Tip: Set Aside a Small Amount of Regular Time for the "Getting Published" Work

I know -- we become writers because we want to write, not because we want to send hundreds of query letters and investigate which literary reviews are best for us and schmooz and network. These things are an entirely different skill set, and we have varying degrees of ability at them. But that's okay.

Here's what worked for me: set aside a small amount of time to deal with getting your writing out there, the same way you set aside time for writing. Remember I said set aside an hour a day for your writing if you can, and if you can't make it a half hour a day, or an hour or a half hour three days a week, or fifteen minutes a day, or one hour twice a week, whatever you can manage? The important thing is to make it part of your routine. It's the same thing for this stuff. Set aside fifteen minutes a day on the weekdays, or ten minutes, or one hour on a weekend day, or something like that. It doesn't have to be that much time. Then during each of those time increments, do one thing that will help you on your way. It can be small: look up the address of one literary review you want to send your work to, write one paragraph of your query letter, make one phone call to a venue to find out how much they charge if you want to have a reading event there, email one contest to get its guidelines, print out one copy of your story according to contest guidelines, send one story out in the mail. Whatever. At the end of a few months you will find you have accomplished more than you thought you could.

I even find these administrative tasks are kind of a nice break from the writing. They can have high stakes in our minds, and make us nervous, it's true, but they are less emotionally draining than the actual writing. For me, anyway. And when you do them regularly, you develop a sort of detachment that makes them easier.

So, as always, good luck!