Re: Writing Advocacy Day

[rynling]

So, how did it all work out?

- Submit a zine application!

I'll hear back in a month, I guess. Fingers crossed.

- Submit "The Annotated Kitab al-Azif" to a magazine!

Rejected the very next day.

Oddly enough, the editors' comments were extremely positive.

- Get in touch with a local indie bookstore to see if they want to stock my Strange Philly zine!

Never replied.

This is a shame, because I've been selling at least one copy of this zine every day on Etsy. It's a good zine, I think, and it's been getting really good feedback. The first print run is almost sold out.

ETA: They got back to me! They said they're happy to stock the Strange Philly zine, and they want copies of the other zines too. They told me they sell really well, and that people have been coming in and asking if they have any new ones. Nice!

- Ping my editor at WWAC to look at the book reviews I've submitted!

Never replied.

I don't think my reviews are bad, though. Just this week my book review blog was featured by a German literary podcast, and they were very supportive and kind.

I have the immense privilege to know an extremely talented writer in real life, and she's just as smart and magnetic in person as she is on paper. Aside from running a popular pseudonymous account on Twitter, however, the only thing she's published is fanfiction. She once explained to me that this is a deliberate choice, as she'd prefer not to mix the joy of writing with the hell of self-promotion. And I totally get that.

Comments

[raisedbymoogles]

that seems like a pretty good set of results? \o/

[rynling]

You're right, of course. It's good to keep things in perspective!

Rejection puts me in such a wretched mood, though. It's the sort of thing I have to adjust my schedule to accommodate. Like, "I guess I'm just going to have to stop working and take the rest of the day off to play video games." Such a hard life I live lmao.

[lassarina]

I'm glad for your successes! I'm sorry that rejection is hard, though :(

[rynling]

Thank you so much!

Rejection is definitely difficult. It's not just the instinctive gut reaction to having someone close the door in my face; it's also the strangeness of seeing what gets published and wondering what my own work is lacking. I feel like there's some sort of unspoken standard that has nothing to do with whether a piece of writing is "good enough" or "original and creative," and it's crazy-making to attempt to figure out what that entails. I can't help but wonder if the key ingredient of the secret sauce involves proving that you're "serious about writing" by means of a degree, or at the very least correctly performing the identity of a writer on social media.

I recently saw a tweet that complained about magazines being a bunch of people from the same MFA programs scratching each others' backs, which is why a lot of published short fiction feels oddly samey and unspecific. That really resonated with me. If I had the time and money, I'd love to create my own digital magazine that specifically publishes the work of people without a writing degree.

[lassarina]

I wonder if that holds true across genre-focused magazines as well as litfic? (I know litfic is a genre just....publishing. [hands]) In any event, I think there's a tendency to stick to the familiar, and if that particular vibe (whatever it is) is what tickles the familiarity buttons, probably people gravitate to that over something that might challenge them or come at them from an unexpected angle, which is truly disappointing in a field where we are supposed to be discomfiting the comfortable. (Not that there is anything wrong, strictly, with knowing what you're getting; I read romance novels voraciously specifically because I require the stability of the genre contract, especially the last, oh, ten years or so. And I don't think there's anything wrong with reaching to media for comfort. But I do think that, given short fiction magazines are supposed to be, like, where the experimentation is happening because it's less risky than a full published book....it's very disappointing to see it being blended into nothingness.)

though this is probably where I admit that my reading tastes are unfortunately narrow; I like romance, some fantasy, some sci-fi (generally not hard military/Realism In Grimdark for either), and nonfiction about history. So I may not be one to talk.