Critical tips for prospective writers

Some tips are simpler than others. The basic rule I find most useful is "Be Vigilant When Mining for Gold." If that title's too vague, call it "Study Both Sides of the Paper."

Once, as a fledgling writer, I dozed off while reading what I thought was my fifty-fifth proposal rejection. My SASE was empty except for the letter I wrote. In a dreamlike trance, I assumed the editor had bounced my proposal without reading a word that I wrote. By then, my skin was tougher than scar tissue, but this was too much. I deftly tossed the presumed rejection into my hazardous waste dump in hopes that it wouldn't contaminate my up-beat mood of the day.

Once I awoke from my stupor, I looked to ensure that my toss hit the basket. Then, I noticed that the back of my letter contained a critical message: "Your proposal sounds good. Please send me the article, once it is finished."

This occasion helped me develop a habit that I cherish today: "Study both sides of the mail that editors send." What looks like a rejection might be an acceptance. For twenty-four weeks, I went a step further and held my returned letters over a candle in hopes of finding favorable news written in invisible ink. Failing to find any, I eventually slipped back to merely studying both sides of all the material the editors enclosed in my SASE.

Will another editor reply in this way? Probably. Editors have mighty tight budgets. Why should they waste their own paper? Mine's just as good -- and it's free.

The second nugget I mined was: "Don't give up just because you received a rejection." I've never met a successful writer who hasn't had enough rejection slips to wallpaper his or her den. Of course, I haven't met Alex Asimov either. According to rumor, Asimov seldom rewrote anything and sold just about everything that he submitted. He was the exception.

Looking at the sunny side of things, if you have already papered your walls with rejection slips, you can always apply a second layer. My heat-transfer text implies that rejection slips make great insulation.

My reason for observing these rules doesn't come from the ever-jovial Pollyanna. It is based on having editors hold my work for over three months and then sending me checks. I have also had editors reject two of my articles, buy the next six, and then completely ignore three in succession before buying a seventh. Just because they ignore you doesn't mean that they don't like your work.

Editors are busy people who appreciate authors with inquisitive minds. They also appreciate getting submissions that come close to the type of subject matter they usually publish. I had five rejections from one magazine before I decided to investigate why they were bouncing my work. After all, I followed all of the suggestions Writers Market provided. Even Writer's Market makes errors of omission now and then. Their basic guidelines failed to inform me that this magazine favored material on the left side of porno. My family-type humor didn't come close.

When all else fails, read a copy or two of the publication. ESP seldom helps detect editor's needs.

THE END

Previously published by "The Emporium Gazette."