I only recently tried a few e-mail submissions. I had a poem that I submitted via e-mail to an online magazine. I got a rejection 22 days later. That's a pretty fast turnaround there. But then I sent the poem out to the next market on my list, and it only took me about 5 minutes to review their guidelines and send them an e-mail. No making a printout, labeling an envelope, weighing the envelope...it's just done. Compared to a paper submission, it was super painless.
The other thing I've done that has helped me conquer the get-a-story-back-and-let-it-sit-in-your-files-festering problem, has been to choose the next market for a story right after I send it out. Before, I was trying to generate lists of five markets for a story, and that was tough. Now I just worry about choosing what the very next venue will be, so that when I get the story back, I can send it right out. I'm accumulating submissions, at least....I've done 11 this year so far.
Wow. I will have to touch base with you about this more at a later date. I have ideas for two more very short fiction pieces, around 1,000 words or so, and it would help to have some plan for where to send them.
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