Be a Follower

Recently, I had occasion to call someone a variety of colorful names.

No, I will not repeat them. My kids already heard them once. If you want to know what I said, I’m accepting volunteers for babysitting duty. The kids will be glad to repeat what I said, word for word…

The reason I called the person what I did was they thought they broke our emails two days before a call was scheduled to close.

Nightmare scenarios ran through my head. Angry messages from writers, riots outside my home, people screaming that I had to accept their story even though I never saw it because of the email fiasco!

So what did I do?

I put a post on the Undertaker Books social media accounts.

When you submit, please cc our backup email to ensure I get your submission.

Time went by.

The emails didn’t break.

More submissions came in.

But only two of them cc’ed our backup email!

There are a lot of lucky writers out there.

The lesson here is an important one: if you are planning to submit to a publisher, be sure you’re following them on social media!

If we have to get the word out about an issue, it will be through social media. I have no way of knowing who plans to submit to our open calls, and social media is the best way to get word out to a lot of people if there is a major problem (like losing our submission email).

Now, we do post other things besides call information on our social media, and all that promotion can be a headache, even though we try to make our content as interesting and beneficial as possible. But if you don’t want to follow us, or anyone else you submit to, all the time, you should at least follow us for the duration of the call.

Why?

-I’ve been known to post submission hints.

-I sometimes post updates on call statistics.

-Our blog is a great resource if you want your story to advance in the slush pile.

-If something goes wrong, you’ll be informed.

So be a follower, especially of any presses you plan to submit to. If there’s something you need to know, odds are they will turn to social media to get the word out. 

And it may be the difference between your story being seen, and disappearing into the abyss of lost email messages…