the waiting game.

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I’m sure the irony of the word “submission” hasn’t slipped past most writers’ radars.

Let’s take a look at the definition of the very word, shall we?

noun
1.	something (manuscripts or architectural plans and models or estimates or works of art of all genres etc.) submitted for the judgment of others (as in a competition); “several of his submissions were rejected by publishers”; “what was the date of submission of your proposal?”
2.	the act of submitting; usually surrendering power to another
3.	the condition of having submitted to control by someone or something else; “the union was brought into submission”; “his submission to the will of God”
4.	the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness [syn: meekness]
5.	a legal document summarizing an agreement between parties in a dispute to abide by the decision of an arbiter
6.	an agreement between parties in a dispute to abide by the decision of an arbiter
7.	(law) a contention presented by a lawyer to a judge or jury as part of the case he is arguing

A submission is a manuscript submitted for the judgment of an editor…and a submission is also the act of submitting, or surrendering power to another. Submission is the feeling of humbleness. Or loss of control.

Isn’t a literary submission all of the above? Here I am, in submission over my submissions.

I submitted three short stories to thirty-five literary journals. I’ve received 17 rejections, 4 of them the “nice” kind with a hand-scrawled note (“Please submit other work to us–this is not our usual rejection letter”).

I haven’t heard back from 18 submissions (there’s that word again). 9 of those submissions were sent out 3 months (or longer) ago.

I’ve never done such large scale submission. It’s a lot better to cope with on this scale.

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