A Year - Waiting For Disappointment
Waiting, disappointment, and rejection are all part of being a writer. We all feel the sting multiple times and I'm no exception. I just waited a year to find out the press I sent my short story collection to is going to close their doors. Honestly, I'm more upset about waiting a year for no real response (an actual rejection when they knew my collection wasn't going to be published would have been nice) and finding out the press was gone. I don't really have any hard feelings against anyone - the press was owned by a friend - I'm just upset about the wasted time. My time. I could have sent the collection somewhere else, or done something else with some of the stories... Instead, I waited, hearing nothing but silence, hoping to get good news that never came. I even queried with no response.
A year might seem like a long time, but it's kinda a norm in writing. Heck, we can get accepted in two weeks to a month and still have to wait a year or two for a book to see print - that's just the way the publishing world is. The waiting, though, that's a killer. It's even worse when you've waited that long and you get a negative response. The only way I've found to deal well with the "waiting game" is to keep writing and submitting. It enables me to keep my mind off the time while I'm busy doling out more of my stories. Plus, with more stories out in circulation, the more chances I have of getting an acceptance.
Now that I know my collection isn't going to be accepted and published (by that press), I'm looking around at other markets for it. Some friends on Facebook posted a couple for me to check out that appear promising. I've gone through my collection and stripped it down to all original stories - since some places won't take reprints - and am reading through it to find any mistakes I previously missed and possibly expand the stories more before sending it back out into the world.
One of the reprints it contained, I'm going to put on Amazon for about a dollar. The story is entitled, "Hall of Twelve," and is one of my all time favs that I've written; its also a strong fav of fans of my work. The story has been expanded since its printing in an anthology a couple years ago, so even if you have read it before, you might want to try it out again.
Who knows... Since I have some time off coming up, I might write a new story or two to include in my submission with a new place. I hope this time that I'll get an answer before a year has gone by!
Copyrights owned by Rebecca Besser, 2013. All rights reserved.
A year might seem like a long time, but it's kinda a norm in writing. Heck, we can get accepted in two weeks to a month and still have to wait a year or two for a book to see print - that's just the way the publishing world is. The waiting, though, that's a killer. It's even worse when you've waited that long and you get a negative response. The only way I've found to deal well with the "waiting game" is to keep writing and submitting. It enables me to keep my mind off the time while I'm busy doling out more of my stories. Plus, with more stories out in circulation, the more chances I have of getting an acceptance.
Now that I know my collection isn't going to be accepted and published (by that press), I'm looking around at other markets for it. Some friends on Facebook posted a couple for me to check out that appear promising. I've gone through my collection and stripped it down to all original stories - since some places won't take reprints - and am reading through it to find any mistakes I previously missed and possibly expand the stories more before sending it back out into the world.
One of the reprints it contained, I'm going to put on Amazon for about a dollar. The story is entitled, "Hall of Twelve," and is one of my all time favs that I've written; its also a strong fav of fans of my work. The story has been expanded since its printing in an anthology a couple years ago, so even if you have read it before, you might want to try it out again.
Who knows... Since I have some time off coming up, I might write a new story or two to include in my submission with a new place. I hope this time that I'll get an answer before a year has gone by!
Copyrights owned by Rebecca Besser, 2013. All rights reserved.
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