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'Tainted and Diluted' Submissions

Let us imagine there is a callout for articles on the topic of Bonfire Night Memories. You write an evocative piece about fireworks, a crackling fire and bonfire-baked potatoes (black on the outside, raw in the centre). You submit the article, but receive a rejection a week or two later.

Then a new callout pops up, this time on the theme of Autumn. Your bonfire article is sitting in a folder on your computer doing nothing, so you submit it for a second time, as it falls within the boundaries of this new callout. This is all well and good, and we all do it, but here's the question:

Do you feel, as I do, that submitting work as above, work that fits the bill but which was not specifically written for that particular callout, is somehow tainted or diluted; that it is making do rather than making new? Of course, this doesn't stop me resubmitting stuff, but I don't feel as comfortable as I do when submitting something I'd written specifically on the topic that was requested.

Anyone? :) 

Comments

  • You should absolutely send your work out if it's a good fit! However, if both call-outs were from the same publication, then I wouldn't re-submit the same piece.
  • Of course its not tainted or diluted. If it fits the brief and it's ready and waiting, then jolly well send it.
  • I don't have any qualms about re-submitting old work. What I meant was that re-submitting doesn't have the same buzz as sending a freshly produced piece that was crafted for a specific purpose. Hence 'diluted'. :) 
  • Give yourself a break! You wrote it, you out in the hard work - stop downgrading it and send it out with pride!
  • I don't have any qualms about re-submitting old work. What I meant was that re-submitting doesn't have the same buzz as sending a freshly produced piece that was crafted for a specific purpose. Hence 'diluted'. :) 
    No, it doesn't have the same 'buzz' for me either, but it never stops me from re-submitting. I recently submitted a re-worked story for an anthology that I originally wrote nearly twenty years ago! (I might get the 'buzz' if I finally see it in print though.)
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