Process of Elimination
One person I met during LTUE weekend, but whom I’ve failed to mention is Stacey Whitman. She is an editor for Mirrorstone books which is an imprint of Wizards of the Coast. Unfortunately I didn’t get to spend much time with Stacey. Our paths crossed frequently, but never ran together for very long. Hopefully I’ll get to see her again on our trip to Seattle. Stacey had some interesting insights on publication in general and on children’s books in particular. I’ve stored that information in my brain and combined it with information that I gleaned from Julie Czerneda about her editorial selection process. I further added my experience in selecting an artist for my children’s book and I’ve distilled a five step process of elimination that editors go through to find who and what they want to work with.
1. Will they respond/query? This is where many beginning writers disqualify themselves. They never even try. Julie says that she regularly teaches at writing workshops of 30 people or more. At the end, she invites all of them to email her to be put on the invitation-to-submit list for her next anthology. She usually only gets one or two emails.
2. Will they finish and submit? Many writers have grand ambitions and good intentions, but if the work is incomplete it might as well not exist at all. If it is complete and never submitted, then it might as well not exist.
3. Does it follow the submission guidelines? Stacey’s company Mirrorstone does not publish picture books. It says that clearly in the submission guidelines. But on any given day half of the slush pile is picture books. It does not matter how good those picture books are, they don’t follow the guidelines, so they’ll never see print.
4. Is it good? This is something of a judgment call on the part of the editor, but quality writing shines through. My sister Nancy says that every story in the Baen Universe slush pile gets read and rated multiple times. The same story can get a 9 from one editor and a 1 from another. There are some stories that get 8s and 9s from everyone. Those are the ones that end up in print.
5. Is it what the editor is looking for? Sometimes for some reason, the story just doesn’t click with the editor. Sometimes there is another story that is too similar. Sometimes it just doesn feel quite right.
I’ve thought about this process of elimination in regard to the anthologies to which I’ll be sending stories. I find it very comforting that I have control over #1-4. I have no control over #5. This means that I need to consider my story a success if I’ve nailed numbers 1-4. I need to base my feelings of worth as a writer on factors over which I have control.