Tag: rejection

Some days you’re the shoe…

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

…some days you’re what gets scraped off.  Today has been absolutely craptastic.  Really the last 24 hours or so.  Little stuff, to be sure, but none of it uplifting.  I got a visit from the micromanagement fairy at work and got to spend twenty minutes changing grades…to the same thing they started out as.  (Let’s just say that putting restrictions on how math teachers average grades is like me telling the New England Patriots to only throw slant routs.)  Then came the twin form rejections from Digital Science Fiction and Asimov’s.  Then there’s personal stuff that’s none of your business, but it’s unhappy, too.

I’m ready for silver linings.  Better yet, acceptances!

Until then, I await June with the end of school and the coming of ConCarolinas.

Downs that should be Ups (or vice-versa)

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

Rejections.  😦

No one likes rejections.  I don’t.  I got four in three days week.  It always sucks to get a rejection from F&SF and IGMS on the same day.  I wasn’t really in the mood to blog about it then.  The other two were also pro markets.  Oh, how it burns.

There’s no shame in being rejected by pro markets.  Pros get rejected by pro markets all the time.  But my last sale was a long time ago.  Long.  Submitted in September kind of long.  That’s where the rejections hurt most.

But I can also look at these rejections and smile because they are different than I used to get.  My F&SF rejection came straight from the editor rather than an assistant editor, suggesting it made it past someone.  My IGMS rejection was personalized.  The other two…not so much, but that’s okay.  A good number of my rejections explain themselves now.  This is a good development.

I’m sure I’ve blogged on this topic before.  This is kind of my public pep talk to myself.  I have seven stories out right now and odds are that none of those will come back acceptances.  But some of those stories will sell.  I have no doubt.  I bet I’ll find homes for all of them, eventually.  Low pay homes for some, deeply modified forms for others, but homes where people will have the chance to read them.

In unrelated news, congratulations to my friends and visitors that are off to Clarion or Clarion West this summer. (Yay Annie/izanobu!)  Not sure who else I know that might have made it.  Drop me a comment if that’s you.  Good luck to those still applying for Odyssey.  For those who applied and are not attending, I know the pang of those rejections, too.  Only the last rejection you ever receive will be final.  Keep writing, keep sending and you’ll always be a writer.

No room at the inn

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

It’s frightening how quickly the markets for novelette length science fiction exhaust themselves, particularly the pro-paying markets.  Starting in May: Analog, Asimov’s, IGMS, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, F&SF, and Strange Horizons have all declined the honor of publishing a particular story of mine.  Sure, that’s their right.  Two of them were kind enough to decline personally.  But now the list of potential markets has dwindled to a mere handful, most of which have other submissions of mine in their queues.  Even if I manage to trim it down to 7500 words, not many more options open up.  It;s a small world out there.  It’s enough to discourage a guy.

I keep reminding myself: I need to focus on novels.  N-O-V-E-L-S-!  Money, success, fame — novels are the path.  Yet I keep scratching out short stuff that I can’t sell.  Oh, how the Kindle beckons me!

I could stretch this novelette into a novel if I gave it some time.  Take the linear timelin, chop it in the middle, and braid separate events to happen simultaneously, drawing them out to engulf the reader in the setting and characters.  The more I type, the more I think it could work.  But (ain’t there always a but) that’s a lot of planning and a lot of writing away.  I need to finish my current novel-in-progress before I dare attack a another.  This project will sell in some capacity, I know it will.  Novelette?  Trimmed to a short?  Inflated to novel?  Screenplay?  Yep, I said the s-word.  I know this idea works, these characters work, just…[insert primal scream here].

It’s a matter of frustration at this point.  I need to just get this story back out into the world.  It’s good.  It pulled positive comments from major editors.  There’s just so few places left to turn, mostly places I’ve never tried before.  Not sure which is scarier: the unknown entities or realizing how few are there.

Ouch and Oucher.

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Not a great day, Thursday.  Got home to find a rejection from Analog.  A single sentence, as formulaic as possible.  No feedback.  No compliments.  Just no.

Nearly but not quite an hour later, I discovered an email from Apex magazine.  Apparently the story I sent them had “some wonderful prose” but the editor “couldn’t get emotionally invested.” At least I had lovely prose.  Not sure I’ve been told that before.  That story is one of my older ones and had really only gotten a facelift, tummy tuck, and implants from the original scheme.  (That is, tightened the wording, trimmed down some scenes, and added something to make the character more likable…not that implants make someone more likable…I’m going to stop now before I say something I’ll regret.)  Anything particularly “lovely” must have been there all along, like an ugly duckling.

