While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make
enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the
professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what
I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a
point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote
above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and
sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
What did I do right?
Here, I’m going to
have to define “right”.
I love “Technopred”.
I think the idea is sound (watch National Geographic’s “Raccoon Nation” online
for free if you think the idea’s whacko!), and the writing is good. I tried to
place this in every other market I could think of: ANALOG, Intergalactic Medicine
Show, ASIMOV’s, Lightspeed, DSF, and BuzzyMag all turned it down cold. I’d done
lots of waiting and I wanted to idea to be public.
So I moved to what I
call my “second tier” markets. Aurora Wolf, Strange Horizons, Andromeda
Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Words of Wonder, Fiction Vortex, Perihelion, Stupefying
Stories, Giganotosaurus, and a few others were markets I didn’t read often, but
still passed through them every once in a while.
Aurora Wolf was top
of the list, so I shot the story off there and the editor responded quickly and
enthusiastically: “Guy, You have an acceptance, as is, for "TechnoPred".
I've never had any collisions with raccoons except when one helped me scare the
pants off a bully at Boy Scout camp, long ago. I put a sticky bun under his
sleeping bag. Naturally the raccoon took care of the evidence lol…And Ravens I
see every day. I might even exchange a caw or two :) With this in mind - I cannot
refuse :) your consideration.”
He paid promptly,
albeit it was a token amount, but had it posted not long after. I got a comment
from a reader, and while I don’t get to Aurora Wolf often, I do visit on
occasion and the story is still there. I am proud that while I haven’t sold everything
I’ve ever written – like Robert A. Heinlein says “In Grumbles From the Grave Heinlein tells the very nicely rounded
story of writing and selling his first short story and how he's
(understandably) proud of having sold everything he's ever written. However...
It turns out that whilst this story is composed of mostly true elements that For Us, the Living was actually the
first thing he wrote and he wasn't able to get it published - oh and that he
did his level best to make sure it never came to light, even to the extent of
burning his own copy of the manuscript.” – I’ve sold 10%. That’s since 1990! I haven’t broken it down more,
though my percentage has been close to that each year.
So I suppose the
things I learned are just reiterations of things I already know – that even
Heinlein knew:
1.) You must write.
2.) You must finish
what you write.
3.) You must refrain
from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4.) You must put the
work on the market.
5.) You must keep
the work on the market until it is sold.
Writers today
quibble about this and slam down on them. They seem to be unaware that while no
one knows who they are, the rules they’re bashing are so well-known that if I
asked someone at a SF convention “What are Heinlein’s rules for writing?” they
might be able to tell me. If were to then ask, “What are ______ objections to
Heinlein’s rules?” most of the people who answered the first would say, “Who?”
to the second...
This is what went right with “TechnoPred”: I kept the work on the market until it sold.
Any thoughts?
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