Dude... super congrats on this one. I tried to get in twice on this one and was graciously denied twice. Well done brother!
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Way to go Ken !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Haven't dropped in this thread for a while now, so congrats to everyone here for living their dream!!Comment
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wow, that's awesome, ken. i'm JEALOUS. cool cover, too.Comment
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My review of THREATS by Amelia Gray is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown. I remember hearing these threats many years ago at a live reading (Quickies! I think) where I shared the stage with Amelia, Blake Butler and Aaron Burch (who read from Mary Miller's book BIG WORLD) and thought...man, what is she going to do with those? Loved this book.
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/r...y-amelia-gray/Comment
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Cool Idea! Richard, I am going to ask you and Cee Dub and several other of my writer buddies a very serious group of questions as soon as we are all amassed. They are not intended, by any means, to offend anyone in the business. I am new to this and am loving the process but I need the opinions and feedback of seasoned professionals to get the right perspective on what I'm about to ask. I repeat... I'm not trying to offend anyone or sound uppity or obnoxious, I'm just curious about something that I've run across as I'm sending these stories of mine out for publication and its bugging me fiercely. Let me know when its convenient as this short essay is going to take me some time to type out.Comment
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I am intrigued...Not sure about whether we will all be able to be on at the same time, I am uber busy through the end of the month with work and the WHC, but I would be happy to answer any questions you have. As far as being seasoned goes, I'm not sure that I'm any more than your basic salt and pepper yet, maybe a pinch of oregano here and there, strictly medicinal of course
I say go ahead without me and I will weigh in with my opinion as soon as I can.
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I totally understand and agree. Just let me know what you think whenever its convenient; its not that big a deal. I'll have it ready in a few more hours. Hoping to get Nik and Ozmo and Craig and Richard and Terry and Dan and Brian and any other seasoned writer to lend an ear to a raving neophyte lunatic wordsmith such as meself. Soon my pretty.Comment
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Okay folks, I guess I'm going to try to keep this under five hundred words and I'll call it a piece of flash fact. I write this for curiosity sake NOT to piss off anyone in the process of what might be construed as me stepping on my own genitalia. I LOVE to write. I'd like to think we are artisans who spend countless hours in solitude mastering, or perhaps practicing is a better term, our craft and in the end we produce a PRODUCT of some entertaining value. We, Brothers and Sisters, are lonely, sometimes starving artists who carve out large chunks of our lives in pursuit of what, recognition, praise, monetary gain, bragging rights, prestige among our peers and those who purchase our wares to themselves make money, receive praise, etc. We create the fantastic, the amusing, the horrific, the humorous for the entertainment of others. We outline, we edit, we recreate what we might have been satisfied with in the first place, we polish, we package and we submit. That word submit, that mother flippin' word. There lies the rub. I am furious with the process of 'submit'. Now if I need a good throttling and a stern talking to because I am so new at the submission part of this complete breakfast, please set me straight. I can take it. I will take it. I'll submit...
I wonder if its just me but there seems to be something out of sorts with this submission process. I have submitted every story thus far electronically and I have found it to be a godsend over snail mail. My bitch is this: There are wonderful editors out there who acknowledge receipt of your hard earned product for consideration damn near instantaneously and I feel that should be the industry standard. There are however several, more prestigious houses who shall remain anonymous that have had 2 of my novellas for over fifty days and in their call for subs guidelines state that they are backed up to 2010 subs and don't bother them. They DO pay the highest in the genre and although I can pull my submission at any time, they make me feel as if I have to kiss their respective asses to get my PRODUCT considered sometime around 2014. WHAT THE FLAKE! Who do these pricks think they are? If they're all that and a bag of chips why can't they hire more readers and catch up their three year old slush pile? They are not the only ones on The HORROR TREE who have left me hanging out to dry. There are several. Now with that said, here are some more questions. How much does it cost to put out an anthology? I'm not looking to get rich here but to keep OUR PRODUCT tied up for months not knowing if its even been received let alone read or placed gingerly on their Mount of Olives slush piles and then IF considered for publication to pay a measely 10.00 or fifty dollars or for exposure only, I can't help but wonder just how much goes to cover costs and pay the publishing staff, cost of printing, binding, ink, shipping, etc. Are these valid concerns so far? Next question: If I am a publisher of fine horror anthologies and I (And by God I've heard this from several publishers) have received so many submissions per anthology and I have to read three hundred submissions per and they're all basically the same redundant story incorporated in the umbrella theme of the book, How can I REALLY be an objective voice for what's good. Wouldn't it be safe to assume that I'm so burnt out on reading horror stories that I lose my passion for a good scary story?Then finally, I've set up a data base of ten presses that I have submitted stories to and nine out of the ten I feel are like, "Is anyone besides the authors really buying these Presses and the products within their pages. Its like who cares if Evil Darkness mean and Nasty Press is putting out its third anthology if no one here can name the first two. Who are these anthology publishers and what qualifies them for deciding your amazing story, your PRODUCT, isn't fit for their tome. Is it money? Is it a mantle full of Bram Stoker awards? Is it their own writing coming in at number one on the New York Times best seller list, several times in a row? I just want someone to explain the criteria for "expert" story reader status, why some houses use Submishmash while the Hoighty-Toighty high paying houses can't even send a response received E-mail and how long should I keep my butt pucker poised before I can remoisturize with lip balm. Who in their right freakin' mind would want to give there BABY away for 'Exposure only' to a place whose name has TOILET in it, then have to wait six months for a reply. That's my PRODUCT you're not doing anything with, damn you! This is business! If they were offering a large contract or a month's bill money then by all means take your time, but for 1.00 per thousand words or a flat 10.00 payment, I can't keep kissing this many asses for the privilege of being included in your 'For the Love' masterpiece. I love writing and creating things for audiences to one day enjoy it but some of this process sucks. Okay, now... PLEASE put me in my place, go cut a switch, fetch the belt, and for heaven's sake LEARN ME SOMETHIN', seasoned veterans, friends, writers of fine fiction.Comment
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HOLY WALL OF TEXT! I hope you are sending your stories out with carriage returns LOL.
