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AMcCarter
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 765
Location: Tulsa, OK
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 Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 8:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Prisoner wrote: | Good story Brad. My takeaway is that the author is in no position to judge a work. Send it out. Don't think. I've bled over stories a year ago that my crit group says aren't as good as stories that flowed out of my fingers just having fun lately.
17 years? I've been at this maybe 2½. I have four rejects and three honorable mentions. Can I get there? Maybe. But I get discouraged too.
Prisoner |
I think a lot of it is persistance. You have got to keep trying, no matter what. Once editors see you've been around the block a few times and you aren't fading out like the proverbial fart in the wind, they're more likely to buy your work. I know we keep quoting good ole Uncle Dean Smith, but he's pointed out several times that publishers, editors, what have you, want an author that will make them money eventually. Sooner rather than later if possible. That, I'm guessing, is where the 100 rejection estimate comes from.
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Amanda McCarter
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Brandlepack
Joined: 30 Jul 2008
Posts: 67
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| Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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I just sold my first pro story. Funny thing is that it was a sale to a literary market - not genre. Maybe I've been writing the wrong kind of fiction all along.
In any event, two more and I pro-out. |
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Alastair
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 556
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Brandlepack wrote: | | I just sold my first pro story. |
 Congratulations!
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AMcCarter
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 765
Location: Tulsa, OK
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:40 am Post subject: |
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w00t w00t! WTG!
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Amanda McCarter
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Brad R. Torgersen
Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Posts: 1337
Location: Wasatch Front, United States, Planet Earth, Sol System
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:17 am Post subject: |
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| Brandlepack wrote: | I just sold my first pro story. Funny thing is that it was a sale to a literary market - not genre. Maybe I've been writing the wrong kind of fiction all along.
In any event, two more and I pro-out. |
Confetti, confetti! Which market?
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Winner, WOTF vol. XXVI & Analog SF author.
My web site. My writer blog. |
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Prisoner
Joined: 06 Feb 2008
Posts: 476
Location: Metro Boston
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Jeff wrote: | Don't get too discouraged. I read some of your stuff on RayGun. You're pretty good. A heck of a lot better than I was when I was a 2-1/2 year old.  I've been at this about fifteen years now. Clearly Brad and I are slow learners. |
Thanks, Jeff.
I still think that 'quality' is in the eye of the beholder. I read the pros for a sense of what sells and can't for the life of me imagine picking those particular stories, usually. Then, I look at the bios of the successful submitters and it's clear to me that the credentialed people have a crushing advantage over a great ms by an unknown.
That's why I love the blind submission process here. Keeps them honest.
Prisoner
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M. Wimmer
Joined: 05 Feb 2009
Posts: 202
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the story, Brad. I'd be scared to take the call while driving, cause I'd forget I was driving and drive off a mountain or somehting, probably screaming "YES!" all the way down. But, then, I don't have a cell phone.
The main point I learned from your story is that expectation has nothing to do with whether you win or not. What you think is your worst entry could win and your best story could get a reject. |
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Jeff
Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 212
Location: New York
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah Prisoner - it's never blind with the magazines. But they do have a business to run, and if they can put the name of a famous person on their cover, then they sell many many more copies. The public wants comfort food, and if they recognize the name of the author they gravitate to the magazine. Human nature.
I know a couple of people in the biz, and they tell me that they'll get random stories out of the blue from big authors, and they immediately bump a story in the issue in favor of that story. Sure they want quality and they'd love to help young writers, but they're stuggling to stay in business and so they do what works. What really burns them up is when they get a mediocre story from a big name, and they have to struggle with the decision to run it or not. They don't want to alienate the big name and they know it'll help the magazine's sales in the short run, but then the overall quality suffers.
I don't buy too many of the big magazines anymore. I've just found that I'll read all the way through and every single story will leave me sort of like "Eh". I don't have a lot of time, so if I'm gonna read short stories, I want to be wowwed. I stick to reading anthologies.
