{"id":5824,"date":"2019-06-10T13:50:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T13:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=5824"},"modified":"2019-06-23T11:45:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T11:45:06","slug":"the-half-blood-editor-on-rejections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/the-half-blood-editor-on-rejections\/","title":{"rendered":"THE HALF-BLOOD EDITOR: ON REJECTIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editing for anthologies and magazines is a strange game. A true editor is knowledgeable, fast, crisp and ruthless. \u201cWe regret that we cannot offer your story a place. Thanks. Goodbye.\u201d A true editor has a single-minded vision of what they want, and a rule of iron. A dozen submissions processed with a steely glance and the press of a key.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m the Other Guy\/Girl. I\u2019m relatively slow and painstaking, unless confronted with clear genius; I read and re-read submissions, in case I missed something. I wonder if my original concept could be diverted slightly for a particularly fine piece of writing. I know the horrors of Being A Writer, and I shift between wanting to send interesting borderline stuff back immediately, and waiting to see if I might squeeze it in somehow (answer: send it back asap with a positive note \u2013 another market might want it). I occasionally suggest developmental rewrites, when I should say No, not enough time.<\/p>\n

Which means that I please a small cadre of people, and probably annoy a much larger one. It makes me a Half-Blood Editor. But I have been thinking about this a lot recently, having just completed another anthology. And had I been editing fiction for twenty years or more (though I have edited an awful lot of non-fiction over the decades), I might be well placed to make some acute observations. Instead, after a few years of hacking away at it, I end up with a few idle reflections…<\/p>\n

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By the way, if you\u2019re a hardened, experienced writer, the following will probably be of no use to you whatsoever. But I\u2019ve typed it out now, so tough – I have deadlines as well, you know? Sheesh!<\/p>\n

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WHY REJECTIONS HAPPEN<\/h1>\n

Because they didn\u2019t want your story. But apart from that, what\u2019s going on? Many markets reject more than 95% of what comes to them (or even 99%). As an immediate example, Occult Detective Quarterly takes maybe ten stories out of every two hundred plus submissions. Is there any sense to this slaughter?<\/p>\n

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Unsuccessful submissions tend to fall into set categories, and the following account for almost all of the rejections I send out:<\/p>\n

1) THE TOTAL WIPEOUT<\/h3>\n

Wrong place for this story, and should never have been sent<\/em>. Does no one read the guidelines? This is a hugely puzzling and too common situation, as if someone has a story, and just sends it randomly to any SFF\/Horror market. If you can\u2019t see specifics in the publisher\u2019s guidelines, fair enough, but even then, glance at the magazine or previous anthologies from that publisher, and get a feel for what they like. You don\u2019t have to mindlessly follow a formula, but at least throw them something which might be in their ball park.<\/p>\n

Also, wipeout on length \u2013 you should query them in advance if you\u2019re going to break the word count boundaries to any significant degree. They may have a look; they may not. If you\u2019ve worked with them before, they may be more amenable (I am, because I\u2019m soft in the head), but don\u2019t assume stuff.<\/p>\n

And also also \u2013 they weren\u2019t open anyway.<\/p>\n

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2) TOO SOON A HARVEST<\/h3>\n

Writer hasn\u2019t fully grasped the craft of writing yet.<\/em> You need to read more, reflect and practice. You might well get there, but it\u2019s too soon. There\u2019s an easy way to tell, if you\u2019re honest with yourself \u2013 compare your story to those published in a few popular and\/or well-reviewed journals or anthologies, and ask yourself if you are at least matching that general level of competence.<\/p>\n

Look at the flow of dialogue and pacing in other people\u2019s work, and touches like speech attribution, density of qualifiers, paragraph formation and so on. Consider the feelings you have after reading those stories. Go on, tell yourself the truth, and get your pen\/keyboard ready for some more work. Get a grip on the craft, and then you can decide what you want to take from it, and what you want to abandon consciously. Surprisingly few apprentice carpenters manage to construct a polished oak desk with exquisite detail and rosewood marquetry in their first year.<\/p>\n

There is, sadly, a subset here – writers who are so convinced they\u2019ve grasped it all, they\u2019re not open to critiques or development. And they argue. Not cool.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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3) ALMOST FORMED FANTASTICALS<\/h3>\n

Not technically ready for consumption.<\/em> That\u2019s the story, not the writer. There are lots of terrific unpolished tales which require more time and attention, and another edit, which should have been beta-read again or re-examined a month later, and rewritten. I get plenty of these, some with wonderful concepts or approaches, and it\u2019s a shame to see promise without quite enough delivery. Maybe they\u2019ve been rushed to hit a deadline, but in general, few editors have the time or will to spend hours \u2018fixing\u2019 things at a serious level.<\/p>\n

Ask yourself if it\u2019s ready to face the world. It may be a fine bird, but it should be pretty much oven-ready, really, not still needing a bit of plucking and stuffing (insert tofu or chestnut roast equivalent for this last line, as desired).<\/p>\n

4) NEITHER ALPHA NOR RUNT<\/h3>\n

Good, but is it good enough?<\/em> There are only ever so many slots available. Your writing itself may be jolly decent, but if it has a fairly standard trope delivered in fairly standard fashion… well, it\u2019ll be seen as perfectly competent, but maybe not innovative or affecting enough to earn a place against strong competition.<\/p>\n

A hard category of rejections, because editorial taste may swing either way, and as each market is different, you may place some of these eventually. These are the ones you either have to improve, or peddle again and again in hope.<\/p>\n

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5) DOESN\u2019T FIT THIS TIME<\/h3>\n

Not a lot you can do about this one.<\/em> There\u2019s a feel or a shape to what the editor\u2019s trying to do, and they\u2019ll have their own notions of which stories would fit together \u2013 they may be looking for an overall mood for what they\u2019re assembling, or they may be seeking a range of styles. It\u2019s common to have too many similar submissions \u2013 be that to do with style or content \u2013 and have to pick only one for practical reasons.<\/p>\n

So your story may be pretty darned good, but if it\u2019s the tenth one set in the States in the same period, or the seventh with the same general character type as protagonist\u2026 etc. You may have written a dark mood piece, and the overall project has too much darkness already, or a lighter story which would stand out like an extra thumb. Good on its own, but not here.<\/p>\n

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6) THE EDITOR\u2019S A PICKY BASTARD<\/h3>\n

Tropes, themes, styles and more which don\u2019t float the editor\u2019s boat.<\/em> Some markets actually list these in their guidelines, so you have no excuses. And they\u2019re hugely variable. I know markets which do not like First Person narratives, and ones which will never take a vampire tale, however good. Markets which adore nuanced, liminal work, and markets which want a cracking action-filled story and hate things which end with a question as to what just happened.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m much quicker when it comes to tropes and themes I just don\u2019t like when I\u2019m editing. The decision here is quite simple. Is it technically good enough, or unusual enough, that a decent swathe of readers might want to see it?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a believer in editing to create the perfect mirror of my own tastes. My job is to put together a range of well-crafted stories which will intrigue, interest, delight or worry a wide range of those who might buy the end result. It\u2019s not to show off Stuff I Like, and look cool (not that there\u2019s much chance of that).<\/p>\n

But I do have areas which irritate my bristles, naturally. Whilst there\u2019s always a writer who can breathe new life into old ideas, or find a genius twist and re-interpretation, in general, I\u2019m quite averse to some things, such as:<\/p>\n