Last week, On saturday, I quietly sent off a query to a literary agency, and as expected, I guess they're not interested in my work either. At least they were up front about their contact policy on their web site, and they provided a query form to use. I have a few other submission policies bookmarked, I'll go at one of those next week since I'm too tired to do it before the camping trip. When I get back, I'll sit down and plan some strategy on submitting, and even look more deeply into alternative publishing methods for a workable solution for me. I've only had two rejections so far, so I'm not giving up on traditional publishing methods, but I am being realistic about getting the book out there.
I'll be offline from tomorrow afternoon till Wednesday, I'm heading back into the cabins at the state park again. That kind of get-away does me a lot of good.
I have most of the reference material I need to do the sketches for the burn project. I didn't anticipate some of the difficulties I ran into with the search efforts, but I'll come up with something. I'm taking the ref material I do have with me on the camping trip to have something to do while I'm there, and to get at least that much done so I can start burning next week as planned.
Comments
whtdragon:
I suppose that's one of them cycles. I'll be glad to get all the work I have piling up done though, I'm almost a whole year behind in my artwork!
AngelBest Dream:
Gentle mist, thick and lazy drifts across cool damp grass, hanging among a stretch of trees in thin spiderweb wisps. Pale, dim morning light reaches it's fingers through barren, twisted and bleached gray brown branches, touching damp earth and stone lost below thick silvery white. A weak chorus of distant moring songbirds tunes their pipes for a serenade as a low shuffle and grumble rolls through the blanket of fog. The shuffle grows louder as a form begins to materialize out of the pallid nothingness of this autumn morning, the shape, still shrouded by shadow and mist halts, taking in the serenity of the moment. A low rumble escapes from the form, replaced suddenly by a thunderous hissing roar and bright burst of yellow flame. The dragon has returned. It never ceases to amaze me where I'll find an inspiration. That passage came from your dragon roar greeting. Imagine it being narrated by Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery, or Basil Rathbone and it'll sound right in your head.
Thank you for saying so. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I don't really try to be a great dragon, I'm just a dragon who's passionate about his topics. As for ignorance, it's only a hinderance if you let it be one. There's no harm in seeking knowledge where it's lacking, I do that all the time (I just hide it well).
It's an honor for me to be able to post here in this community and be received with such warmth and insight to my posts. I write well, I think, as a mechanism of self-assurance. Aside from not having the paper diploma from my high school (I do have my 21 credits, the story behind that is a long one I care not to tell), I have been unemployed for seven years, and I have been through so many hardships in job hunting, with nothing to show for them, that my mind seeks some outlet to prove to myself that it's doing something productive with my existence. I may not earn a cent for it, but at least I provide something valuable to someone other than myself.
Right now TheOtaku has Cosplay, Fan Manga, Greetings, Wallpapers, and Quizzes as active sites, with Articles, and Reviews being closed to new submissions, and not being linked on TheOtaku anymore, aside from the links in portfolios of people who have content posted in those areas. There is a lot of attention being focused on visual art, but not the full scope of the term "art". A simple haiku that paints a picture in your mind, or a complex story that has you reading from start to finish in one sitting is as much art as pictures of chibi Ed ranting about being called short, Naruto and sasuke (or any pairing of characters) making out, scantily clad busty anime babes, or half-naked hot anime guys. Art is about expression not the media used. Whether it be with a computer program, a pencil and paper, a hot iron on wood, or words being spoken around a campfire in style of Homer, being delivered on stage in the style of Shakespeare, or put to paper and bound in the styles of too many great word artists to name, they are artists as much as Warhol, or Dali, Da Vinci, or Van Gogh. They're media are different, but they are all artists at heart. It saddens me to see the focus on one art form while blinding itself to the other artforms that are just as important to the community. The thing of it is though, Adam repeatedly states or implies that he's trying to out-deviant DeviantArt. That will never happen if he doesn't do like DeviantArt, and provide for written content submissions. Even TokyoPop's community has space for written content by way of fan fiction and user articles.
If I were at war with Tor, you'd certainly know it by the tone of my posting. That was just a Public Service to people who consider submitting their work to Tor. Prospecting authors have the right to know that they'll get an impersonal reply that contradicts every author I've ever seen doing a TV interview where they say the rejection letters they got from publishers offer some form of advice to help authors improve their marketability. The rejection itself doesn't bother me one bit, but having learned in theatre how to properly give and take good critique, I'm easily annoyed by a lack of information when it comes to feedback responses. It's hard to fix a problem if I don't know what's broken. I can't polish the manuscript if I don't know what's turning off the editors and agents about it. Nothing in life that's really worth doing is going to ever be easy, if it were, it wouldn't be as fulfilling. Getting someone to believe in the story, and have them willing to take the risk to put it out to the masses is a complex process. Publishers don't want to deal with authors who don't have agents, agents don't always want to deal with authors who don't have publications to their name, it's a vicious circular trap that has to open up at some point. Even while this manuscript is in limbo, I'm already working on my next one, and I'll keep on writing novels and submitting them all until at least one of them is accepted somewhere. I can be very stubborn that way.
