Acceptance, since rejection was such a fray

Okay, let's try a different tac, okay?

What happens when you get an accepted from a pub?

Does it spur you to write more? Does it spur you to let go a little more, to try a bolder you in your writing? How long does the "high" last? Does the "high" last as long as the "low" some of you get with rejection? Does the high make you dig out other stories that you gave up subbing and get them out again?

SpookyWriter said:

What drives people, with some reasonable sense of purpose in life, to become so obsessed with publishing their work?

Now that's a good question that I've never found an answer after almost twenty years.

I think more people get rejected, dejected, and give up after a few attempts to get a rush from writing. This art form is very difficult to make a living at because of so many factors that play into publishing for money.

Good writing is difficult enough, but take into consideration that writers need a good story, a market for their work, and a publisher (editor) who feels they can also make money from the writing. Not enough readers in today's world of electronic gizmos to allow average writers a chance at publication.

I'm sure those who do get accepted are going to be more geared to writing as a commercial venture than art.

Art isn't about expression so much as it is about selling a product. Some writers may fall out of the business aspects because of the amount of time it takes from submission to acceptance.

So maye it's like dating a beauty queen for three or so years before scoring? I wonder just how excited I'd be afterwards?

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Yeah, but what kind of fiction wins the prestigious awards? Not the commercial whizz-bang stuff. It's the real stuff that makes it.

Siddow said:

First, I read the letter (or email) again, just to be sure. I think I read 'no' in there, but after two or three read-throughs, I can't find it. Yeah!

Then, I start to think it's a joke. The pub is putting together a "Craptastic Fiction" edition, and my story was selected for it.

Sigh.

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This would be a really good start to a writing article, don't you think? I love the humor.

You remind me of one of my coders. He is a crack code monkey. And he knows it. But he also gave up cuz he couldn't get hired. I found him in a gas station, working as a clerk. We got to talking. I hired him. He still keeps me in stitches with his humor. He still doesn't really believe that he's working doing what he's really good at.

KTC said:

What happens when you get an accepted from a pub?
First thing...I question their motives. I think, why would they ever accept my ****? Then, by about the third or fourth day I begin to feel safe enough to feel good about myself.

Does it spur you to write more? Does it spur you to let go a little more, to try a bolder you in your writing?
No. I always write LOTS LOTS LOTS. I am manic when it comes to writing, and already bold. The acceptance doesn't effect the way or amount that I write.


How long does the "high" last? Does the "high" last as long as the "low" some of you get with rejection? Does the high make you dig out other stories that you gave up subbing and get them out again?

Like I said, it's not a high in the very beginning, but once it becomes a high it lasts a few days. I don't really get a low with rejection...I expect them. YES...it does make me pull other things out and send them in for consideration.

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The first thing bothers me, but the rest is super cool.

Suspicion of someone who gives you a nod is, I guess, normal for someone abused. And come to think of it, writers do react alot like abuse victims. Like they can't believe the food won't be taken away or the hand giving isn't giving a slap. Something is WRONG here. I've not had that experience in either the music world or the art world. Failure to do enough rear licking is more the problem there, but there are always ways around that too without compromise. But what I THINK I am hearing now that we are really getting deep into real happening, into really what happens inside a writer with acceptance and rejection, really does sound like psychological abuse victim responses. So that would then make sense of the hostility and suspicion that writers have for both "outsiders" and the motives of editors, agents, and publishers. I think skepticism is needed, especially with all the scammers out there. Gawd knows that there are a LOT of sharks in the waters. But I also think that something is very solidly wrong in the biz if so many authors -- good authors -- wind up feeling like this. The question now roiling around my pea brain is, what causes it and are there alternative methods that will level things out so that it isn't such a traumatic process.

Every submission is an audition, not only of your writing, but of your judgement and marketing knowledge and yourself as an artist and crafter of the written word.

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These are really excellent words. Wonderful. Apt.

Thanks for responding. I appreciate this very uplifting testament. I hope a lot of the writers here read it and absorb the very postive vibes you've rendered with your post.

Well, it was my honest reaction to your post. Nice meeting you.

Didn't think you were suggesting scam at all. But I do know that many artist, musicians, and writers who aren't suspicious get taken on scams. But the first part bothered me because I believe that creativity needs to be nutured, not frosted, and it really bothers me when creativity is stifled by someone nay-saying or downing. Anyway, I would love to read your stuff when your publisher releases the e-book.

Sigh. You know, I had the complete opposite upbringing. Bigger sigh. I really do want you to keep me apprised of your career, okay? Every time you pub, send me the notice so I can follow your career. My email is available using the email link in the CP here, which will get you a response from my real one.

And that adversity will make your creativity stronger and more alive. I expect great things. So sub.

Must be the barometric pressure or something. I'm having a hard time comprehending too.

It was the lack of references that confused me. I had no idea which post or what in the posts you were referring to as bogus. I still am fuzzy on that. Could you expand on your perspectives?

Well, there are a lot of writers, artists, lyricists, composers, and musicians who are only in it to sell...to make money, not create something of intrinsic value. That isn't wrong. It's very contemporary human. The banana is everything, and however they can get it and the perks that go with it, they do. (I think poets are probably the only creative area where no one does it for end result, and intrinsic value is the driving force, not selling.)

Writers and artists who hold a passion for their work are the ones who I believe get hurt with rejection and failure, unless they have a very high sense of self-confidence about themselves and what they do. And if they have had success, then when something gets rejected, they shrug it off easier, I think.

But, quite honestly, I think that you can't lump all creative writers or artists into one or another category of motivation. If they are in it only for the golden ring and will do anything to achieve that goal, they are simply entrepreneurs using a specific artistic media to achieve their version of success and security: wealth, prestige, fame.

Just my thoughts.

Barbara Cartland's stuff is commercial. Clive Cussler's fiction is commercial. Grishom's work is commercial. Commercial doesn't mean bad or good, it just means that it's brain-candy...fun...entertaining. Contemporary works like The Bee-Keepers, Bridges of Madison County, or older stuff like Hemingway, LotR, Steinway, Twain are less commercial, though commercially successful, and more lasting. In a hundred years, Cussler and Grishom's stuff won't be being read as much as some of today's less monetarily successful works. That said, and I haven't named good examples cuz I really am rather braindead on my meds -- hazed brain syndrome, you know -- there are commercial works, even commercially successful ones that are going to prove lasting. Hunt for Red October, Silence of the Lambs, Greg Bear's Eon, Dune...to name a few I can think of.

It isn't limited appeal. It's an almost intangible quality that makes the story last. I'm not a writer. I'm not sure what the elements are that make one different than another, but I do know as a reader and as someone who used to run a book store, that certain books stick, no matter how old they get or how outdated. Sherlock Homes stories are a good example.

I happen to be a Cussler reader. I like the brain-candy he provides in his romping stories. I'll skip the boring stuff he dumps in -- his political commentaries and stuff, I see right through his propagandinzing...author whatever you people call it, but the fun is just fun. I may read two a year, though, when I am in one of my stagnations as I call it and need a brain break. Recently, I read the Da Vinci Code, and it really didn't hold me. I skimmed it finally, then trotted to the end to find out what happened...and what happened was dry and unfulfilling to me as a reader. For me, the whole book is nothing more than a series of puzzles with history mixed fact and fable stirred in, and not very well. The answers were completely visible to me before the characters came up with them. It just wasn't satisfying, yet it stormed the best sellers list. Anyway, I think I lost tac.

Later.