My creative writing students ask me how I managed the leap from a day job to life as a full-time writer. Despite my MFA degree and a slew of publication credits in literary journals, no enchanted formula granted me immediate entrée into a sustainable literary career. Talent is not enough. Commitment and diligence, while imperative, are not enough. Along my journey I encountered gifted peers in post-MFA writing groups who had stopped writing after a couple of years because their career hadn’t progressed in the way they had envisioned. They said they weren’t “getting anywhere” and their work wasn’t “getting noticed.” One attribute I’ve noticed in aspiring writers still yearning to become full-time authors is a failure to take responsibility for creating their own opportunities. My students learn that instead of waiting to be discovered, they need to become discoverable. Instead of hoping for something to happen, they must compel something to happen. In my workshops I teach twelve practices I employed to become discoverable and compel “things” to happen. What follows are five of those practices.
Practice 1: Establish an electronic literary calendar.
A calendar hardly sounds like a momentous concept, but a literary calendar is different. This single tool has fueled my career trajectory, enabling my transition from amateur to professional author in fewer than five years. The manner in which I use my calendar is what generates dividends.
A digital literary calendar marshals your writing practice such that when opportunities arise, you’re in a position to capitalize on them. Resist the temptation to commingle your literary calendar entries with unrelated reminders and appointments. When noted on all-in-one calendars, writing-life entries get lost in a sea of family appointments, kids’ sports matches, and day-job meetings. A separate calendar declares that you’re giving your literary career the focus and magnitude it deserves. On this calendar you want to allocate time for several things:
• Researching grants, residencies, contests, conferences, and publication openings.
• Submitting work and applications for these openings. Note that this has two steps and will be logged in two entries: one slot for the time you spend researching markets (and here I mean more than just publication avenues; I’m counting any career- or credential-building opportunity) and another slot for when you’ll perform the actual submissions or work on applications.
• Attending author readings and open mics.
• Practicing good literary citizenship. Literary citizenship refers to actions that, while in service of the writing life, don’t deliver an immediate benefit to your author career. If you make an earnest commitment to these actions, literary citizenship boosts your career in less conspicuous yet essential ways. Post a call for submissions for a major poetry contest on your social media accounts, even though you’re a novelist, for example. Or volunteer to do the grunt work at an independent bookstore to support an author event you’re excited about, helping with setting up chairs, monitoring refreshments, and assisting with cleanup. Ask your local bookstore to stock copies of your colleague’s new essay or poetry collection and so on.
Practice 2: Optimize your literary calendar game plan.
Each calendar entry you book must be SMART: Sustainable, Measurable, Attainable/Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. (The SMART framework comes from management expert George Doran.) Consider these four examples of calendar entries:
• Research places to send my work on Tuesdays.
• Send work to literary journals once per month.
• Submit to writing contests a few times per year.
• This summer apply to literary grants.
Those entries are not optimized; they lack urgency and anchorage. Instead, imbue entries with commitment and name clear objectives:
• Tuesday evenings from 6 PM to 8 PM: Research markets to which I can send my articles.
• Third Saturdays from 10 AM to 1 PM: Submit two stories and one essay to the markets I’ve researched.
• On first Wednesdays: Send a set of poems to three writing competitions from 8:30 AM to 10 AM.
• Wednesdays from noon to 2 PM, September 1 to September 15: Research grants.
• Wednesdays from noon to 2 PM, September 16 to September 30: Work on grant applications from ABC Foundation and XYZ Writers’ Fund.
For every task you schedule, especially for those with hard deadlines, set two digital reminders per task. Be sure these are set to sound an alarm or send a push notification, rather than counting on your noticing them on your calendar. Set the initial reminder for a few weeks prior to the task’s start or deadline, then a second to alert you a few days before the task comes due. Why two reminders? The first provides a heads-up that a task is on the horizon within the next few weeks. But life happens. You get the flu, an urgent project requiring overtime lands on your desk, you receive a jury summons. As a result that first reminder might slip by. But exigencies don’t need to represent lost chances. With the second reminder you’ll have another occasion to complete the task. This second alert should occur much closer to the due date, telescoping the time you have for the task. But at least you’ve provided yourself another opportunity to complete it without scratching it altogether. This is a key tactic.