I'll try to touch on everything. Let me know if I miss something, and I am sure others will go blind reading your wall of text and then try to answer themselves.
I think I know the publisher you are talking about. The thing is, if you want to be published by the big guys, you have to abide by their rules. They don't lay claim to anything better than that timing, so you shouldn't expect any better. And, they pay enough to warrant that timing.
I just mentioned this the other day in another forum, but Duotrope has a newer feature, where you can go to a publisher page, and scroll down, find a line of text that leads you to see their recent activity. You can utilize this to better judge what their current timing is, even before you submit to them. This may be way off from the stated return times, so it is most useful. For instance, one I saw today claimed 2 weeks, but their timing shows them at 3 months pretty consistently. Remember, the more someone pays, the more subs they will get, the longer it takes not only for them to read, but to narrow down their choices. Often, the longer you are held the better (might mean they are considering you).
As for Horror Tree, they and many other state they do not take the time to hand out receipts or rejections I believe, so you are lucky if you end up with one. Is it inconvenient for an author? It can outright drive you insane, but if you read how long they state as an acceptance time, you know when you have not made the cut. I've seen some of these places still accept people after those dates, but rarely.
People don't get into writing to get rich, I don't think. If so, there are better ways to do it than writing fiction. Of course, there is always the chance, which makes it fun and exciting, but you'll be luck make more than Burger King money for a long time. You have to work hard, extremely hard, to make good money. It takes tons of effort, time, patience, writing, reading, rewriting, learning, talking to others, etc.
Self-publishing isn't going to cost you much, but it does take effort, as well. If you put out crap, the readers will likely call you out on it. I was very nervous about putting out both volumes of These Old Tales. I don't consider them as trunk stories, as I tend to only send stories out to a few markets before I give up on them typically. I might rewrite them anywhere from 5 to 15 times in that time. Once I've decided I have sent it to the markets I would like it placed at, and it hasn't taken, it ends up in my self-pub stuff. Do I plan to get rich off of that? Not really. The goal is to become read. Yet, as you can tell from my post about being pirated, I don't want to do that for free. I've put a lot of time into those, and I expect to make money for that work. Kind of a vague answer, but I think you can see what you want to be careful of.
Running an anthology isn't easy. Some will have better knowledge of this. I only have some back knowledge from my dealings, although I have been more involved as of late. The thing is, an ISBN is going to cost you money, and they aren't cheap. And, you likely can get all sorts of authors to send you stories without paying them. Doing that, you will quickly build yourself a name, though. If you pay them, then you have to add up all of your costs, which will be several hundred dollars if you do it right, and then you have to hope you sell enough copies to make your investment back. Figure you make $6 or $7 per a sale, and have 20 authors, then that is going to be around $150 if each author sells two. Being a small press requires a lot of time investing in shows and sales and publicity. it isn't for everyone, which is why so many pop up and disappear shortly after.
Who are they? The ones that are going to pay you Burger King money. You read their guidelines and if you don't like them, I wouldn't bother submitting. They make the rules, because they are the ones making the investment. I wouldn't give your work away, though, so get something for it. Keep trying. It is hard.
If everyone was accepted, than there would be no big prize for authors. Keep working hard. Keep improving. Keep trying to get better. You have to stick with it, or you won't get far. It can be very frustrating, and you will come across some very unkind people. Trust me, I've seen this first hand. Some people just don't like others to be happy when they aren't. Stay positive and worry about yourself, and always give a nod where a nod is deserved.
Hope that helps.Comment
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everything you're complaining about is pretty standard. agents are even worse. the bigger the press, typically, the longer they take, and the less professional they can be. i've had novels out for a year, i've had short stories out for 500 days. just pick who you want to work with, who you like, and then pursue them. don't worry about time, go write more. definitely submit so multiple places. it is hard to find pro paying horror, there just aren't that many places. but it's kind of the same anywhere, be it horror, SF, fantasy, crime or literary. that's why i approach a lot of smaller places. i rarely get a personal response, but i do sometimes. even from big places. some places (especially agents) NEVER respond.
i've got one column up here that might help:
SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: http://whatdoesnotkillme.com/2009/08/31/simultaneous/
WHERE I SUBMIT: http://whatdoesnotkillme.com/2009/07...s-submissions/
I also have a column at Lit Reactor that may help as well:
LR: http://litreactor.com/team/richard-thomas
It's tough out there. Your reaction is sadly, pretty common. You have to fight and claw and believe in your work. In time, people will start approaching you.
I'm sure others will chime in as well. If you have a specific question, post up, but actually, this is probably not the right thread for this. Maybe you should start one?
Peace,
RichardComment
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