F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

Bean Counters

It Happens To The Best of Us

by

Once again, another writer friend of mine, Joe Ponepinto, received that worst-ever rejection letter we could receive. Worse than being told your writing sucks, go kill yourself.

This, however, has become the norm in the traditional publishing world. No longer is “good”  nor “great” good or great enough. It has become a world where “what does the publishing house think they can sell?”

And, no, your guess is not as good as mine. None of our guesses are. The only guesses that are allowed are those of the bean counters. Not the agents, not the editors. Bean counters. People who crunch numbers for a living, not read words. Manipulate them. I have nothing against bean counters…just the way they are being employed…by an industry (we’re talking upper-level executives, here, not the in-the-trenches managers, et cetera, so much) that doesn’t appear to really care about authors, no matter what great PR articles are written about how much they claim they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, stuff sells, they’re selling it…but so can other stuff. Stuff with more substance, intelligence, panache.

When you hear or read words like that, what are you supposed to think?

If Joe’s—or any of our—work wasn’t really good, they would have said it. But they didn’t. All “they” said was that they didn’t feel they could place his work. Even though it was “engaging,” “appealing,” and possessed “real energy and imagination.”

Really, traditional publishing, what are we supposed to think?

And you wonder why.

Sigh.

But, luckily for us, these days the traditional houses are not the only game in town.

Sorry to hear about that, Joe, but I think your current efforts are definitely headed in the correct direction. You’re a powerful writer, and I know you’ll come into your own!

Write on!

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