rejection Archives - Annie Bellet

Posts Tagged ‘rejection’

2010 Recap Addendum

I figured maybe I should post my submission/rejection stats for 2010 as well (all the cool kids are doing it… or something).

So here are the rough totals:

Current Race Score: 41
Current eRace Score: 3

Stories submitted: 34
Novels submitted: 3
Total Rejections: 151
Personal rejections: 93
Stories Sold: 3
Novels Sold: 0
Rewrite requests: 2 (one rejected, one pending)
Stories currently being held for “final” consideration: 4
Full novels out: 1
Writers of the Future results: Q1- HM, Q2- Semi-finalist, Q3- HM, Q4- unknown

So yeah. A ton of rejection, a few sales, lots of personal rejections, some interest in a couple of my novels, and mostly just me needing to get more work done, get better at writing, and get more out. If you count my 2009 totals into the rejections I’m at well over 200. W00t? But at least it is one measure that I’m submitting and writing and submitting more. Hopefully I can double or triple everything (rejections, sales, race scores etc) for 2011.

Exoskeleton Fail

I am back from vacation. I made the mistake of thinking 85 strength sunblock applied twice over (a few hours apart) would do the trick. Managed to burn myself so badly on the first day (snorkeling twice, swimming in pool, then a 2+ hour walk in the afternoon) that I spent the rest of the trip wishing I could levitate so my burn body wouldn’t touch anything. Yeah. Not fun.

I spent most of last week on painkillers swathed in aloe and hiding from the sun (though I probably made the burn worse by venturing out multiple times… it was too lovely there to be able to hide indoors. Which should mean lots of writing done, right? Not so much. See, the worst burn is my shoulders, arms, and… hands! Also, I scraped up a few knuckles on some rocks (but I got to touch a sea turtle, so it worked out).

I got a couple chapters done and an entire other novel outlined. That second bit was an accident, but I was so inspired by the landscape and the ideas hitting me that I had to at least get the gist down in outline form.

I can still finish the current novel by the end of the month. If I put my head down and go. (Burn is healing, the blisters have split, the skin is starting to fall off like crazy… TMI yet? *grin*). So that’s the plan. Write like the wind and get this novel done so I can start the next one.

Oh, and I averaged one rejection a day while I was gone. Gave me lots of admin work to do today. Got all but one story back out, it is in an envelope waiting on the mail tomorrow, so it is basically done and out. Nothing like a stack of “thanks but no thanks” waiting for you to return. Fun day I had today, heh. I’m really missing short story writing though. Haven’t gotten a new one out in a few weeks and it feels weird. I did get notice that yet another story is under “final consideration” somewhere, so that’s 4 now I get to live in suspense with. Strangely, I feel fairly calm about it. I guess I’m so focused on getting the writing done that once something is out the door, I don’t worry about it too much. It’ll either sell or it won’t. Meanwhile I’m learning some neat new tricks from some of the books I’ve been reading and (hopefully) implementing that stuff in my own writing.

So that’s the story of my vacation. Time to get back to work…

Working on Vacation

My novel isn’t done yet, and I leave in two days to go on vacation for a week. So I’m bringing my netbook and intend to represent the iconic image of the fiction writer drinking an umbrella drink on a hot beach with the laptop open, working in the sunlight. Only, I’m Irish and don’t want to be a crackling lobster, so I’ll be in the shade instead. Covered in Zinc. Glamorous, I know.

I’m hoping I can focus and get at least 30,000 words done, which will leave about a week’s worth of work for the week after I get home before I head out to another workshop with Dean Wesley Smith. This next one is on pitches and blurbs, which will be perfect timing for finishing a novel. I intend to get the first three chapters cleaned up, a synopsis, and query letter done at the same time I finish the novel so I can use what I learn at the workshop to get this novel sent off. That will be novel number three.

Got two nice rejections, one on the fantasy novel, one on the sci/fi novel. So I switched which editor had which and will see if maybe the new stuff is more to their tastes. So far I’ve only gotten one form rejection on my novels, which said they were returning the material unread due to not being agented. Oh well. I sent it back out (and actually doubt that no one read it, since the packet wasn’t mailed back in the order I sent it and it was missing the top paperclip, so something happened to it on its journey between envelopes). The hunt for publication continues. This part is boring. Thank god for writing/working on new stuff. If I had all my hopes on the stuff I’ve already done, I think I’d be going crazy by now. The rejection on my full stung a little more than I’d expected, but I made myself get the query back out. Keep it automated and done, that’s how I manage to move on.

