Writerly Ways

It's been an exhausting day of trying to be a travel agent (I will have to stay about 20 miles away and it's still 300$ a day. I need to be like 50 miles to get a room under that. Really REALLY rethinking this vacation.

So let's talk about the disrespect in the publishing business. There is a lot of it but the one bothering me right now is authors meaning so little to publishers they can't even email a rejection. This is nothing new. Back in the 90s you had to include a self addressed stamped envelope in with your paper manuscript. I'd say I'd got back about 40%.

They say they have a small staff. Yes I'm sure of it. I'm also sure that it can not possibly take so much time that you can't email a form rejection or even blind copy a bunch of them. I was looking over my submissions and went back on two of the ones from two months ago and the books are already printed (so I see a whole lot of editing went into this).

I just find it rather disrespectful. I'm starting to make a little list of those doing this. There is one I still might send to because I have a story that might fit. But they have open calls til the end of 2023 and I don't see me purposely writing for them because of this. Now I am really paying more attention to more than theme and pay. Some of them do say yeah we aren't telling you if you're rejected or worse go to a pay site where we tell you who we accepted. You know what, you don't respect the time of those who are submitting and there are plenty of games out there. I know where I am (and many of us should) concentrate our efforts.

Speaking of which, I did get more of the Trailer Park story written. I'm afraid it's not that funny (really who can find humor right now) but I can't let that keep being a stumbling block but I figured out how they're going to fight their bad guy so that's something.

OPEN CALLS

Reclaiming Joy

Alternate History Short Stories

New Myths Second 2022 Window

Hidden Realms

The Quiet Ones: Nocturnal Animals argh i have something perfect but too long. sigh

Happy Howlidays: A Furry Advent Calendar

The Quarterly Journal – Let’s Get Weird


Links from around the Web

Are You Paying Attention to Your Progress?

reading voraciously

Reasons Not to Rush the Writing scroll down past the ad

Amazon Ads: Step-by-Step Walk Through for Beginning Authors

Book Marketing Ideas From Successful Authors

Insights From Best-Selling Authors

Neil Gaiman on imposter syndrome

Ten Ways to Write Better Fiction

From Betty

Understanding the New Normal World of a Story’s Resolution

Plotters Versus Pantsers: Do We Have to Choose?

To Comma, or Not to Comma (Part 4)

Creating a Flexible and Productive Author Life

How to Quickly Develop a Writing Habit

Social media emails done right (how to embed social posts)


Five Steps for Adding Character Complexity

How to Make Your Character Novel

Villainous Presentation

Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Characters with Mental Health Issues

Fear Thesaurus Entry: Infidelity

Novel revision checklist (I need this now)