I got a chance to read the new Poets & Writers, which is about contest-entering. I circled some contests, and this time I've gotten so far as to look into the work each publisher puts out. A lot of them I have to buy, and I was stuck in the conundrum of that basically doubling how much cash I'll have to invest in this venture (the first half being reading fees). And then I noticed that one of the publishers sells through Barnes & Noble, and it was like a lightbulb. I have a Barnes & Noble card leftover from Christmas with more than enough cash on it to cover three publishers' worth of work. So I only had to spend $8 of my own money on one publisher that doesn't sell through B&N.
Also I got to 39%!
