Knight26 Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 Well the publisher who requested the additional pages wrote me back, a little bummed right now, so will let their words talk for me: Sean J. Schauer:Thank you for sharing your work, Infinity War The Academy Years, with us. Unfortunately, this manuscript is not quite what we are looking for. Please keep us in mind for any future submissions. Yours Truly, XXXXXXXXXXXXX Editorial & Sales Manager, XXXXX Publications Oh well, the beginning of the book is not the best written and I have been toying around with rewriting it. However, I have still not heard back from a couple publishers including my first choice, who all recieved the whole book, so I am not totally bummed yet. But if they reject me I will just go to plan B, rewrite the beginning and start submitting short stories for a year before resubmitting with the new beginning. Well appreciate all your support, always knew it would be a painful process, but as the song goes "I will survive!" Quote
EXO Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 Sorry to hear that Sean. Hopefully you don't let this discourage you. Glad to hear your bouncing right backwith rewrites. Good luck & keep charging! Quote
Nightbat Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 Oh man, too bad Well, at least it will give you the chance to change some things you don't like (instead of pulling a Lucas on your fans 25 years from now ) Quote
Radd Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 I'd reccomend looking into 'plan b' right now, actually. No matter how good your story is, publishers would rather pick up short stories from new authors. Names sell better than quality, unfortunately, and publishers are more willing to give the new people a small spot in a sci-fi/fantasy magazine, then a whole book or a novella taking up many pages of such a magazine. However, if you start by submitting lots of short stories, build a name and reputation for yourself, then you have a much better chance of getting a longer story printed in some form later on, and more such stories as time goes on. I'm not saying you should stop submitting this story, I'm just saying you should work on some short stories in the meantime and get your name out there. Quote
pfunk Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 sorry to hear, Im sure if you stick to it, something good will come to ya, its the way of the walk Quote
Blaine23 Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 I agree with Radd... keep working on your big ideas but hone your craft as much as you can with short stories... You'll get your shot, Knight. Good luck. Quote
Vostok 7 Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 I agree with them... You'll have better success selling short stories and then working up a book... You could try splitting your story into little sections to put it in a magazine or something, then once they start getting popular, put them togeather (with maybe some new material or an ending or something) into a novel. Try to get your name out, and then try to go for the gusto. Vostok 7 Quote
Knight26 Posted February 18, 2004 Author Posted February 18, 2004 Thanks for the encouragement guys. Actually the short stories I have written rough outlines for all occur in the same fictional universe, but star characters that appear onyl briefly in the books. They are all really fun characters that I liked and it lets me experiment with them more, so that is the plan. Of course I am waiting to hear from the last couple publishers before I impliment the plan. As I said a year+ of short story writing before I resubmit should hopefully be enough to get my name out there and better my chances of publication. I will update you all as events warrant. Quote
motley Posted February 19, 2004 Posted February 19, 2004 where have you been submitting your short stories, if i may ask? straight to the publishers? have you tried any of the magazines, like Analog or Azimov's? and also did you send your manuscript to Baen? they seem to be the best choice for what i've seen of your setting. good luck and don't give up. Quote
Angel's Fury Posted February 19, 2004 Posted February 19, 2004 I'd reccomend looking into 'plan b' right now, actually. No matter how good your story is, publishers would rather pick up short stories from new authors. Names sell better than quality, unfortunately, and publishers are more willing to give the new people a small spot in a sci-fi/fantasy magazine, then a whole book or a novella taking up many pages of such a magazine. However, if you start by submitting lots of short stories, build a name and reputation for yourself, then you have a much better chance of getting a longer story printed in some form later on, and more such stories as time goes on. I'm not saying you should stop submitting this story, I'm just saying you should work on some short stories in the meantime and get your name out there. Sorry to hear that. I'd go with Radd's suggestion. Btw, that's how my fav author Stephen King starded out. Good luck! Quote
kanata67 Posted February 20, 2004 Posted February 20, 2004 a number of famous authors started out with short stories to get going. I've read alot and most of my favorite authors started this way. HEck... my favorite author is harlan ellison and over 90% of his stuff is short stories. Heinlien started out the whole lazarus long series with a short story and now there are a bunch of related books orson scott card, bradbury, + just about every other sci-fi author started that way. Read some of the older sci-fi/fantasy magazine, analog, etc and see how many famous authors started out there. heinlien did a recurring theme about one character, with short stories about him appearing in almost all his anthologies. Wish I could remember the characters name buwithout digging through my books. Quote
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