Submission Regret

Have you ever had submission regret?

Recently, I had debated writing and submitting a story for an open submission.  I basically blew it off until a notice was posted that only five days remained.  I decided, at that point, to conjure something up and submit.  I wrote about 200 words, then put it off again.  With only one day left, I picked it up and finished.

The next day, I quickly read through it and emailed it in.  After I hit send, a wave of regret overcame me.  I had only proofread quickly, completed no edits and submitted.  I am proud of the subject matter and concept, but feel that I have let myself down.  Worse though, I feel like I let the publisher down.

Sure it was an open call, and I did not have to submit, but I did.  Now, I feel that I wasted the publishers time by submitting to them.  The only plus side is that I have an idea for a collection of stories that I can hopefully publish after revisiting my rejected submissions.