Besides, I get to go drink fruity girly drinks on a beach in the ~~sun~~ shade while writing about serial killers and thieves. There are definitely worse jobs 🙂

Oh, and my grandmother is apparently passing on her super-old awesome typewriter to me. I think I’ll have to type up a story and send it out that way just for old time’s sake. (I wrote my first stories on an old typewriter my parents had in a closet. They were two page epics with no punctuation). I wonder if you can still buy carbon paper and such. I’ll have to check. Maybe I’ll write a short story ode to the pulps with a crazy title. Sounds like fun.

At Least Now I Can Stop Counting

Rejections 99 and 100 came today. One personal, one form letter (on a third of a sheet of paper, I admire the thriftiness). *grin*

Time to plan the party. At least, as the subject says, I can stop counting now until I think I might be close to 200, or 500. We’ll see. It’s just easier to not keep track.

Time to get another story into the mail. Can’t lose my race score points.

Random Thoughts #209

That thing I said last week about starting long stuff? I guess I meant medium stuff. I finished a novella, which will be my WotF Q3 entry. It kept trying to become a novel. I won though, the story stayed under 17,000 words. Now, to actually finish a novel. Seriously. As soon as I finish just one last short story. (I’m like an addict, one more hit, just one more, ooh, wait, okay, one more).

First up on the plate is my middle grade novel. I’m practicing not doing any research. I realize this is a strange thing for a writer to practice, but I think sometimes I clog my brain with needing to find “true” details to stick in and don’t let the imagination run where it might. The story is a fantasy with entirely made up everything, so it seemed like a good time to just, well, make shit up. I’ve always believed that internal consistency matters a hell of a lot more for storytelling (especially in any story with magic or a made-up world) than having things be “realistic”. I decided to make this novel my practice for making shit up after I was brainstorming about it and realized the princess in my head had bright pink hair. My first thought after that was “oh, she can’t have pink hair, that’s totally unrealistic.” Yeah, this is doubly funny if you know me, since I rarely have ‘hair’ colored hair (it’s blue and purple at the moment). That was when it clicked that maybe my critical side was interfering in the fun of writing. So I’m rolling with my imagination, whatever it wants, it gets this time around. Pink hair it is!

I’m attending two more workshops this year, and hopefully Orycon as well (I’m thinking of seeing if I can’t get on a panel or two).

4 more rejections until I throw a 100 rejection party. The more stuff goes out, the faster the responses stack up. I figure once I hit 100 I’m going to go back to not keeping track anymore until I think I might be getting close to 200, when I plan to throw another party (100,200,500, 1000, 10000 etc).

Oh, and in cool news, an artist friend of mine is doing up a graphic novel version of one of my favorite stories (story hasn’t sold yet, sigh, but I’m hopeful). Even if I never sell the story, I originally envisioned it as a script for her, so that is pretty sweet. She and I used to do a webcomic together years and years ago, and I miss comics as a medium. It’ll be cool to see what she does with the story visually.

Whew, Back to Work!

Got home from my trip to find two rejections waiting for me. The one in my mailbox was a nice fat envelope from Analog, but alas, it faked me out. It was fat because they’d folded up a couple pages of my story to send back, along with the longest form letter rejection I’ve ever seen. Two single-spaced pages outlining guidelines and with check boxes next to things (none of which were checked…). Oh well. That story has space squid and FTL travel, so I figured it was a long shot story for that market anyway. But in the name of not making decisions for editors, I sent it anyway.

Both stories are back out, one to a brand new market I’d never heard of (they aren’t that new, just my knowing about them). I also managed to get two more stories out, one is new, one is the story I sold that has reverted to me, so I figured why not try to sell it again? This brings me up to 22 stories out to markets. Not quite up to 80 yet, am I? Oh well, there’s plenty of time left in the year to get there.

I’ve been doing a bunch of targeted reading lately as well. If I’m going to get 80 stories out, they can’t all be spec fic. I have 4 “literary” stories out at the moment and an idea for another one. I went to the bookstore and got some mystery and thriller short story collections to pick through and dissect. So far I’m really enjoying reading the stories, so hopefully that means I’ll enjoy writing some as well. Meanwhile I’m trying to decide which novels of the ones I’ve read lately I want to reverse outline. I’ve read about 15 books in the last couple weeks, hence the needing to decide which to focus on picking apart to see how they work. The best part about this stretching and trying new genres is that I’m discovering authors and stories I’d never even heard of before (though I’m reading and re-reading some best-sellers, too). I’ve been trying to focus on books by authors who have a long track record, since I figure if they’ve sold 10 or 30 or more books that something in all those books has to be working.

