sehnsucht-and-euneirophrenia asked: How did you first get published and what was your experience like? I mean, actually finding out that something of yours was officially published.
Hey, when I was 18 I landed a thing in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. That was my first published piece of writing under my own name that wasn’t for like, a school paper or something. It’s a review of Diet Pepsi Jazz Strawberries and Cream, which is still online here: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-fifth-batch-2007
McSweeney’s submission instructions are somewhere on the site, so I just wrote a thingy, had a friend look it over, and then sent my piece in according to the instructions.
Man, I was pretty excited about getting a piece on that site! I listened to “Sing Songs Along” by Tilly and the Wall because it’s so upbeat, and because it was 2006. I thought my piece was going to be published during my college orientation week, and I was excited because I thought people might ask me about it. That is totally not how you make friends in college!
