Back into the Fray
After sitting and twiddling my thumbs for quite some time, I’ve decided to edit and resubmit “Jenny of Lebanon” to a few more publishers. Three to be exact. If they all say no, I know of only four other places that I can send her to, unless I cut her in half or write an additional 20,000+ words – neither of which I have any intentions of doing. Once I’ve exhausted those options, I’m going self-publish and be done with her. So, one way or another she’ll be available for you to read sometime in the near future. My greatest hope is that I get to do both.
Since I last posted, I withdrew “Jenny Kissed Me” from three magazines. They were all defunct. The way I see it, that’s three rejection letters I can’t get. 🙂 Woo hoo!
I had to query one place for “Jenny of Lebanon” because it’s been over a year and they still appear to be functioning. Not sure what’s going on. I’ll give them a few weeks to respond and then I’ll withdraw her from them, too.
I’ll keep y’all (hahaha, who’s still reading this ridiculous blog?) abreast! I hope I can become more active here in some way or another, too!
There are online forums where people will write critiques of your work. Usually you will be asked to criticise other people’s in return. Which you should go for depends on the genre you write in. A SF/Fantasy/Horror site might not be appropriate for a literary or romance writer. As I see you’ve submitted to Clarkesword and Tor (both really tough markets to get into), I’m guessing you write the former. Try http://www.critters.org.
As for the story you’ve been trying to get into literary journals, you’ll need to do your own research. Just make sure that the system is closed, i.e. you have to join and log in before getting access to the manuscripts. Posting to open forums will mess up your copyright position.
There are things that make writing objectively better, and there are things that make it more fashionable; unfortunately, unknown editorial needs (aka luck) will make or break acceptance for writer on the cusp, which is the reason for the ubiquitous advice — keep trying.
There are two ways to keep trying: keep sending the same story to different magazines, and keep writing new stories for the magazines you know. If one method isn’t working for you, you could always try the other.
It’s been a few months since you blogged, so I hope this is still of some use.
January 2, 2015 @ 6:13 AM