Oooooo Shiny.

So had a few things happen lately I wanted to share with you all.

First off I had an experience today I wanted to share with you all. In the whole process of submitting stories and trying to get published,we run into a lot of people. I mean seriously tons! And in all those interactions how do we come across? I know a few writers, thankfully few, that are so sure that their stuff is the ultimate creation of written language that they get angry at editors who reject their stuff. So much so that one or two have even sent angry letters to the editors. I've even run into this a little since helping with the acquisitions at Abandoned Towers.

DON'T DO THAT!

I'm serious if you ever get the urge to do that, write the rant in a document and then hit delete. It will only kill your chances of being published if you actually send it.

On the other hand if you are professional and courteous you can seriously stand out in the crowd. Take for example the something very small that happened to me today. I sent something to a fairly prominent magazine back in January. Hadn't heard anything from them since. So yesterday I wrote a little email, as politely and professionally as I could, asking what they thought of it or if they even received it.

Apparently the Internet gremlins struck again and they never got it. Oh well. No big, it happens in this electronic age of ours. The only real drawback is that this mag is temporarily closed to submissions. Bit of a let down there. But I sent a quick thank you note and figured that was that.

Then imagine my surprise when I checked my email and got a nice response back.

Some of you are probably asking so what? You sent emails, they never got it, and now you can't submit there for a good while. Where is the good little shiny bit in it?

Right here. That editor now knows me. Even if she forgets my name from now till the next time I can submit, when she sees my name now her mind will have a positive feeling about me. It's small. It's subtle. But I can now begin building on that and maybe, just maybe, it will help me crack that market.

Shiny little things my friends. We have to cling to them. Because not only do they give us hope in the rough patches, but they are the way to break into the market in a more permanent way.




The second bit has nothing whatsoever to do with the first. :-) (insert shameless plug) Abandoned Towers Magazine, of which yours truly is an editor, has a new website! Its beautiful! If you haven't already you should really drop by and check it out. Great stories, cool articles, and a background found by yours truly. How could you go wrong? ;-) And the new print issue came out this month. Its good. Seriously worth the money and you're getting all new stories not found online.

X Marks the Spot

You know when I started out I didn't understand exactly what a treasure hunt looking for a market can be. In my naivety I thought it was simple, write a brilliant story or book, send it out to the publisher of your choice and viola! A published manuscript would appear. :-) Ha I say, HA!

Any number of things can keep your brilliant piece from being accepted at one place or another. Maybe the imagery is too intense for that particular magazine, perhaps the brilliant plot twist you had was similar to one recently acquired by the magazine, maybe the thing just doesn't tickle the fancy of that particular editor that day. Heck maybe it just really isn't a good fit for that one magazine or anthology. Anything is possible.

But don't give up! For heavens sakes don't give up. For all the reasons that your story may not be accepted the same amount of things can get your piece accepted. then sometimes you look and look and just cant seem to find a market that fits your story. Good News! there are ALWAYS new markets coming around.

Case in point. I've wanted to write a story for a while now about someone with the same religious background as me in a purely speculative fiction setting. I haven't done it. Why? Because frankly the places I've seen that take speculative fiction generally frown on having religion as a core point in it. And the places that take the Religious stuff don't take speculative fiction. I thought it was a waste of my time to write it.

Then last night, looking at markets for a totally different story of mine, I ran across an anthology taking subs for EXACTLY that! I AM SO EXCITED!! I can't wait for another few hours to pass so I can tell a friend of mine who I know has been looking for something similar.

So don't give up. If something you have isn't getting accepted, keep polishing and keep looking. It's just a matter of time till you find that right market and get that acceptance letter. And share those markets my friends. If you've been looking for them then someone else has too. and if you dont already have these websites book marked I highly recomend doing it. Duotrope and Ralan's make market research so much easier.

Pass on the vinegar, PLEASE!

I've said before how you have to be several different people to be a writer. Sensitive, determined, and rhino hide all in one. There's one person though that you don't ever want to be, EVER! and that's the pissy negative one.