Are you finding yourself habitually postponing your entries? Ask yourself whether now is the best time to lean into elevating your literary career. If other life matters are stable enough that you are ready to commit serious focus to your work, it’s still smart to guard against allowing overambition to sabotage your efforts. When I introduce students to this calendar, they often burden theirs with a profusion of hefty assignments—all due in a couple of months. Unrealistic timelines result in burnout or discouragement. Work within your bandwidth. Begin with one or two entries per week and build from there. That R in SMART means realistic.
Practice 3: Organize your submissions in service of circulating work.
In my courses I teach three crucial precepts:
• Have work under consideration in multiple markets at all times.
• Use a professional submission tracker, not spreadsheets and most certainly not handwritten lists.
• If you don’t have a thick skin and bruise easily, this is not the profession for you. Get used to rejections.
I can’t emphasize enough the significance of that first precept. Commit to always having work—stories, essays, articles, scripts, poetry, novel excerpts—circulating to literary journals and magazines. Have at least two grant or residency applications, or a conference panel proposal, in circulation as well. As soon as a rejection arrives, update your submission tracker and send that piece to the next market on your list. You haven’t earned the right to feel dejected until you’ve received fifty rejections for the same piece. At thirty rejections consider revising your work, provided that you’ve done a thorough job of researching your markets and determining they’re a good fit. I don’t recommend saturating journals with torrents of submissions without completing diligent research. Does this journal publish in your genre? When is its reading period? What’s the page or word limit? Does this contest entry fee make sense given the prize’s value? Do you meet the residency’s eligibility requirements? Does the fellowship require recommendation letters? Will an application need a full writing sample or just an abstract and CV?
Submission trackers support prolificacy. Many contain built-in databases of journals, magazines, grants, residencies, conferences, festivals, and other opportunities. Use trackers in conjunction with your literary calendar. As with calendars, many tracker options exist. Review several of them before choosing one. Start with a no-frills one, like the free Poets & Writers Submission Tracker or Chill Subs, to make getting started as intuitive and easy as possible. You can switch to a tracker with more features later. Factors I seek in a tracker:
• Built-in algorithms that recommend markets for your work.
• A notes section where I can enter pertinent memos, such as “Not a paying market” or “Received a warm rejection last year.”
• Capacity for me to add a market if it’s not already listed in the database.
• Ability to generate year-end reports showing the fees I’ve paid and how much I’ve earned. (If you’re early in your career, don’t worry about getting paid. Focus on building a list of publication credits.)
• It’s free or budget-friendly.
If you’re employing your literary calendar correctly, you’ll spend a lot of time in your tracker. I’ve used Luminary’s Writers Database, the now-defunct Writer’s Digest tracker, and Duotrope. The Submission Grinder, Ledgeromatic, and Duotrope are popular with my students. If you’re seeking an agent for a collection or book, Query Tracker and QueryManager are worth a look.
One caveat here: Submittable is an excellent program, but it’s primarily designed to serve people who receive submissions: editors, conference judges, funders, and residency committees. While you’re able to monitor submissions, only those markets that use Submittable will have their deadlines and openings visible to you on the platform. Opportunities that are facilitated by proprietary submission managers or that rely on SlideRoom, Smart Simple, Call for Entry (CaFÉ), or e-mail won’t be on Submittable. So realize that you’re missing a whopping number of opportunities if you’re searching for them only on Submittable.
Practice 4: Check one grant, fellowship, and residency resource every month to find upcoming opportunities.
You don’t need to check the same website each month. Feel free to switch them up. My favorite ones are Artist Communities Alliance, novelist Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers website, the Grants & Awards and Conferences & Residencies databases of Poets & Writers Magazine (and its weekly Grants & Awards: The Writing Contest Newsletter), Res Artis, and TransArtists. If you’re applying to both conferences and writing competitions, consider Reedsy, Poets & Writers Magazine, and the CFP List. Note on your calendar the time you set aside for reviewing these opportunities. Grants, residencies, and fellowships signal to the writing world that your work evinces sufficient talent to garner validation from admissions panels and committee reviewers. Although it’s not true that you must have a book out before you can reach for these offerings, applications are brutally competitive.
