WordHustler 101: Submissions Made Simple
WordHustler is designed to be simple and efficient…like a riding a bike. Once you’ve got the submission process down, you’ll fly. To that end, we’d like to walk you through our suggestions for optimizing the site and making the most of your WordHustling!
As an overview, you need to remember that getting published in a numbers game. The more work you send out, the more your chances of publishing success increase. To that end, we encourage everyone to follow the Rule of Ten: keep ten submissions out and in play at all times.
When you hear back from a market, record your results and submit to another market. Trust us, do this enough times and it’s very likely you’ll get published.
How To Make the Most of WordHustler:
1. Sign up for an account. If you are an International Customer, be sure you sign up using the International Edition.
2. Sign into WordHustler and go to your Account, where you can create or upload your signature, sign up for our Digital Submission System, and more (More info on the Digital Submission System below, see #10).
3. Go to your HustleFolio and to begin uploading your projects. If you’d like some help figuring out how to forma
t your manuscript, check out this helpful formatting article HERE. Once you’re ready to upload, hit the blue “Upload Project” button. You will be transported to the Uploader Page, where you will find a list of the project types you can upload and how to get help if you need to convert to PDF.
Hit the blue “Upload Project” button and choose the project you want to upload from your computer. While your file is uploading, feel free to enter the project name, a brief description, and even tags if you’d like. Then choose what kind of project it is from the drop down menu. When you have finished, hit the blue “Save” button.
If your file needs to be converted to PDF, you will be walked through the simple PDF conversion process. Make sure to preview your document to make sure it looks the way you like, then hit “Save Project” and your project will be added to your Hustlefolio. That’s it- you’re ready to move on!
4. Next you’ll want to compose some cover letters. Go to your Dashboard and scroll down to the section that says “My Letters.” Press the “Create Cover Letter” button to create a new cover or query letter. If you’d like some help figuring out cover and query letters, check out our Cover Letter Clinic.
When composing your cover letters, please be aware you need only to compose the BODY of the cover letter, as our system automatically inserts the market contact info as well as your own when you submit to markets. You will also want to give your letter a distinct title so that you may recognize it when you are attaching it to your project.
5. Next you’ll want to go to our Markets pages to search for publications, agents, publishers, and contests to send your work to. We recommend using our Advanced Submission Wizard to help you narrow down the over 4,500 markets, or you can search by using Search Controls to the right of the listings. Use the slide bar to view 10 markets a page, or as many as 200 a page.
Enter specific tags you want included or excluded, or press any tag in our tag cloud if you have specific genres you are looking for.
You can also use the search box to do a deep search. Start typing the market name or even a word in its name and the search engine will auto-fill in any matching names. This goes one step deeper on the Agents page. Know the name of an agent but not sure what agency they’re at? Love that author but don’t know who reps them? Simply type the name in the search box and our search engine will pull up any market that connects with them.
Each market has its own page on WordHustler, which can be accessed by clicking on either the 
market’s name or the “Submit Work” button. Besides learning details about the market on their page, you will also see a section called “More Markets Like This,” where we’ve used a unique algorithm to find similar markets for you to also consider submitting to.
6. While you’re browsing the markets, we recommend putting any market that interests you into your Wishlist by clicking the “Add to Wishlist” button. This way you’ll have a running list of markets you like that are all in the same place. You can even organize your Wishlist by assigning unique tags for each market. The little yellow star in the upper, right-hand corner of the screen tells you how many markets are in your WishList.
7. When you are ready to submit work, go to the market you want to submit to and press the “Submit Work” button.
Once on that market’s specific page, press the “Submit Work” button once more and our new and improved Submission Wizard will walk you through all the steps you need to complete to send work. Here you will select which manuscripts to send (you can always attach clips from your computer), how many pages to send, and which cover letter to use (if you need to compose one here on the fly, you can and it will be saved in your Cover Letter folder for future use).
Always preview your cover letter to make sure it looks as good as it can. Next you can select the recipient, attach any clips or extra material, and add any additional fees. After adding a Reply Card (a postcard the market drops in the mail to let you know they’ve received your project) or Virtual Office (where WordHustler handles the phyiscal correspondence and emails you your results). Make sure to preview your submission.
8. Once you have finished filling everything out, your project will move into your Queue, which is like the shopping cart. From here, you’ll have the option of checking out and paying for the project, or continuing to browse markets and adding things to the Queue.
9. Once you’ve got all your submissions in your Queue, you can pay through PayPal or with a credit card, and that’s it! You can go to your Dashboard to keep track of your projects, track how long they’ve been out, and update their status once you hear back from the market. Also, feel free to visit WordHustlerInk to read some great columns about writing query letters, book proposals, interviews with agents, and more!
10. DIGITAL SUBMISSION SYSTEM: So the above instructions will get you started with your physical submissions, but what about markets who request submissions via email? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered there as well.
For only$5.99/month, you can find markets and email contact info, submit your work via your own email address, and have everything tracked in your WordHustler Dashboard.
To get started, simply go into your “My Account” page and click on the blue “Digital Submission Membership” link and sign up for the system.
The way the system works is simple:
a. Once your Digital Membership is activated, each market page will display email addresses for agents, editors, etc who accept email submissions.
b. On the Market page, click the email address of the person you’d like to submit to. This will open your default mail program — if it doesn’t, just copy and paste the email address into your email program or web browser.
c. Enter Tracking@WordHustler.com into the BCC, or Blind Carbon Copy, address field. If you need helping finding this field on your email browser, please email Support@WordHustler.com.
d. Prepare your submission according to the specific market guidelines listed on the market’s page- for example, some markets want a query and the first five pages pasted into the body of the email, some want the entire manuscript sent as an attachment. CAREFULLY READ each specific market’s guidelines on their market page.
e. SEND your email.
That’s it! Your submission will now be sent and best of all, will be tracked in your WordHustler Dashboard using our organized tracking technology. You are free to customize the title of your submission in your Dashboard, and can now reference how long the submission has been out and what materials you’ve sent. The emails themselves, as well as any attachments, are visible and downloadable in your Dashboard.
IMPORTANT NOTES FOR THE DIGITAL SUB. SYSTEM:
1. IMPORTANT: You must send your queries from the email address you registered for WordHustler with. If you aren’t sure which email address you used, please look in the “My Account” section.
2. You can track any email correspondence you want through our system. You are not limited to markets we have listed. For example, if you are sending a project to a friend and want to track it in your Dashboard, simply add “Tracking@WordHuslter.com” in the BCC field of your email and the project will appear in your Dashboard.
3. YOU are responsible for adding “Tracking@WordHustler.com” to the BCC field of your outgoing email submissions. Make sure you use the BCC FIELD. Some email clients don’t automatically display BCC as an option until you click “Add BCC”. If you need help using BCC, please email Support@WordHustler.com.
4. If you forget to BCC “Tracking@WordHustler.com” in your email submission, you can resend or forward the email to “Tracking@WordHustler.com” directly (don’t resend it to the market you are submitting to) and it will appear in your Dashboard.
5. You will be able to view and download all digital correspondence you send from your Dashboard- even attachments.
6. IMPORTANT - EMAILS MUST BE IN PLAIN TEXT. Fancy backgrounds, wild fonts, icons, pictures, etc will cause your submission to be rejected by both our system and most markets.
7. It’s also a good idea to make sure the address you are querying is properly entered into your email address book so the market’s response doesn’t go into your Spam folder.
8. Please email all questions and feedback to Support@WordHustler.com.
That’s it. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it WORKS. So what are you waiting for? Time to get started on that road to publishing success today! Good luck and keep on Hustlin!
