Not to put too fine of a point on my argument from a day ago, but last year at this time, I was earnestly carrying the above notification that I was a finalist for an Iowa Review Award in my pocket and keeping it under my pillow. As you may have guessed, I was not chosen as a winner (I'll post the rejection soon). Still, finalist was pretty good for a hack without an MFA.
6 comments:
Well, at least now you know what to do. Get the MFA and get past the final rounds. Appel here we come.
Nah...at that point in the contest, it's purely a subjective decision by the judge. An MFA or not isn't going to make the difference....(is it?) Do you think Yiyun Li bothered with that level of detail? I love her short stories, BTW.
i'm a contest screener and take it from me, you really have to be rockin the house for your manuscript to make it past round one. man oh man, the slush pile is like quicksand for mediocre prose...your own hard-earned story, if it ain't awesome-awesome, is going down. which is to say: w,r got mad skills.
So very kind of you to come by the old blog and say so. Wish someone publishing short story collections thought the same thing. I got two for sale. :-)
Writer Rejected,
I was a reader for the Iowa and John Simmons awards and it was excruciating getting it down to the final five collections that were sent on to that year's judge. You're probably a pretty great writer if you made it to the end game. Good luck and thanks for your terrific blog!!!!
This is funny. I was always too humiliated to even talk about my rejections. Let alone post them on my blog.
As writers we have to grow a thick skin to keep sending stuff out.
My rejections are getting kinder. Which means I'm getting better.
My latest was from a mother's day book, a compilation of essays about motherhood. The email said I did not make the final cut, but the editor loved it and fought for me and wanted to feature my piece on her blog during April.
I'll take it! With a smile on my face!
I submitted a children's book a year ago and the rejections continue to trickle in. Some of them have very kind words about loving the book, but it not being "right" for their needs due to limited ability to publish.
One new avenue of publishing is LifeTips 101 Tips for . . . series. They will publish it for you and you order as many that sell. It goes on Amazon and in library of congress and you get $2 per book. You should check it out. It has potential. The upside is that no publisher has to take a risk with pre-printing. They are having success with authors who are willing to pound the pavement to do their own marketing aggressively.
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