my work life I hire employees so that I can multiply myself and get more done. Why would I operate any differently in my writing life? I asked my daughter who was a freshman in college if she would like to earn some extra money sending out my stories. We worked out a procedure together and the next thing I knew all of my stories were sent out to five different places each. As each rejection came back I e-mailed her and she sent the story to the next publication on the list.
Within six months of beginning this process I had four stories accepted for publication.
Most of the expense was in the beginning because I had five stories to go out and we were starting from scratch; but after the initial push the time involved has become minimal. I pay her $10/hour and provide her with all the paper, envelopes and stamps.
She's even started researching contests, and the next frontier, agents, is just around the corner.
So I am a published author. One story has appeared in Bellowing Ark, and stories are upcoming in The Iconoclast, Pangolin Papers, QWF, and Beginnings.
Please excuse me, now. I need to keep my daughter busy. I have some stories to write.