Submit to, Yikes, What?

Submit -- Makes me think of the dog whisperer teaching that the master’s job is to keep the dog in a state of calm submission. The dog will be happier that way and well behaved. The people around it will obviously be happier, although not necessarily well behaved. That seems right, that an animal be submissive to a human, doesn’t it?
Submit -- Makes me think of submitting my Jaguar Sees manuscript to agents and the rejections, oh, the rejections I got back. Some of them were simple form e-mails. Some were more difficult to interpret, like, your writing is really good; the characters are well-developed and the dialog believable; the plot moves well, but I don’t want to represent your book. What was I supposed to make of that? And what’s the good of submitting if people like it but still don’t want it?

Submit --  Makes me think of myself in whip, shiny black boots and my 25-year-old body, tapping shiny black boots and . . . hmmm, never mind.

Let’s face it, the word Submit is a little intimidating. It means you have to give something up, allow someone to dominate you, have control. Now explain to me why it is that what they chose to write to the top right of my Blog screen?

I remember a couple of weeks ago filling out a dialog box that would allow my readers (those are lovely words; let me write them again: “my readers”) to receive an e-mail notification when I blogged. Some of them (my readers, that is – see? I got it in again.) had requested such notification. I filled out the form and then, well, as far as I could tell, nothing.

Last week I noticed that word up on the right, Submit. I thought it a little strange. Where did it come from? What did it mean? What was I supposed to submit to? I took a deep breath and grew bold. I pointed and clicked.

Surprise! It was the result of the form I’d filled out. Readers can click on it and subscribe to receive a notification e-mail when I post. How simple. How easy. How confusing. Couldn’t it have read, “E-mail notification”? or “Sign up”? or anything less scary? I guess not.

So if you enjoy what you read here, or know me and like me, or would like to stroke my ego, just go to the top right of the screen here and click on Submit. I promise to keep the boots in the closet.