I’ll have those stories back out by Monday.  I jut need to make a fix to the Analog story (TOL) and make sure I’m sending the right draft of the other (SR).  These are, incidentally, the two stories that were held and released by ASIM.  I must find them a home.

 

It’s Official

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 7 Comments

I got the email today.  The story that placed second in Writers of the Future failed to warrant an invitation to Clarion West.  Or Clarion.  I did better last year with a story that still has not sold.  (I think I just sent the one to CW.)  No workshop for me.

I don’t get it.  I can accept it, but I don’t understand what more I can do (other than learn to count).  Was my story too commercial?  You hear that on America’s Next Top Model.  (I have a wife; don’t judge me!)  Or too safe?  They say that on Idol.  Or maybe my style is too unoriginal.  Or maybe…I could do this all year (and may).  Bottom line, I’m out.  Huge congratulations to those that got in.

It was a nice rejection.  You could tell Neile was aware of my very public obsession and/or my waitlisting last year:

Dear Scott:

Thank you for applying to the Clarion West Writers Workshop for 2010.

I am so sorry to let inform you [sic] that you were not selected for this
year's class. I know this is a disappointment. Your work ranked well
with our readers again, but it just wasn't to be.

Leslie and I both wish you the best with your writing and hope you
have a productive summer, and that you will apply again.

Thank you again for your interest in Clarion West.

With much regret,

Neile

So, will I apply again?  I’m not ruling it out, but I’m leaning toward no.  I’ve mentioned an intention to expand my family.  I wouldn’t want to leave my wife pregnant with a four-year-old.  That’s far from a guaranteed status, so stuff may change.  It would also be nice if, next summer, I was in a place where focusing on novels instead of short stories proved more productive.  So it may not happen.  It may.  Never say never.  It may come down to who’s teaching.

I still have WotF for a week in August.  That will be sweet.  I may target a con or two this summer.  I’ll keep writing, that’s for sure.  And all my fellow rejects should, too.  Or as Howard Waldrop says, if this can make you stop writing, maybe you should.

Wife, daughter, WotF, vacation, novel work.  Yeah, I’ll be okay.  Pissy, but okay.

the actual rejection

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 14 Comments

For purposes of comparison, I am posting the contents of my rejection below. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone (including Clarion SD personnel). If it does, tell me and I’ll take it down; I’m not looking to step on anyone’s toes here. I simply wonder whether they all say the same thing or not, especially the way this one is worded. It’s very nice and feels halfway between personal and form, like there are two or three different rejection emails depending on your score. 

Dear Scott Baker:

Thank you for applying for the 2009 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop at UC San Diego. Your application has been carefully reviewed. We regret to inform you that you have not been selected for admission. However, the admissions panel feels that you work shows promise and says you came “very close” to being admitted. The reviewers encourage you to keep writing and to reapply in 2010.

Thank you for your interest in Clarion.

Cordially,

Tania Mayer
Program Coordinator
 

This was received three days after the posted deadline for notifying acceptances.  Feel free to compare your message to mine.  I’m curious if they are different.  You can post your letter in a comment if you like.  Whatever.  

For those of you that, like me, got a thanks-but-no-thanks, keep writing and stay in touch.  If we work together, we can all get in next year.  Or better yet, succeed without any workshop but each other.

-Oso

My Clarion SD Fate

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Finally.  It’s a no.  I’m a little surprised since I though my application was stronger for SD than for Seattle, where I was waitlisted.  But reviews are subjective and there are some definite weaknesses in “Leech Run” and “Glow Baby” starts out fairly slow.  So I understand.  I won’t sneeze at my waitlisting for CW.  Maybe a slot will open for me, maybe it won’t.

So now what?  I guess I’ll check the usual suspect websites for the fates of others to offer congratulations or share condolences.  Then it’s back to writing.  It’s about time to finish up drafting my Kree story so I can enter the much more scientific editing process.  I should probably resume work on a novel, probably my military clone novel (wipe that Star Wars image out of your mind) as it seems the most promising.  The workshops had me focused on short fiction for a while.

I’m thinking of applying for Uncle Orson’s Literary Boot Camp.  It’s just a week, but it’s like $750 without room or board.  

I’m definitely going to investigate the convention circuit, trying to hone in on the most writer-friendly.  If anyone can offer recommendations, I’d be glad to hear.  Closer is better, but I have family in Dallas (not at all close to my end of Tennessee).  

