Jentel Day 17: Good News!
Good news, folks!
Today I got a story accepted by Flash Fiction Magazine: The International Short-Short Story Publication based in the United Kingdom. They’ll published my war short-short, “Just the Dog & Me,” this April 2011 and it also qualifies to be considered for reprint in their awards and anthologies.
I handed in Personae of War to the potential publisher on 10/15/10 with the goal of getting as many of those stories out there in literary publications as possible. So far, 3 have been published and 6 more are on their way. I’m still waiting to hear from a boatload of other places, but all of this bodes well if the past is any indication.
I’ve also shifted my intentions a bit with regard to publishing the book. By January, if I can get the war story I’ve been composing while at Jentel polished up enough, I have a list of 10 other publishers I’m going to query and/or submit the manuscript to. It’s a timely subject, so why not give it a shot? Receiving a personal solicitation from a publisher I respect was flattering, but I’m anxious to move forward and find out for myself how my stories will hold up on a “cold call,” too.
PR, the other writer here at Jentel right now—and a woman far more seasoned and published than myself; far, far more—is the person who encouraged me to do this. But she also warned me: “Prepare yourself for rejection,” she said.
“I’m pretty good with rejections,” I told her. “I submit to so many different places as once, I’m always getting one rejection or another from some place.”
“Yes, but rejection of an entire manuscript is different,” she said. “It’s not like you can turn around and submit a few different stories to them five months down the road. It’s an entire manuscript. It’s a door closing for a long time—for at least as long as it takes to write another book—and sometimes that can be hard to take.”
Fair enough. But I won’t know until I try, right? I’m glad for the reality check but I’m also glad for her encouragement. Now if I can just keep working this draft and have another solid war story before the winter’s over…