Once again, Dean Wesley Smith has a great post up about writers and practicing. His comment about knowing what you are focusing on and working on with each piece of writing really hit home for me. Sometimes I remember to figure that out, but lately I’ve been working on so many things I hadn’t really given it a ton of thought. So I sat down and looked at my various projects and decided what I was going to work on for each. So, because lists are so much fun, here they are:

Menagerie– not researching, ie just making shit up. It’s fantasy and supposed to be fun and weird.

Hunting Delilah– pacing.

The City is Still Hungry– setting and noir pacing/feel.

To Honor and Obey– sex scenes, writing to a particular historical feel and tone.

The Weapons Master– sex scenes, not censoring myself.

And that’s just the novels. Each short story I’m working on has its own practice goal as well. I’ve got about five lined up that need to get done in the next few weeks, one of which is about an hour from done… still. Sigh. Need to stop poking at it and just get it done. I think my practice failed with this one because man is it being stubborn about getting written, but oh well, I’ll keep the idea and re-do it at some point if I want. Meanwhile, the story can go out into the wide world and get off my desk, so to speak.

Well, back to work. Between family obligations, trips, and car issues, I’m feeling quite broke. Need to write more, because no one can pay me for work I don’t do.

Mind: Blown

Went to Orycon this weekend, spent too much money on art (damn you awesome artists at conventions, why do you tempt me?), and attended some panels where I learned some things, had other things I already knew drilled deeper into my head, and generally had a decent time. The insomnia issue meant I had a very short energy buffer for dealing with people, but I adjusted (and spent Friday night sitting in a hotel room playing Magic the Gathering).

Also had lunch with an author/friend who was very reassuring even if yet another story of 10+ years of toil= overnight success is somewhat daunting. But after 10 months of trying to be a working writer, I suppose I shouldn’t complain yet.

Came home to yet another ‘nice’ rejection and felt like tearing my hair out and giving it all up for the ghost, but decided to haunt the internets instead. On a suggestion from aforementioned writer friend, I signed up for Dean Welsey Smith’s novel workshop in Feb. I Hopefully that’ll get me on a good path to selling this thing. As prep I decided to read all of his blog last night. Mind blown. Seriously. There is some fairly tough to hear information contained in his posts, and I’m not sure all of it would work for me, but there are things I think I should give a shot.

What especially called to me was the publishing as numbers game. I agree wholeheartedly that writing is practice, and rewriting/editing isn’t really practice, though I do think some things can benefit from a pass or two. But the only way to get better that I’ve found is to write new things taking what I’m learned worked or didn’t work from the stuff that came before. I also was floored by the whole goals side of things on Dean’s blog. I like the idea of having a sort of shoot for the moon longer term goal and then shorter term goals entirely within your power. I started this blog to record my journey to write ten novels in ten years, but really, wouldn’t it be cooler to publish ten novels in ten years? According to Dean, that means I should write 3 novels a year.

At first, that number looks crazy daunting. But really, is it? At the pace I write novels, I can get 100k word novel done in about 2 months. Then take a month off to let my readers weigh in and have a month to revise/clean up. Send it out, rinse, repeat. Really, not that bad. And I could use the month off between edits and writing to work on short stories. I aim to have 30 shorts making the rounds by next year, I’ve got 10 now, with two more that will be sent out in about a week as soon as I take another pass at them to catch the last (hopefully) typos and such.

So that’s where I am. Going to revise Chwedl this month, write a couple new stories, get something in for 1st quarter WotF, and get started on this new novel. Hello December.

Writing Progress Report and Lists!

Because we know how much the internet loves lists. Sorry, no bullets.

First, got another nice rejection. I entered into my tracking sheet and then for fun counted up the number of rejections and looked at how many are form and how many came with a note. I have 15 rejections so far for short stories. 6 are form letter, 1 is a negative comment, and 8 are ‘positive’ rejections (good writing, well received, send more, that sort of comment). So the positive rejections out number the negative or form letter ones. Apparently this is a good thing and a sign of tremendous progress. I’m just keeping my head down and figuring out where to send what next. 15 down, 485 rejections left to go!

On to the lists!

Things in progress:

Chwedl: 61,000 words so far, but I’ve hit a snag since I realized I needed to go back and add an entire thread of motivation to make the actions of my main char in the events ahead far more plausible. I aim to have the draft of this done by mid September.

