TECH: 101 Tips (57)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 9 December 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Always pitch a particular idea an editor can say yes to. Even if you get a rejection, the editor may decide you're right for a different idea she's been kicking around." David A. Fryxell

The interesting thing here is that David is saying go ahead and try those ideas out -- you're building a relationship, not a one time attempt. So give the editor ideas that you think they will like, but don't worry too much about a rejection that says not quite right for us at this time, but liked the writing (or whatever). Next time, maybe they'll recognize the name, and maybe they'll come back with something else that they would like you to do.

I think this gets back to the notion of building a portfolio -- having multiple stories and even multiple novels that you are feeding into the system. Of course, there's the "this writer is hot so publish anything" syndrome that seems to hit some of them, where they are apparently cleaning out their backlog of stories that aren't quite as good as they should be. If you happen to get hot, think about whether you really want to toss the publishers stuff that your readers will not really like -- sure, it's quick money, but you want to maintain a relationship with your readers too. Anyway...

Get those ideas out there, keep them out there, keep playing...
write?