05.15.2007
So, as I said in Thoughts On Sci-Fi, I've been writing a little Sci-Fi lately. Since July 2006, I've managed to complete 14 stories for a word count of 58,000 words. I've also written a 50,000 word history for the world I've created and have a 10MB Excel spreadsheet filled with more useless facts and figures than anyone would ever care to know. (For instance, would you care to know the planetary tax rates and revenue along with unemployment and population growth rates for about forty years? No? Who would have guessed...)
All of this has actually been fun to do. What hasn't been fun is sending the little bastards out only to have an editor scrawl across my cover letter "Rejected!"
Truth be told, they're actually much nicer than that.
Not that it stings any less.
But I've got skin like a leather faced cowboy. So I keep on mailing those suckers out hoping that, like a retarded kid selling school chocolate, eventually someone might take pity on me and buy something.
So, for my reader's gratification, I shall begin logging all of my rejections so my shame can be complete... and public. But here are the rules:
- All of the rejections will be from paying markets. Sure, I guess I could get a big fat "no" from non-payers too but this is about actually trying to make it as a writer, not impress my friends... (Well... I guess impress them by having a writing career, but whatever.) So I don't want to get any email from people telling me that I could be published on their homepage if I wanted. I don't. These are rejections from people who are paid to reject people.
- I won't be posting any of the rejection letters or the editor's names. That's cheap. It's tacky. And while that sounds exactly like me, believe it or not, I believe in at least the appearance of professionalism.
- The above rule won't apply if they say something nice about me. I still won't name them but I'll use a short excerpt so everyone can see that I'm not a complete hack.
- I will post the market - read: magazine - I was rejected from and the time it took them to get around to setting my manuscript on fire. This is more for informational purposes than anything else. So that you can feel how long it took them along with me.
- I won't be posting any of the stories until they've completely run out of gas and I don't think that I've got a shot in hell of placing them anywhere. Sorry, but, like I said, this is about getting paid.
- UPDATED - When I post about a market rejecting me, this isn't a request for a letter writing campaign on my behalf. While the support would be great the hope is to make it on my own merits. Should any of my readers feel so inclined to do such a thing, send it to me instead. I'll read it, nod my head, and find myself remarking at the amazing and well thought out logic. But do not send it to any of the magazines I post about.
I reserve the right to change any of these rules at any time. But this is just to get going.
Yours dearest,
- Colin