Casimir Hypogean: rewrite is sitting at about 9k I think. This is what I’ll get to before the end of this year. I aim to write the two sequels next year as soon as I’m done with the rewrite. I thought long and hard about bothering to write sequels to an unsold book (conventional wisdom says don’t!), but I think I’m going to ignore that wisdom this time. I’m unpublished, which means I don’t exactly have deadlines on other things at the moment, plus given an optimistic publishing time-frame, say this book was picked up for publication and then they wanted the sequels written. It could be anywhere from 3-6 years from finishing the first before I’d even begin a sequel. That’s too long for me, right now. I have the story and world firmly in mind and while the first book works fine as a stand-alone, the second two are definitely tied together and I want them to work well as a unit. Even if I spend another year writing these three books, I’ll still have learned something about writing (and writing a series) whether they sell or not. So that’s my justification.

Steampunk detective novel: started doing some research for the setting of the first one. It’ll likely be a year before I start writing it, but I do love me some research.

Romance novel that has hijacked my brains: I might start this just to see where it goes. Series romance is only 70k words generally, so maybe I can tinker with it in my “spare” writing time. I certainly love to read romances, so maybe I’ll try writing one. This one involves a girl with a beautiful singing voice and a violent past and of course a handsome composer/violinist, an opera house, and dark secrets. (No masked men living underneath the opera house, sorry…)

Werewolves in Space: now a novella! I had the idea at Worldcon to turn this into a novella sort of prequel to a later novel. I’ve actually cut the werewolf and love story from the plot. I wasn’t sure this novel ever had enough plot to really sustain 100k words, so I think this will be a good compromise. Now I just have to keep it under 17k words.

Short stories: I have so many percolating in my brains at the moment, I’m going to have to write one a week just to clear my plate. I’m hoping I can revive Monday Short Story Day starting next Monday. Sampling of stories includes: Rusalka story, ‘glitter kitten’, ‘shrub daughter’, ‘I, vermin’, jellyfish in space, ‘sparks’, time traveling thief, ‘Tesla’s Daughter’, world as we know it ends (telemarketer) story, ‘The insanity of Mr Leads’, ‘Maskmaker’, and Bloodgood’s cat origin mystery story. My notes make more sense than this list, somewhat.

On the plus side, I now have 9 short stories out making the rounds, which isn’t bad considering back in Feb when I started I only had two.

Time to prioritize and write like a madwoman. It’s funny, before Worldcon I never considered myself that prolific, but I think I’m right in the middle as far as I can tell from the sampling I got there about other people’s work habits. The last six weeks have been a total momentum killer, however. Between Worldcon, Flu, Alaska, and moving, I’ve gotten almost nothing done (1 short story written, 2 revised, only about half a chapter on Chwedl). Time to get back in the habit of the everyday and get some projects finished. I’m giving myself a mini-deadline on the Werewolves in Space novella because I’d like to have it done in time for this quarter of WoTF contest.

So that’s the report for August 2009. We’ll see where I’m at in December or there abouts.

Last Post til Worldcon!

Well, until after Worldcon really, since I’m not bringing a laptop and most likely won’t be checking the net while I’m there.

Finally got a response about Delilah. Great response short of a sale, sigh. They held the story for over 5 months, but in the end decided that due entirely to the biblical retelling nature of the story they had no spot for it. Apparently they loved it otherwise though and want to see something else. *rubs hands together* Fine! Something else you say? I has something else for you…

Well, I’ll have something else for them after Worldcon. I’m beyond oh god oh god I’m full of lame panic and into the “I hope all those reservations I made back in Jan still are good” and “where did I put that thing I totally need for the trip” panic. I made a list, and now I can’t find my list. I’m made of organized, really.

If anyone wants to catch up with me at Worldcon, I’ll be the terrified looking one with the short blue and orange hair.

I’ll be taking notes while I’m there and hopefully posting the funny, strange, or useful stuff here afterwards.

In Life, There is no Partial Credit

I *almost* sold a story. Sometimes I wonder if there isn’t a nice balance between rejections with comments and form letters.

On the one hand, I’m glad to know what kept the mag from buying my story. On the other hand, it’s tough to know that one small thing (ok, a central premise of the tale which I’m not sure will ever be to that reader’s taste…) kept my story from selling.

With a little help from my friends, however, I should be able to edit and clear that up at least a bit (already started on that part, so we’ll see).

But darnit. Almost. There.

Edit to add: I wrote and asked if they’d look at a rewrite, and they will! So there might be hope yet. Go go go little story.

Meanwhile, back to edits on things and stuff. And maybe some fricken writing. I really want to be done with this novel draft already.

But first, back to ‘research’. Also known as reading 17 Drizzt books. Every one of those books made the NY best seller’s list, so I’m picking them apart to see what worked. (Or you know, devouring the silly DnD heroics like candy, which is almost the same thing).

I think my stories need more kick-ass heroes.

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