She also uses this final comments column to keep a record of the pieces accepted. These sheets, stapled together and labeled by year, are kept in manila folders along with the correspondence regarding each submission. Many writers have looked for ways to avoid writing down the title of every poem each time it's sent out. He keeps this list of numbers in the same notebook that contains the original, handwritten versions of the poems, where there is little chance it will get lost. Each time he sends a group poems to a magazine, he records the magazine's name next to the appropriate number.
Whiting tends to send out five or six poems at a time.
If a magazine accepts one or two poems, he'll sometimes simply add one or two new poems to the grouping. If magazine accepts several poems from a group, he's likely to merge the rejected poems with a few unaccepted poems from another group. This process makes resubmitting to magazines almost automatic, because editors often give a clue as to when they'd like to see work again. If he gets an encouraging note from an editor, he'll want to resubmit sooner. For other magazines he'll enter a question mark.