For anyone who hasn’t stumbled across the theory on marrying rich before, the basic idea is that you can find more than one nice, intelligent, attractive partner to marry, so why not find someone who is all of those things and well-to-do to boot.  (There are many reasons, actually, but this is my grandma’s generation we’re talking about and the whole “feeling alienated from your surroundings for all of eternity” explanation just doesn’t seem to make any sense to them.  Same issue with quitting a job that pays well because you don’t like it.  “But, it pays well.  Why would you quit?”  “Gee, because it makes me a horrible person?  Who’s not nice or happy?”  But I digress…)

So, anyway.  I think this same “might as well marry rich” theory applies to submitting your writing.  If you think you’ve written a story that someone else should read, then why wouldn’t you try the top markets first?  Why not aim for the best pay rate you can find?  Or the most prestigious market?

Now, you have to understand that I’m saying this as general self-esteem advice.  As in, don’t sell yourself short.  Don’t submit to lower tier markets because you don’t think you’re good enough for the bigger markets.  So what if you’re new?  You could be brilliant.  Writers are terrible judges of their own work (or so I’ve heard).  The only way you’ll know if you can get into the top markets is if you submit to them.  If you don’t submit to a top market, you’ll never get accepted by one.

On the non self-esteem front there are lots of reasons to submit elsewhere.  Not everyone would be happy with a Big 6 publisher.  Not everyone would be happy with a big name agent.  That’s ok.  But if you think you could be happy with a Big 6 publisher or a big name agent, then why oh why would you submit to everyone else before you tried for them?

It’s like college applications.  If you want to go to Harvard and have the test scores and grades to do it, then why not apply?  Aim high first not second.

And since this is a short post, I give you a photo.  It’s from Greece.  (I may not be debt free, but at least I’ve seen a bit of the world…)