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No, I didn't write that book
...but I know what you mean. I read so many of those books when I started, and even then I came away wondering what the heck good they were. I like to hear stories from real people who do real things to find out how it works for them. I'd like people with marketing backgrounds who sell to corporations and the like to give some hints.
posted by
terpgirl30
on July 10, 2005 at 3:52 PM
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Sure, I just come by for the free doughnuts!
You are writing the stuff aspiring authors needs to be reading, not "How To Get Happily Publilshed" or like books.
Unless, of course, you wrote that book.
Then I'm sorry......
posted by
majroj
on July 10, 2005 at 10:12 AM
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Maj...absolutely, two years seems like forever,
but that assumes you have an ongoing stream of work. You keep putting queries out, and they will get rejected, and you keep putting them out. The magazine itself will have that July deadline for Christmas. Magazines have about a 2-month wait (ideally)...which puts you back to May. Well, that's optimistic, in my opinion. Once you get the okay on the article, you still have to talk contract and all the particular AND actually write the article. So, give yourself a mere 2 months for the money/contract/writing part. You're at May on that. So to sell to that magazine, go back the minimum two months...March. No way, no how are you getting it in two months, seriously, so even if that EXACT FIRST magazine contacts you...we've conservatively put you at February/March for Christmas the next year. I added that extra year because until you get really good at pitching a market or get in with a market, you will be throwing lots and lots of ideas out there. That SAME idea can be seen by 5 or so publications. You can do multiple submissions but since it's not a time-sensitve thing, I wouldn't do as much of it, just consecutive submissions of the same idea. Five publications at the 2 months...and you're almost back 2 years.
You're right, it's really depressing. If you are sending out one idea after another, eventually you won't feel it. You will be throwing that 2-year before Christmas article out there at the same time you are sending out ideas to do now. Within a year, you will catch up time wise. It will be neither here nor there timewise. The idea is that you will have enough to keep you busy for the year, getting paid for a year's worth during a year. Those first five years of doing this, you have to keep telling yourself that and work just as hard for that thing dangling way out there like a carrot.
Thanks for stopping by Maj!
posted by
terpgirl30
on July 10, 2005 at 9:49 AM
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Two years out?!
THAT should have been the title for your post!
I've read that notable authors are always swamped with ideas from readers, fans and erstwhile writers (the last bunch including those who would then want a piece of the action if the author writes anything resembling the idea they mailed in).
One science fiction/horror author (NOT Steven King, although he relates it in "Danse Macabre"), when asked where he got his ideas, said he had the heart of a young boy...in fact, it was in a jar under his desk at home. I think it was Robert Heinlein who had a stock reply, and that was for the suggestor to feel free and write that story him/herself.
posted by
majroj
on July 9, 2005 at 4:47 PM
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