Grants are monies that a foundation or commission awards to you. Some stipulate that writers fulfill particular requirements or focus on specific projects, while others are unrestricted. My first grant was for $40. My current grants are for $50,000, $30,000, and $18,000. I often stack or overlap two or three at a time from different sources. I could not achieve this success level without my calendar.
I consider residency programs to be types of grants, even when direct cash is not involved. Residencies are residential programs where one or more artists stay to focus on their work. A residency may cover the costs of some or all of your lodging, meals, and transportation. Some provide a stipend. There are programs for one artist or for sixty; serving only writers or all artists; located in forests, urban downtowns, and meadows, or near mountains, beaches, and waterfronts. Accommodations are in cabins, apartments, houses, lodges, residence halls, converted mansions, and Victorian homes. Some serve meals or provide full kitchens. Several are pet- and family-friendly. Stays last from a few days to over a year.
Fellowships are typically residential in nature, extending for periods from one month to several years. Most pay generous stipends that function as salary replacements to help offset expenses such as travel, rent, bill, health insurance, and other obligations artists must cover while away from home. While there’s no hard-and-fast rule, you’ll be better positioned for fellowship applications once you have a solid publishing record and perhaps a grant, residency, or other notable literary award under your belt. To locate fellowships, start with public and private libraries and your local arts council or commission. Nearly every state has such an organization at the municipal, state, or regional level that offers funding for artists’ projects. Commissions want to support artists in their localities and are eager to surface fresh talent. Attend the council’s information sessions and application webinars to obtain guidance on delivering an outstanding application. As you practice good literary citizenship, you will learn about other fellowships through word of mouth.
Are you recognizing the through-line of the four practices? If you aren’t using your literary calendar, there’s less chance that you’ve got an assortment of work making the rounds. If your work is not in circulation, you’re limiting your chances to get published or to win a contest. If you aren’t publishing you aren’t building your achievements to vie for residencies and fellowships. Smaller accomplishments tend to ladder up to more prestigious ones.
Remember that your application materials represent the initial impression committees receive about you as a writer and professional. Study the foundation’s mission statement. Your materials need to support or complement its vision and mission. Maintain strict adherence to instructions, proofread your materials, and engage in authoritative, mature writing grounded in some evidence of style when responding to application questions.
Practice 5: Compete in contests.
Don’t discount the importance of writing contests. You do not need a large budget for entry fees to compete. If you submit to one contest per month, that’s twelve chances a year to win, place, or secure an honorable mention. Aspire to have work out to contests year-round. Schedule separate time slots for contest research and contest submissions in your literary calendar.
Writer Hope Clark, creator of the literary resource website FundsforWriters, offers good advice to contest skeptics when she reminds us of just how meaningful they can be: “Contests provide prizes, prestige, and usually publication, with many offering book contracts. Denouncing contests from your writing repertoire is like discounting an entire genre or refusing to eat yellow vegetables. You’re giving up something valuable that may serve you and your career well.” Remember this the next time you’re thinking that contests are not worth the effort.
The best method of getting the literary community to regard you as a serious writer and not a dilettante—even though you have yet to publish the Great American Novel or place an article in the Atlantic—is for you to manage the less-flashy aspects of your practice. That means treating your writing as both an art and a business. Many years elapsed before I came to this realization. Your overarching goal is to elevate your profile within your local—and, later, wider—literary world. That elevation will open a myriad of opportunities. While these five practices are only a beginning, they are a beginning that you and your writing deserve. Get after it!
Lyzette Wanzer’s work has appeared in over thirty literary journals, magazines, and books. Her book, Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives (Chicago Review Press), appeared in Library Journal’s top ten social science books of 2022. Her work has been supported by eleven grants, ten residencies, and three fellowships. She has served as an admissions panelist and application reviewer for grant, residency, and fellowship programs and for two writing competitions. Founder of the Muses & Melanin Fellowship program for BIPOC writers based in California, Wanzer teaches professional-development and craft workshops for writers across the country and online, including for Poets & Writers. She is writing a workbook, “Building a Career as a Literary Artist of Color.” Learn more at lyzettewanzermfa.com.
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