Mamma Vash:
Being rejected itself wasn't unexpected. I'm a first timer seeking entry into the publishing world, so it's going to be harder for me to get that foot in the door. The lack of anything useful at all by way of information in the rejection letter, and the swiftness of it coming to me, leave more questions than answers about the whole thing. The lack of a signature or a name associated with the letter shows the impersonal nature of the company, the absence of specific information in the response hints at a less than thorough review of the material, and it does reflect poorly upon them.
That was a lucky break for you then. Not being publishes was better for you. Odd I know, but like my luck with job applications, having a source credit that went under doesn't appeal to others. I hope I get that break myself too.
Yensid:
For me, I'm trained to take feedback if it's given the right way. I can't wrap my mind around two sentences that tell me none of the things I need to know about the rejection or how to make my story appeal to editors. Being rejected itself is a little disheartening, but it wasn't unexpected, so it's not a devestating blow by itself. I expect to be rejected many times before I'm accepted, if I haven't hit my self-imposed deadline and self-published first.
Okay, if I understand you correctly, published authors are not truthful about the rejection process they went/go through. In almost every interview I've seen on TV, heard on the radio, or read online or in print somewhere, published authors go into how the rejection letters provide the feedback that helps them make their manuscripts better. There's something rotten in the state of Denmark, and I'll end my thought right there.
If the letter wasn't worthless, I probably would take it to heart, but since it gave me nothing, I'll give it nothing in return.
I owe you guys for promising a lot of pictures of the convention, I got a total of 7 pictures from the convention, that's unacceptable to me, so I want to make it up to you all by doing a special art piece. I asked the question should I do the art piece on wood (as in have 5 wood burn projects instead of the four) or should I do it on paper like a regular art piece. I'm giving everyone till the end of the month to offer their opinon on the matter, that's when I'll do the piece. If I get no input, I'll decide on my own.
It's not really my place to bring this up, but encouraging that kind of behavior isn't exactly a good thing for the whole family. Pets, like people, do like to get attention, but maybe she should be taught to seek it in a less aggressive manner.
One of the pieces in my backlog is a dragn yin/yang piece for a friend (I will post it here when it's done). I've got to get that done soon. I believe in the concept of universal balance, but it's not a symbol I'd want a permanent part of me (I wear a yin/yang post earring to keep the hole in my ear open anyway). I do however like the idea of incorporating an ankh into a tattoo design with a dragon. I can see some possibilities there and I'll work out a rough sketch this weekend on the camping trip.
Yeah, Microsoft doesn't do tech support for 98 anymore so it's a good idea to upgrade. Beauty of Vista being out, machines with XP on them will be bargains.
Outlaw Melfina:
The thing about a company being impersonal like that is it's a two way street. They obviously don't care about me as a person, so why should I care about them as a company? That's a lot of books in the genre I read that I might think twice about buying after seeing the Tor/Forge logos on them.
It's getting cooler at night now here too, I don't expect the heat to hang around too much longer in the day either, but it likes to spite me by proving me wrong regularly.
NekoMimi16:
It's their loss when they make it painfully obvious that they don't pay attention to details. As I mentioned in the previous comment, when it's apparent a company thinks little of me, I think little of that company right back. Respect is earned, and Tor lost mine.
Always hit 'em with a cream pie. It's far more embarrassing to a mean spirited snit(Yes, I spelled that correctly) to be slapped in the face with a sticky, goopy, cream pie.
twilight samurai:
Oh my family has all manner of colorful metaphors for situations like that, none of which are clean enough to post here so I won't go into those. It's unfortunate for me only because I really needed the time to rest up from geting to the submission point, since publishers and agents don't like when you submit to multiple sources at the same time, I was expecting to have to wait longer before putting it out to someone else. That's time I don't have now because I want this book out.
I doubt it's fear that motivates their impersonal nature. Given that the letter was a photocopy, I think it qualifies laziness to be the key motivator. But see, where they mess up is in being lazy that way, it raises the question: Did they actually look at my work at all, or did they dispose of it without even a glance? They lose their credibility when they don't provide details. Sure it saves their editing department time, but at what cost to the company?
I already have the wood plaques to burn, I got them last week. The nice thing about having a big art supply store in town, it has good prices on lots of stuff. Now if on'y they'd get the toning sheets to go with the manga art boards, manga paper, and Sakura micron pens, they'd be doing something. Shipping the plaques isn't going to be all that costly, even through the USPS it won't be more than a few bucks if I go with the right delivery method. My biggest concern is letting the pieces dry (I clearcoat my wood burned pieces) enough so that sending them thorugh the mail won't set off flammable chemical alarms at whatever checkpoints the package may go through. While these aren't commercial pieces, keep that offer in mind because I'm going to have a small survey for you and the others who'll be getting the pieces, and I need to know if it'll be better to send you that survey with the piece and have you mail it back (I'd cover the postage), or find a way to do it online.
I may experiement with updating on other days to see if I like something else a little better than the Saturday schedule I'm on now. I kind of like doing the update on Tuesday, so I may shift to that for a while, just to see how it goes. That won't be till after my camping trip, so next week will be on Wed or Thursday, then after that it'll be Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll update my other blogs on Saturday though since I get few readers on one, and no readers on the other two.
