Again, this seems simple, but a lot of folks don’t do this consistently. You can’t sell a story that’s sitting on your desk. Won’t happen. Every time you send something out, you increase its odds of selling by an infinite amount, from zero, to some unknown number greater than zero. Instant infinite improvement. What more could you ask for?
So, do you have anything sitting on your desk that could be in the mail? Come on, you know you do. Put it in the mail. Let it be someone else’s problem for a while. Worst that happens is you get a reject, which means you’re in the game, which means you rock.
(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog Sept 21st 2006—original comments may be found there. Reposted as part of the reblogging project)