I haven’t had any news for ages hence my lack of blogging - this is a good thing. Much better than me whinging about how crap my depressed life is. Truthfully, I haven’t been doing much except sleeping though today I fared much better and managed to read a few E. A. Poe stories, hop on the treadmill for 45 minutes (I kid you not) and practise my gamba.
Today I received one of the submissions I’d sent out about a month or so ago. The envelope was nice and thick (not very encouraging as it means R-E-J-E-C-T-I-O-N) but seeing as I didn’t know a thing about their magazine and only that they were looking for short stories and poetry.
They actually bothered to type up a letter and thanked me for my professionally handled submission. Uh-huh, whatever. Well duh! How else are you supposed to look good if you don’t treat the submission process seriously?! Ugh! They then told me the short story I submitted wasn’t a short story (pretty stupid when they could have said mine didn’t fit their criteria - 1500 words is not a short story to me. It’s a vignette. Mark - we’ll be having words about this…). They also told me my poetry needed editing. Interesting. Edit how exactly? Who are you that I’m supposed to believe you when two real poets had told me one of them was publishable?! Ugh again! Okay, so maybe it’s not fantastic work I gave them but the vague comment had me peeved.
And what came next? An ‘invitation’ to join their workshop and ‘present’ what I’m up to. As if anyone would care?!?! And of course, a form to join their group. I’m beginning to think the ‘call’ to submit poems and short stories was just a hidden member recruitment drive. I’m also suspicious of anyone that labels themselves ‘poet laureate’. According to whom? Self-named?
The thing is I’d actually considered joining when I first learnt about the group independently - it’d be a good thing for me to go to when I move closer to the city but now I don’t know. I could try going to one to see how I like it I guess. In this last year I’ve become a seasoned writing group attender and am after something serious (sounds like a relationship, hahaha!) as many of the ones I’ve been to have been too amateurish.
I should stress that I’m not annoyed by the comments made even if they seem uselessly brief and valid by anyone’s standards - it’s the fact that the call for submissions seems to be a thinly veiled way of soliciting members for their writing group. Perhaps I misread things but it does very much seem that way. My father was watching me as I opened the rejection of submission wondering what on earth I was looking so perplexed about! Sigh, another day of fun and games in the would-be writer’s day.
owen | 02-Jul-07 at 1:43 am | Permalink
Hey
Long time, no see/hear/email/etc …
Anyway, just wanted to say that having had my earth-shattering paper rejected from six journals in a row (with comments such as “your work is tolerable, I suppose, but not interesting enough to tempt *us*!”, or words to that effect), I feel your pain
Rejection in any form sucks, but rejection of your work, when you’ve put so much into it, really hurts. But I can also tell you a story of journals getting their comeuppance that should make you smile:
I was lucky enough last year to hear Australia’s most recent Nobel laureate, Barry Marshall (no relation!) speak. He’s a wonderful speaker, with a well-honed talk complete with comic book drawings* … but one of the highlights of his speech was when he recounted his initial attempts to publish the work that ultimately won him the Prize.
Back then, nobody wanted to believe that a bacterium was the cause of stomach ulcers, and he had a whole string of rejections from the top journals. I think he ended up having to publish his initial findings in some lowly and obscure rag. But this guy had the foresight back then to *keep* the rejection letters saying “you don’t know what you’re talking about, you silly Aussie scientist”, and put them up on slides in his talk - making all these big journals look extremely foolish! It was a lovely moment - you could just hear the collective sigh as everyone in the audience thought, “take *that*, Bembridge scholars!” …
Anyway, don’t let it get to you. Your poetry is awesome, and a pox on those that say otherwise
*) From a comic of himself doing his experiments on stomach ulcer-causing bacteria**, drawn by the creator of The Hulk, if I recall correctly! Desperately funny, but also slightly disturbing …
**) Of course, the guy did drink a cocktail of bacteria to prove that you could get stomach ulcers from them, so I guess he deserves some sort of super-heroic recognition.
Grace Notes @ Snarkattack | 04-Jul-07 at 6:22 pm | Permalink
Hi Owen!
Oh my gosh, that is a heart-warming story indeed about the rejections! I’m sorry to hear your paper has been rejected…that totally blows. I hope the journals come to rue the day they sent you rejection slips too!
Wow, that’s pretty amazing about the fellow actually inducing bacteria to prove his point! Definitely heroic.
Violent_Kitten | 22-Jul-07 at 12:59 am | Permalink
Crappy. Sorry about the rejection, love. I agree about the soliciting though…ugh! A bit similar; I was in the petrol station yesterday when a girl tried to sign me up for a credit card. She was so snappy and fast, she almost had me in my jetlaggedness: “Give me your address, give me your licence details…you can reject it when it comes in the mail!” I made it easy and rejected it right there!
Grace Notes @ Snarkattack | 23-Jul-07 at 10:04 pm | Permalink
You’re a smooth one, totally the best thing to do. What is it with marketing being so damn intrusive?! I understand they have to make a living but still…