The Year of Submission
A review of my failed attempt to achieve total media domination
This time last year I mentioned that I wanted to contribute to other publications. In private, I called it my Year of Submission. The plan was to submit one pitch a week and see what happened.
Well, what happens is that sometimes they get accepted and you have to write them which takes lots of time. On top of doing my day job and writing this blog, I felt rather stretched.1 To reduce workload, any failed efforts were recycled here.
Initially, the submissions were supposed to be articles, but they soon diversified into talks, photography, and even music.
Here is a chronological list of those submissions:
5 January
Pitched a review of Elizabeth Price’s show at GoMA, which was accepted by the art and architecture magazine, Recessed Space.
12 January
Inspired by what was then the hot new thing — chatGPT — I submitted a parody of a bot to 2HB. My submission was rejected so I republished it here.
19 January
Proposed a text about psychogeography to Crumble Magazine. This was accepted and was published in a physical magazine in September. Here is an edited version.
25 January
I emailed Andy Irvine to see if I could speak about The Photographer’s Eye at 5Things. I could and the talk happened in April.
1 February 2023
UX Glasgow did an event on Side Projects and I contributed an introduction.
8 February
Pitched a review of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale to OutsideLeft magazine. This was published under the title: What Good Does It Do Us To Confront Despair?
16 February
Emailed The Skinny about writing short reviews about films in the Glasgow Film Festival but heard nothing back. More persistence needed perhaps?
16 February
Emailed Calum Sutherland, editor of Nothing Personal, suggesting a piece about the difference between the performance art world and the fine art world. Unfortunately, the magazine is currently on hiatus so I posted it here.
17 February
Emailed MAP magazine to see if they were interested in my review of Colin Grey’s show at StreetLevel Photoworks. MAP commission texts and are not set up for submissions so were unenthusiastic.
21 March
I submitted an experimental remix of David Bowie’s Please Mr Gravedigger to Radiophrenia, a temporary art radio station. It was accepted and was broadcast live. Hear it on Bandcamp.
27 April
Lisette May Monroe told me the Frieze New Writers programme had been helpful for her art writing career. I submitted a review of Andrew Sim’s Modern Institute show but I did not get picked.
15 May
I learned of the Film and Video Umbrella from a symposium years ago. I proposed to write about Jamie Crewe’s False Wife for its Michael O’Pray Prize but was not successful.
24 May
After helping them with their website, I proposed a review of the new Maria Fusco book for Glasgow Review of Books. Unbeknownst to me they had been deluged with submissions, so I posted it here.
9 June
Kat Husbands and I ran a workshop about Communities of Practice at UX Scotland. This was kind of a submission, right?
13 June
I had a vague goal to submit to a different venue each week, but when the opportunity came to review Monster Chetwynd’s show at Mount Stuart I happily got in touch with Recessed Space again.
12 July
The man who writes Karlstack asked people on Twitter to respond to Elon Musk’s banning of Substack links. I wrote a quick paragraph but don’t think it ever appeared anywhere.
1 August
While I was disorientated on holiday, I wrote a review of Margaret Mitchell’s show at Street Level Photoworks as a submission for the Source Writing Prize. It did not win.
26 August
I almost didn’t do any podcasts this year. However, Heghoulian invited me to be on Dain Fitzgerald‘s YouTube to speak with the two of them and Tinakins about literature and film. It was fun.
30 August
Greater Govanhill magazine asked people to submit culture reviews and published my review of Mrs S in their November issue.
1 September
In a sign that I was scraping the barrel, I created social media accounts on Goodreads, Letterboxd, and LinkedIn. I saw this as a form of submission to contemporary forms of networking, but did the bare minimum on these platforms and pretty much abandoned them. Maybe next year.
1 December
After being impressed by the exhibition of Cafe Royal Books at Stills Gallery, I wondered if they would be interested in publishing a zine of my photos of 2012 Orange Walk. I have yet to hear back from them.
The year of submission was a failure on its own terms, but was a success in overcoming the fear of rejection. The main outcome is that I want to consolidate my energy next year and focus on one thing. I will announce what that is next Sunday.
I’m reminded of this bit in Money by Martin Amis:
‘His father died at fifty-one. On a diet for five years, he just got fatter. Then they found out he was eating his diet and his normal food. What he put away you wouldn't want to think about. When Eva came back she hid his teeth, but he splodged it all up and ate it anyway.’
Jesus Joseph and Mary. I'm both blown away by your persistence and diversity, and sickened at how I've obviously wasted my life. Amazing year.
Well done on the efforts and look forward to hearing about your new endeavour! Gx