It's beneficial to be humble. It sure helps a lot when those rejection slips come in. But realizing you can improve your work and obsessing over the thought that it just isn't going to ever hack it are two TOTALLY different things. There are a lot of people writing out there. Thousands of folks scribble down ideas and send them into editors hoping to have those ideas ensconced in the immortal realm of published material. and you know what? Its true that there are people out there who never will be published. But if you're serious about wanting it, and willing to work hard and to learn, then you most likely will get published.

And when you're sending out your stuff, praying for it to join that ascended realm, remember that the world of publishers and editors is a small one. taking a pissy attitude of "my work is going to be published my way and I'll break any rules I want to!" will make it ten times more likely that you wont be published. Read the writers guidelines my friends. Then FOLLOW the guidelines!

I know it can be frustrating to trim your story or expand it or only send it to one publisher at a time. Heck no one ever accused me of being a patient person. :-) But like it or not editors have to allocate their time and they aren't just looking at your work or my work. They have lots of other writers too. Like the old saying goes You'll catch more flys with honey than vinegar. So pass on the vinegar, please?

That's Not Punny.

Well I have found out why they call what editors read through a slush pile.

Wow.

It's amazing the stuff that comes through. Now a lot of it is actually half way decent. Maybe the author just needs help in one or two areas, or maybe its a good story but just doesn't fit the magazine. But holy crow every once in a while you get one that just makes you scratch your head or want to vomit.

Now I'm learning that as far as writing goes there are rules that aren't rules but fads, there are rules that are rules and can't be broken, and then there are rules that should only be broken if you realize your doing it and doing it WELL.

I read something today that tried to fall into that third category and failed miserably. Take note. Bad puns are not enough to carry a story. Especially if the majority are crass and vulgar with no more reason to be in the story than to say a pun. If it doesn't progress the story toss it out.

So what about you all? Have you ever read anything that was utter slush? Or can you think of something that would be a perfect slush story? If I get a bunch of good replies I'll pick the best and get you a real slushie as a prize. :-)

It's easier to eat the steak...

As a writer you have got to be a number of different people.

When you write you have to be sensitive to convey emotions. When you research you have to be inquisitive and find all those cruitial bits of detail that bring your story to life. When you submit you have to be patient and accept it takes time for an editor to get back to you. And when you get critiqued you have to be a thick-skinned rhino ready to take whatever the critiquer has to say.

This last bit is crucial. more crucial I think than any other piece of the puzzle. Like I've said in earlier posts, if you only want to write for your grandkids then your good, go write whatever dribbles out of your pen and they'll be thrilled. But if you want to get published then you have to get other peoples opinion.

"But Wolf," you say "isn’t that what submitting to editors is for?"

The answer is not only a no, but a HECK NO! Their job is to see if you offered something that will make their magazine money. End of story. Now some very few will offer tips on what was wrong and tell you to send something back. But by and large the best place to get help polishing your craft and producing things that editors will want to buy is a good circle of critiquers.

I recently had an experience with a new critique circle. It has a good mix or writers at different stages so they'll give you a wide variety of input. Just what you, or at least I, want. There was one particular writer who is newer and submitted a piece for review. I hope this guy keeps writing. He has a great love of his subject matter and can really turn a phrase when he wants to. But he hasn’t gotten that rhino hide yet. The piece he submitted had some major flaws and some good points. Unfortunately when all the reviews came in saying the same thing. He took it personally and stormed out.

This bugs me. If your gonna be a writer you gotta learn not only to spot the flaws yourself but also be able to admit when someone else points it out.

Now does this mean you have to listen to every piece of advice given from a critiquer? No! For heaven sakes it's your story you can do with it what you will. But if you are hearing the same problem mentioned over and over again you may just want to fix it. Because an editor is sure to notice the same thing.

This whole scenario prompted me to say one of the few things I've ever considered truly wise.

"It's easier to eat the steak, when you actually cut the bull."

Readers want steak. they want the words of your story that are gonna connect with them and make them think even after they put down your story. That lovely little tidbit about Aunt Martha’s broach, bull. The vivid description of ancient forests and cascading waterfalls that doesn’t move your story forward, bull. And the detailed account of the third generation of cheese makers who make the best cheese in the state when the story has to do with alfalfa pellets, BULL!

So let's cut the bull and give our readers what they really want. Steak.

