When I first started submitting my work for publication about twenty-five years ago, I’d already read enough about the process of becoming a writer that I expected a very tough road. I was also thoroughly confident that I was a genius, and this would guarantee my success if I just worked my ass off. I therefore became a fiction factory. I sat down and wrote 3-5 short stories a week, and submitted each and every one of them for publication. I virtually never wrote anything I didn’t finish, and I never tried to write longer works. I stuck with weird fiction — fantasy and science fiction with macabre and New Wave overtones — because that was what I read. (more…)
Posts in the "Submissions" Category
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I know they say that you need to get used to rejection in publishing and that’s a very noble goal, but here’s the problem: Rejection just isn’t my thing.
I had no experience with it before I start submitting stuff for publication. I tend to get what I want. Or at least, I don’t remember getting rejected before, so I might have been and just not cared. I went to A&M on full scholarship. My success in sports or games approximately equals the effort I put in i.e. I’m usually as successful as I feel like being. I’ve never even been dumped. I am aware that this makes me a lucky jerk. Hey, somebody has to be.
So I thought rejection would be an interesting learning experience. So far, not so much. (more…)
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The cover painting for SOUTHERN GODS
Here’s the deal about the Thursday blog – by the time my turn has come round at last, all the grounds have been well trod. There’s not much I can add to what Courtney, Kameron, Stina, and Bradley have already written about the trials of publishing. Completed your novel? Check. Landed an agent? Check. Submitted to publishers? Check. Received rejections? Check. Felt bad about rejections? Check.
You got it. Repeat the last three over and over until the cycle breaks. On a side note, while I’m not 100% on this, I do my damnedest to never talk about publishing rejections or failures publicly in any kind of detail more than, “Hey, I’ve got a stack of rejections. Hell no, you can’t see them.”
A couple of reasons for this. First, publishers Google you when you or your agent submit. I figure the last thing they want to see is a list of people who have ALREADY crapped on your book. The second to last thing they want to see is you WHINING ABOUT IT. (more…)
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Submitting your work. Wow. Have a minute?Ask any author and you’re going to get a different story from each one about what it’s like to submit, and submit, and submit, sometimes feeling success, but most often feeling down and alone and like you’re beating a wall of nails with your fists.
The submission process is a real killer. I remember some of those early subs, both for novels (my first submissions anywhere) and short stories (the most numerous of my submissions). I was so full of hope then, and man did those first few rejections suck.
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This week’s topic is a bit of a challenge. What to say that Courtney hasn’t already expressed so well? Landing an agent isn’t a great big sign that drops out of the sky that reads, “And they lived happily ever after. The End.” The thing to keep in mind is that this is life, not the movies, and life is about the journey, not the destination. So, you’d better love the writing life with all its ups and downs because there’s never a point where you’re guaranteed success. Even published authors get rejections. However, the moment you get your first agent is the moment when the rubber hits the asphalt. This is when you find out whether or not your work is marketable and whether or not you’ve made a good business decision regarding the agent you chose because getting an agent — even a big name agent — doesn’t necessarily mean the manuscript will sell. It means you’ve passed the first gatekeeper. That’s it. Yes, that’s an accomplishment in and of itself worth celebrating… just like it’s important for Sarah in the film Labyrinth to actually find the entrance into the maze, but we all know that isn’t the end of the dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. This maze is where you learn that being a professional writer isn’t much different than what you go through at the start of your career only the stakes are higher. -
I’ve been writing and submitting stories for something like fifteen years. As this video attests, fifteen years of rejection slips is a lot (and those are just the paper ones. Add electronics subs and you’re looking at closer to 100).
Rejection is just a part of the game. And don’t be mistaken: it is a game. And the sooner you start to think of it as a game, the more sane you’ll be. (more…)
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When I first tried to learn about the strange world of publishing, I found vast amounts of information on the internet about how to get an agent – and very little on what happens once you’ve jumped that hurdle. Most of what I did find could be summed up in a single sentence: the agent submits to publishers for you, and hopefully somebody decides to buy your book. The end, Amen.But oh my friends, that’s like the famous summation of skiing in the movie Better Off Dead: “Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn.” True enough, but it sure glosses over the details…and sometimes those details are man-eating moguls. (more…)
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