Assuming no spots open at CW (the assumption I must run with for my own sanity), I’ll at least consider applying next year.  Circumstances may prevent me, but ambition won’t.  Unless I make it big before 2010.  Ha!

Congratulations and good luck to those that were accepted into Clarion, East or West.  

-Oso

Bad Speculative Fiction

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

You know you’ve read some.  It may have been a big shot who sells millions or some guy that got into a magazine because the editor was experimenting with herbology, but bad sf/f/h is out there making big bucks.  I haven’t decided what I think about that.

On the one hand, I am very unhappy that some jerk out there cashed a check with mutiple zeros when I know I have stories — novels even — that are much better.  Why him (or her or it) and not me?  The reasons are there: 1) luck, 2) perseverence, 3) previous success, 4) connections, 5) maybe I just don’t get it.

Then there’s the flip side.  If this putz can gsell, I can, too.  It’s a reminder that success is 98% perspiration (and that stinks).  So reading some schlock can give me a boost of hope even as it knocks down my self esteem.

What made me think of this?  Christopher Paolini.  Nice enough guy as far as I can tell, one of my students is obsessed with him, but he needs a good editor with sharp scissors.  At least he needed it in Eldest, his second novel.  I enjoyed Eragon enough to buy Eldest.  I even enjoyed the story enough to buy Brisingr (gesundheit).  I did not enjoy it enough to get past page 2 of…that third book I can’t pronounce.

I think Paolini summarized my concern himself in Eldest when — on about page 300 — a character observes how lucky they are to have traveled from wherever to wherever and nothing happened.

reddragon3head**By the way, [SPOILER ALERT!!!]**

I further had issues with the protagonist’s efforts to become a worthy dragon rider by learning combat from an elf despite a serious injury that limits him physically and causes constant pain.  This training occurs intermittently while subtle relationships in the story are hinted at but never truly developed.  Of course the training helps him to improve, but he can just barely go through the motions.

Then it happens, some fancy dragon festival where ghostly dragons emanate and heal the protagonist of his wounds.  Yes, all of them.  Because he struggled so hard?  No.  Because he was innately worthy.  Wasn’t he innately worthy before a bunch of pages and my personal hours were wasted on combat training?  I suspect he was.  The character succeeds through the entire book despite never having any breakthroughs of his own.

Not what I want in a story.  I’ve been rejected for less.  But I didn’t self-publish a book that was successful enough to be picked up by a major publisher.  Will I one day?  Maybe.  Then some other wannabe can complain about my schlock on his blog.

-Oso

New look, same old Oso

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just updated my look, adding a small but pleasant list of SF markets including links to home pages and to submission guidelines.  I’ve started with some zines I know and love; some have printed my stuff, others have wasted trees on the rejections they send me.  I plan to add to this list periodically.  Use these links as much as you like.  For a more thorough listing of markets, try the Duotrope link.

Ouch.

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I just received an email from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (a respected semi-pro magazine in Australia) regarding “Leech Run”. It took them an impressively swift five days to reject it. Most zines don’t even see a submission for a couple weeks. ASIM does good work and has a fairly transparent review process with three rounds of reading. I made it past level one but got axed in level two. American Idol fans, that’s like going home the first night of Hollywood week.

Now I need to find a new market for “Leech Run”. I’m afraid I exhausted some good candidates prior to a major rewrite. I probably could send it back to Fantasy & Science Fiction, but it is considered bad form to send a rewrite to an editor who did not request one. So I may try The Leading Edge or…I don’t know, someone else. There is a bit of a limited market for short space opera. Novels? They seem to fly off the shelves.

Today I attended a teacher inservice about poverty, mostly an emphasis on differences between middle-class and lower-class students (and parents’) perceptions of and responses to things. There were some good insights there that I would love to use in a story, particularly how money is spent. I’m already forgetting a lot of it and don’t have a story or character yet. I guess I’m waiting for another idea that can piggyback with this one to make a story.

I’ve worked the last couple days on a piece for middle-grades kids (not to be confused with middle-class kids…I mean 5th to 8th graders). It needs some serious editing, but I got the first draft onto the screen in record time. Now to hack away 20-30% of the length so I can expose the real story and maybe then add a little back for aesthetics.

Hmm, it’s late and I’m yawning up a storm. I’ll ramble more when I have more to say on more sleep. Thanks for reading.

-Oso