Good News and Upcoming Good Stuff

In some earlier posts I talked about why I thought I'd get published and set myself the goal of submitting pretty much every week. That was 3 weeks ago.

That first story I sent out, a steampunk story, was rejected. Not because of writing craft but because they had some similar stories within the last year and didn't want to revisit similar territory so soon. But they did ask for me to send more to them. A good sign I think.

And yet, as any starting writer would be, I was a bit crestfallen and was tempted to let it sit for awhile in a drawer. Thank heaven for good friends and ego. My friend Jean told me in her trollish way to get over it and get it out. And even more motivating I figured I couldn't very well face you, my readers, if I couldn't take my own advice and shoot it right back out.

So I did. And guess what happened? It didn't get rejected! I heard back from the main editor that she liked the premise of my story and was sending it on to her editing team. No it was not outright accepted, not yet, but this is forward progress. I'll take it!

So Maybe in a while you'll see a post of me doing the happy dance with my first acceptance letter. Guess we'll see. Until then I'm getting back to writing, you should too. ;-)

The Proof is in the Puddin'

OK folks here we go. The year has officially begun. Why you may ask? Did I not see the fireworks, hear the Newscasts and observe as the media as a whole pounced on the fact a new decade has begun?

Well of course I did. But now the year truly begins for me as a writer. I have just now, after hours of surfing different resource sites on the web, Submitted my first story of the year. HUZZAH!

The last few days I have been scribbling like mad on several new stories working on fleshing them out to a writable state. But I got tired of waiting! I want to see those words in print! So taking a deep breath I scoured the bottom of my hard drive and pulled out an old story that once got a kind rejection slip, actually looked at the story with fresh eyes and saw what the editor was talking about! The story is good but needed a little loving craft work.

So after a couple hours reworking and doing everything I can, it's done. Or at least as done as I can get it with my current skills. So off it goes to another pair of scrutinizing eyes to see if its good enough for their magazine.

Here's hoping. I'll know in the next 4-8 weeks whether this baby has a new home --and I have a nice check-- or if it got me another rejection slip and one step closer to getting it in print. And from now on I'm gonna do my darnedest to either submit one story or finish one rough draft every week!

Oh no, not the numbers game!

Alright so if you didn’t gather from my first post I am a writer of speculative fiction. Mainly I stick in SciFi and Fantasy--what I like to call Fanta-Sci-- but I do meddle in a little horror too. Right now I haven’t been published…Yet.

And that right there is one of the reasons I know I will eventually be published. A lot of things go into it. Anybody can write. And if your writing purely for your own enjoyment or to hand down stories to your kids in a dusty shoebox one day, GREAT! Your done. Write away as you are now and your good. But if your looking to actually get your words out in front of people then more than likely you have some work to do. First you’ve got to learn about the bones of the story, then how to fit all those pieces together with words, and then you have to edit it all so the ‘T’s are crossed and the ‘I’s are dotted and all that lovely punctuation is in its proper place. Fine any decent writing course or school will get you those eventually.

But then there’s the thing that turns a writer into an author. Sending it out. It scares the living bajeebus out of you. Or at least it does me. You wrap up your nice new baby and send it out to the dark mysterious land of editors. Congratulations you’ve just sent out your first story.

Then, after a few weeks or months, in comes a familiar beige envelope with their response. And guess what. It’s more than likely gonna say something akin to a soda pop cap. Sorry, Please play again. YAY! Now you’re an experienced writer. And you can do one of two things with your baby here. Either put it safely back in its drawer-- where no more unkind eyes will ever dare defile its splendor-- or you can get real, get serious, and get it back out there in the numbers game.

Believe me I hate to say that. I’ve developed a true hate for the numbers game as a whole, thanks in no small part to playing the numbers game door to door lugging a two ton vacuum cleaner along for the ride. But a cad’s a cad and if you want to be published you gotta play the game. Right now I have 3 frames in my office. One is full. It has my first rejection slip. The next will soon be filled with my first acceptance letter and a photocopy of a, hopefully large, very cashed check. And once that’s filled the last will hold my latest acceptance letter of many to come in my career. Hopefully they both get filled this year. I can't really control that. But what I can control is the fact that I’m going to be annoying editors as much as I can this year with as many good stories as I can pump out.

I’ll keep you posted.