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Submissions, Paper and Not
Jun. 4th, 2009 12:24 amMy friends are laughing at me.
It all started when I admitted, at dinner with an awesome Wiscon crowd, that I'm reluctant to mail in paper submissions. (That report is here.)
When I told my Clarion friends, they were even more amused.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redcrowkater had gotten some nice picture postcards and was showing them to us. Mid-sentence, she paused, held one up for me, and turned it over. "See, you can stick a stamp here, and mail it. One less step. You don't even need to look for an envelope..." (Kater likes paper. She write in fountain pen, and it looks elegant.)
So, time to defend myself. A little bit, anyway.
My theory is that to some extent, submissions are a numbers game.
The recommended submission process is to start at the top (i.e. the magazines that pay the most) and work down as the story is rejected. After all, if you don't submit, how do you know that, say, Asimov's wouldn't have taken your story?
I don't do this.
( Why I don't... )
With e-subs, it's relatively painless. I send them out. They come back. I review the thing, see if there's another magazine it would be good for. If yes, out it goes again, probably at midnight or later. No envelopes, no stamps, no trip to mailbox. And from time to time, what's in my in-box is ... they want my story.
Today, Big Pulp accepted my 1000-word story, The Scent Assassin.
And my Clarion classmate informed me yesterday that the short film he made, based on my story The Rumpelstiltskin Retellings, will be screened in San Francisco this weekend.
It all started when I admitted, at dinner with an awesome Wiscon crowd, that I'm reluctant to mail in paper submissions. (That report is here.)
When I told my Clarion friends, they were even more amused.
redcrowkater had gotten some nice picture postcards and was showing them to us. Mid-sentence, she paused, held one up for me, and turned it over. "See, you can stick a stamp here, and mail it. One less step. You don't even need to look for an envelope..." (Kater likes paper. She write in fountain pen, and it looks elegant.)So, time to defend myself. A little bit, anyway.
My theory is that to some extent, submissions are a numbers game.
The recommended submission process is to start at the top (i.e. the magazines that pay the most) and work down as the story is rejected. After all, if you don't submit, how do you know that, say, Asimov's wouldn't have taken your story?
I don't do this.
( Why I don't... )
With e-subs, it's relatively painless. I send them out. They come back. I review the thing, see if there's another magazine it would be good for. If yes, out it goes again, probably at midnight or later. No envelopes, no stamps, no trip to mailbox. And from time to time, what's in my in-box is ... they want my story.
Today, Big Pulp accepted my 1000-word story, The Scent Assassin.
And my Clarion classmate informed me yesterday that the short film he made, based on my story The Rumpelstiltskin Retellings, will be screened in San Francisco this weekend.