Magnus Lensherr:
I think any malice is unintentional, but the blatant lack of personality in the letter shows a lack of interest, and their overly quick reply indicates that they either don't get the number of submission that they'd have people believe, or they don't read unsolicited submissions while making the claim that they do. Either way it looks bad on them, not me. At least in my cover letter I apologized for not being able to address the appropriate editor by name since I couldn't find the information anywhere online to properly address my letter. I'm sure a publisher will take the risk with my book, but right now, I'm going at the angle of getting a literary agent, since more publishers are thumbing their nose at unsolicited work these days, I figure it wouldn't hurt to tap an agent to sell my work to publishers for me. They do after all know how to do that part right.
The idea was sound, but the application needs work. I'd sell my photos online if I had the place to do it. but that's going to have to wait till something starts some income flowing for me somewhere.
I was expecting to have an easier time finding the reference material to work from, so the final pieces have been delayed longer than I originally thought. They'll be done as soon as I can put them out though, so no worries. On that note, would it be easier on you to answer a short survey online, or mail-in (I'll cover the postage).
The idea was (according to authors whom I'm increasing believing are being told to lie about rejection letter contents) that the letter would tell me why the manuscript wasn't right for the publisher (in this case Tor), and have some suggested improvements to make the story more marketable to someone else. They didn't do me that courtesy, so I have no idea where I need to focus my polishing efforts. Tor is one of many publishers in the Sci-fi genre here, the problem being a lot of them won't take stuff from just anybody (unsolicited material), they want to get their material through an agent, which is the angle I'm currently working right now, though I'm having about as much luck with it as I did with Tor.
Dragons are my thing, not spiders, but I have an idea, it's a surprise though, can't say anything more for now.
Cheshire Madness:
I'll drink to that, Corporate America royally sucks, blows, and many other more vulgar things.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing, I'm taking the agent angle now since more places don't want unsolicited stuff. I hope I'll have good news on that front soon, but if I don't, I'm prepared to go my own way with it.
Actually, I already have a sample piece I did a while back. I do intend to post the others here when they're done as well.
I'm in Hillbilly Hell, oops, I mean West Virginia. The farthest I'd be willing to talk my family into taking me for a convention would be to Columbus OH to the West, Probably up as far as Youngstown OH or Pittsburgh PA to the north, give or take a little, but kept within reason. That convention does look to be a good one, but it's out of my travel range.
BASH:
Well, I think that's the point, that it's a standard "one size fits all" response that doesn't actually fit anyone. You know, my story actually hedges at least three different genres easily, so it kind of rewuires a specialized response. They didn't even offer me a simple "you might want to consider using _______ as the primary genre of your work instead of Sci-fi" if genre was an issue for them. Oh, count on me not giving up on the book, I'll keep pushing till someone decides to put it out, or I put it out through self-publishing methods myself. That's not the ideal solution, but if I have to take it, I certainly will.
Sleeping isn't hard for me, I taught myself a self-hypnosis trick to cure that. Putting together a project to use what I am good at as a source of income, even in tiny amounts, is the challenge I have trouble with.
Naturally. I coudln't do the things then not show them off.
The weather's playing games with me right now, it was warm early this week, now it's getting cold again. I wish it would make up it's mind so I know what to pack for the camping trip in a couple days.
Shireishou:
That is not a surprise to me, I think it's kind of an American thing for companies to be big, soulless, and out of touch with the people they supposedly want to hear from. I look at it this way, when the book is out, it's Tor's loss and I'll make sure they know it, within appropriate context to avoid being called libelous. All in all, the whole thing goes against even the basics of good feedback (see here and here for "in a nutshell" common sense critiquing). I wish I could say I learned something from the submission to Tor, as well as one I made last week to a Literary Agency, but neither of those taught me anything.
The character interests me in a deeply mental way, that's why I have to do him for this project. I've never seen that anime, but I think it might be one I'd like if I ever did get to see it. I know Illumitoon (A company that came about from former FUNimation employees, I think) has it licensed in the US, so that shouldn't be too hard to find (Volume 1 of the DVD is out already, I'll have to try to find it). I will need a favor from you though. In a rare case of US based search engine ignorance, I can't find a whole lot of reference material for Hokuto, if you could point me in the right direction for some images, I'd really appreciate it. Also, while I'm on the subject, I'm putting together a small survey for the people who will be receiving the finished pieces, and I'd like to know which would be easier on you, a mail-in survey (postage paid by me), or online (if I can find a way to do it)?
LOL There certainly is truth to that. What better place to see cosplay at it's finest than the country which inspired it around the world? Seeing the photos is one thing, but I gained a whole new respect for the art after seeing it in person. Photos only capture so much of the details, but there's far more depth to the experience first hand. Anyone who takes the time and effort to make such elaborate costumes certainly gets high marks from me.
That's okay, not too many people know a whole lot about my novel, I kind of keep a tight lid on it so it'll be all the better when it does come out. Thanks for the well wishes, Every little bit of support I get means the world to me, and it keeps me stiving to get the work out there so it can be enjoyed by others.
