I am an incredible novice at this writing/submitting/getting published game. I submitted exactly two stories in 2009, and instead of writing more to send out, I made the mistake of waiting around to see if either of them got accepted, on the assumption that if neither one were wanted, then why bother sending out any more?
One of them sold, and one was rejected, and eventually made its way to a free stories website, and is now happily nestled (with a couple of major rewrites) in my WIP folder as the first chapter of a novel.
Those of you in the know, though, understand that finding out the fates of these two stories took months and months during which I chewed my lip and waited to find out if there was any chance of my being able to “hack it” as an erotica writer.
That leads me to right now. I've been writing again for a few months now. I try to punctuate working on longer shorts, anthology submissions and my never-to-be-completed novel with tiny bits of short short fiction that I can post on my blog and other websites that collect such things. I find it makes it easier to keep up a certain writing pace.
Of course, only having been at it again for short a time, I've heard virtually nothing back from the places to which I've submitted. This isn't terrible, of course—in fact since rejections often come far faster than acceptances, it could possibly be considered a good thing, but it is what it is, a “dead zone” that I've created for myself by not having written during the period that would have resulted in my hearing something right about now.
I have to tell you, sometimes it makes you want to sit back and just wait to see if anyone will actually like what you've been writing and sending out. Especially since I don't have many acceptance letters to draw on in the past. I'm not going to do that, by the way...I'm just sayin'.
In the meantime, though I have to say that it just makes my freaking day if I happen to get a nice comment on something that I wrote. Seriously, I mean you can check up on visitor counters and see that there are actually people reading your stuff but it's a rare person who actually says something about it. When I open my blog and see that someone has said “Hey that story's pretty hot, thanks for writing it!” my mood inches up a couple of good notches for the rest of the day. It might be a bit pathetic, but there it is.
Now I admit freely to my fairly newness to this smutting business and there a chance that I will get jaded and calloused and not care quite so much who writes a 5-word comment on something out there in cyberspace, but I sure hope not. Knowing how much it means to me to get one, I try and leave a comment whenever I stumble across something that I really like, too. I mean, if you really like an author, buy their books and tip their serial novels if you can, but to me, at least, feedback is support, too, and I really appreciate it immensely when someone takes the time to send some my way.
Today, though, I had a brand new experience (I told you I'm nearly a smut virgin, right?) I was
plugged! Wow. I think I'll be giddy all day today. Kannan, if you wind up reading this, you rock my socks off! I am entirely barefooted and it's all your fault! Again, this might just be because I'm so new to this whole business, but still, that's too freaking awesome.
If there's a writer in your life whose stuff always makes you smile, consider leaving a comment in their online writing, or a nice review on their Amazon page, or plug them to someone you think would like their work. It's easier than stalking and it's not even illegal!
***Cyber-hug your favourite author today***
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