Today I want to cover something that no one in all my writing education has ever covered, until now: Publishing Credits. I cannot believe after learning about this very important topic that none of my professors, instructors, or even other authors have ever even remotely touched on this subject. I believe it's incredibly negligent, to put it far too kindly, as if they don't want us to know the writer's market is actually a catch-22 market. I have many hypotheses as to why this could be, but it doesn't matter because to not inform of us this subject is again horribly negligent. Which again I firmly believe is too kind.
My current instructor likened it to getting your first credit card. You need to establish a form of credit before you can get a credit card, but how can you possibly gain any sense of credit without having one? I was fortunate in that I worked at a place that gave college students their very first credit card without a single bat of the eye. And yes, it was a legit bank and yes it was a legit credit card. You can ask me more about this in the comments below, because that's the last thing I'll say on the matter as I am digressing ever so slightly.
In the Writer's "Catch-22" Market, publishers want to work with writers who have been already published, or have what is known as publishing credit. This means your first manuscript, first news-worthy article, your first short story likely won't get even a second glance, let alone a first one if you send it in to a publishing house. That's not to say you shouldn't still try, but should you get a rejection letter, unless the letter specifically states there is something wrong with your manuscript/article/story (etc), the reason for your rejection undoubtedly has more to do with the fact you lack publishing credits.
The best way to receive credit is by entering writing contests since [most] contests do not require you to already have any publishing credit. I currently have never seen a writer's contest that says you must have publishing credit, especially the ones that are judged blindly (meaning your name and information is completely stripped from your submitted work before being passed to the judge/s). Should you win or even gain an honorable mention, boom! You have a publishing credit you can use.
WARNING: You should not have to pay a fee to enter, unless the prize is really high (like in the thousands), but even then the entrance fee should not be in the double digits. You also should not have anyone tell you "your submission needs a few tweaks our team can work on for this amount". That's an immediate alert you've run into a scam. Never pay a fee to go hear your won submission read or performed either, even if you're the one being requested to read or perform the work. Tickets and expenses should be included in your award. If it is not, SCAM. And you definitely should not have to pay for your work to be sent to you i.e. in an anthology. I've found contests where, if your work will be submitted into an anthology, that very anthology is awarded as a prize rather than a monetary sum, but again you will not have to pay for the anthology to be sent to your house. If you have to pay for it you're being involved in a scam, and you cannot use these as publishing credits or your rep will be severely tarnished—if not ruined completely—before you can even begin gaining credits.
Check in with Reedsy as they constantly put up writing contests you can use as a publishing credit. Also join Submittable for free. Only pay if you are hoping to create and host your own writing contests.
While Submittable is bit difficult to use the first time around, especially as they have not-the-best costumer service, it allows you to find writing contests via the "discover" tab. Type in anything you think you'd want to enter (i.e. "Virus Poems" or "Short Story" or "Sci-Fi") and you will receive a list right on the screen of global websites hosting contests. Granted the problem with this source is that not every scam has been weeded out of the list.
The other problem is you will also receive sites who are hosting open submissions of that very category, meaning if you decide to publish to one these sites you will need publishing credits, but creating your own author website can help do the trick. Post a few articles, short stories, any thing you've written that could be remotely considered credible, and use this as a writing credit. Also LinkedIn articles can be considered a publishing credit, too. Though not as great as being published by an external source seeing as anyone one can publish anything to LinkedIn and you can publish anything to your own digital portfolio, I've learned through massive amounts of research it still counts. But you will want to be somewhat vague about it in your cover/query letter.
Just in case you need a cover letter or a query letter, for those trying to push "regular" submissions but may not have all the necessary publishing credits, you may refer to my own Beginner's Cover Letter/Query Letter example in the Helpful Tips column of this blog to see how I got away with using my lack of credits to my somewhat advantage. It was a trick of sorts I learned through The Writer's Market 2020 Edition as this year's book features an entire section of query letters for beginners.
If you have any questions, comments, or would like help putting together your beginner's query letter (no fee), pleas message me in the comments below.
Thank you!