As for you, you may find that there are niche on-line magazines that are a perfect fit for your writing style, while the big three aren't. The niche magazines are usually run on a shoe-string budget and have low overhead, so they can afford to take more chances and devote themselves to a small, devoted fan-base.
Also - everyone here should keep track of John Joseph Adams' anthologies. He often devotes about half of his page-space to big names and previously published stories, and the other half he throws wide open to all comers and publishes on quality alone. |
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AMcCarter
Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 765
Location: Tulsa, OK
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:54 pm Post subject: |
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Every now and then, I'll read a story in one of the big three that floors me. One recently, called "Green Shift" by Mary Rosenblum really amazed me. And then I found out she had a novel based on it called Horizons. I love it when they get good quality stories. Then they get really awful stink bombs where I just look at it and go wtf? How did this piece of garbage make it past the editor?
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Amanda McCarter
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Corbin Maxwell
Joined: 14 Dec 2007
Posts: 135
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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Has anybody ever received a rejection slip from Stephen Mazur, editorial assistant, over at F&SF?
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Just simply care about things and people and be more appreciative. Life is pretty damn good, even when it looks bad, and we should appreciate it more. We should be grateful. |
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Brad R. Torgersen
Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Posts: 1337
Location: Wasatch Front, United States, Planet Earth, Sol System
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Corbin Maxwell wrote: | | Has anybody ever received a rejection slip from Stephen Mazur, editorial assistant, over at F&SF? |
Yes, I just got one this week.
He's Gordon's new slush surfer.
EDIT TO ADD: I still fondly remember "Arkfall" by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Damn, that was a good novelette. I read it in F&SF in 2008 and was like, whoa, this is the kind of thing that I'd love to be able to write. My piece I put in for Q1 and that sold to Analog was partially inspired by -- but doesn't mimic in any way -- "Arkfall."
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Corbin Maxwell
Joined: 14 Dec 2007
Posts: 135
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Brad R. Torgersen wrote: | | Corbin Maxwell wrote: | | Has anybody ever received a rejection slip from Stephen Mazur, editorial assistant, over at F&SF? |
Yes, I just got one this week.
He's Gordon's new slush surfer.
EDIT TO ADD: I still fondly remember "Arkfall" by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Damn, that was a good novelette. I read it in F&SF in 2008 and was like, whoa, this is the kind of thing that I'd love to be able to write. My piece I put in for Q1 and that sold to Analog was partially inspired by -- but doesn't mimic in any way -- "Arkfall." |
So he took the place of John Adams? I wonder why he uses the title, Editorial Assistant, instead of assistant editor.
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Just simply care about things and people and be more appreciative. Life is pretty damn good, even when it looks bad, and we should appreciate it more. We should be grateful. |
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Brad R. Torgersen
Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Posts: 1337
Location: Wasatch Front, United States, Planet Earth, Sol System
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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I imagine "editorial assistant" is code for slush surfer.
Assistant Editor carries a lot more weight? (grin)
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Winner, WOTF vol. XXVI & Analog SF author.
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Jeff
Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 212
Location: New York
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| Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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I accidentally called myself the Assistant Manager at an old job when I answered the phone. My boss jumped all over me. I was the Manager's Assistant, not the Assistant Manager.
Apparently Manager's Assistant is a gopher. Assistant Manager is a managerial title, due bonuses and stock options, etc.
Oh - in the ongoing saga of this job. We're due for a snow day tomorrow. Twelve to Eighteen inches with 40 mph winds. The president just sent around an email saying he knew it would be difficult to come in tomorrow and we shouldn't put ourselves in danger. He would give us until next Friday, Feb 19th, to make up our missed 8 hours by working late. I had to laugh. We've never closed the office in the ten years I've been here. We did close a few hours early on 9-11 because everyone was huddled around a radio and the president decided we weren't getting any work done anyway, so we should go to the Red Cross blood bank instead. |
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skadder
Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 162
Location: uk
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| Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:07 am Post subject: |
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I wonder if finalists have had the call yet, but aren't allowed to say...
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