I sent off a “Please Reject Me” request today, otherwise known as submitting a story for publication. Any author who’s anyone can paper their wall with rejection slips. A lot of this has to do with the fact that authors tend to think they’re better authors before they actually get better.
As with anything, writing involves practice. I remember when I first wrote The Outlaw I thought it was the best thing I’ve ever written. When I wrote Public Transit, that novel blew The Outlaw away. Why? Because two and a half years passed between when I thought I finished The Outlaw and when I finished Public Tranist. During that time, I got better. In fact, when I reread the “final” draft for The Outlaw it embarrasses me because of how poorly written it is.
But that’s more of a digression than relevant to this post. I sent off a story today and decided that I might as well aim as high as possible, so I picked The New Yorker to submit it to. Consequently, my chances of being published there are quite small. On the other hand, I have the audacity of hope (to steal a phrase from some charlatan in a cheap suit) so I think, “If they read it, they won’t reject it.”
We shall see what comes of it. In many ways submitting a manuscript is much like asking a girl out. You have the same nervousness as you present a request. “Will you go out with me?” is not that much different from “Will you publish this work?” Both put you out there and you risk rejection. Of course, if you ask a girl out there’s a slight difference: you’ll know a whole lot quicker whether she rejects you than you’ll know if The New Yorker rejects you!
So I’ll wait with baited anticipation for a response. But that won’t stop me from writing new things. I figure it’s time for me to create my “platform” of published works, something that I could attract an agent to. My goal is to submit one short story every month (not all to The New Yorker of course, especially since they request no more than two submissions per year per author and a good way to not get published is to piss off the publisher!). Perhaps I’ll go a year. I don’t know. I’ll test various genres. And of course in the meantime I’ll also continue to edit my novels. Novels tend to come easily enough to me, so I don’t mind spending a lot of time on short stories instead of working on them. Besides, the payoff once I do get my foot in the door will be well worth it. After all, even if half of my stories are rejected, I’ll still have a “platform” with the other half. And I’ll be able to submit those that were rejected to other magazines, after I look over the story to make sure there’s no way I could improve it.
Anyway, that’s the goal. Here’s hoping that in five years I’ll be on the NYT Best Sellers list. :-)
