A good spreadsheet could save your career.
I bet you never dreamed you'd read that here, but it's true. Half the battle of being a writer is keeping as many irons in the fire as you possibly can without burning the pots. After the MFA just built an amazing spreadsheet to help you keep track of 100 literary markets.
"The least number of times that I have submitted a short story before it was accepted was about 12 times. The most was about 65, so I’m of the opinion that you will have to submit a short story—even a well written one—to many journals before it will find a home."
Ring ring. Your novel is calling. Mobile-phone novels are big in Japan, selling 400,000 copies apiece. You think I'm kidding, but I read it at Literary Saloon so it must be true...
Rachel Kramer Bussel has a few choice words for anybody who complains that nobody reads authors anymore. Start reading for her punchy argument, but keep reading for the smart writing advice like this:
"There are numerous free promotional tools, such as those evil blogs Sacks bemoans (even while writing on one), that authors can use without having to wait for a publicist or anyone else ... When I'm promoting my readings, I send notices to all the local print publications, but also post directly to sites like Craigslist,Upcoming, Eventful, MySpace, Facebook and Booktour."
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