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Writing and Publishing, Part 1.
For those who may not know, I am the editor and the owner of Wesoomi
Publishing. Like most other editors, my average work week is about
60 hours. I don't have a great deal of spare time. That is not
a complaint. I do not have to be an owner or an editor. I do it
because I love and enjoy doing it. I also love to write.
Most editors, because they are very busy, will not respond at all to requests for help from new writers. If they do, it will be in the form of a terse rejection slip, probably on a 3 x 5 card. Big publishers, I'm sure, print these cards by the thousands. I feel a little differently. I believe, as an editor, I have a responsibility to the writing and publishing community.
When I get a request for help or information from a new writer, as I often do, I try to respond thoughtfully. I try to give it what time I can spare. That is why I took the time to write "Message to Writers," and post it in my archive. It is nothing more than a discussion of the things new writers need to consider if they are to have any chance at all of getting published.
Usually the requests come in E-mail, which, by the way, is the wrong medium for a query. It will be of the form, please look at my manuscript and consider publishing it or tell me how to get published. Over time, I have developed a form response to this type of request, which I modify to suit the particular requester, before I send it. I make a conscious effort to be of what help I can to the person, even though they have not done their homework. The first thing I must tell them is that we do not have the resources to deal with new manuscripts.
Most requesters, do not follow up or respond, to my reply. That's fine. I assume they have read what I sent them and got what they could from it. When I do get a follow up it always takes the form of a very, vitriolic, personal attack on me. Anyone who is doing what I am doing is likely to receive some criticism and angry outburst from the world at large. Over time, I have received more than enough. I expect the count to increase as Wesoomi becomes more successful. I have said it before, people who perform in the public arena better have a tough hide.
Recently I received the following message in an E-mail. There is nothing unique about this particular missive. I chose it for three reasons. First it is reasonably brief. Some tirades are really small books. I often wonder how the correspondent could find so much time. Second is the amazing lack of foul language in this one. Some are quite childish in the use of vulgarities. One could wonder about the writing talent of someone who needs profanity to express themselves. Vulgarity seems to be the final crutch of a frustrated writer. Third is because, unlike most others, this person did do his homework. He did not send me a query or manuscript.
Att. new authors.
Although you obviously regard yourselves as a bastion of what
is good and pure, you still seem able to scare off any potential
authors. I can only speak for myself, of course, but to me you
seem like a firm that one should be honoured to receive even a
word from. In your policy you make a series of demands without
taking the time to explain what they mean. That is very unprofessional
in my opinion. This may or may not be a result of the relatively
short time you have been in business. Furthermore you could make
it clear what sort of material you do not wish to deal with without
insulting it.
Luckily for me writing is just a hobby and I therefore in no way
will ever depend on it, but I think you succeed in discouraging
a lot of young hopes with your style. I suspect you will give
this criticism about two seconds and then dispose of the letter,
but at least I have expressed my views on the matter.
Regards
A. E. Anonymous:
Although he supplied it, I have withheld the name of my correspondent.
There is no need to expose him. It would serve no purpose.
The message is typical in that it is from an obviously angry young man. I can surmise that he intended to send me a manuscript of some kind. Then he discovered, by reading our web pages, that we did not want it. To his credit, at least he did the research to find out. It still surprises me how many would be authors don't bother with that detail. They just send me queries and voluminous samples which are totally inappropriate. They would be rejected even if we had the resources to accept new manuscripts.
Though I may not respond, I always read these messages. Even the very verbose and vulgar ones. It may be surprising, but I have found value in some of them. A recent 3000 word, two paragraph, very personal, and vulgar tirade gave me reason to look at my "Message to Writers" and, in fact, make some editorial changes. It had the effect of improving the piece. The person may have had occasion to bite his tongue because I did send him thank you note.
After thinking about the many missives I have receive, I decided to use them as a basis to reiterate our position about writers and publishers. I would also like to expand on the theme. It seems I am in an excellent position to share some of the things I have learned about this business. In that, I intend this to be the first of several essays about writing and publishing.
One thing I can share immediately is that, as a publisher, I am singularly unsuccessful. The only reason I can publish at all is due to successes I have had in other endeavors. However, I have learned a great deal about what not to do. I can share that. I would also like to give some time to encouraging writers, even though Wesoomi cannot accept book manuscripts at this time. I am, in fact, hoping to use our quarterly journal as a new writer's forum. Our journal is prepared to accept a limited number of short pieces. More on this later.
As to this E-mail, you will notice that I am accused of insulting some styles or genres. So, the first thing I did was to check everything I wrote about our philosophy and criteria to make sure I did not insult someone or something by accident. After looking things over, I find myself acquitted. I have no apology to make. I did not insult anything or anyone by accident. I did express some strong opinions on some kinds of writing and on the people who do it. I meant to do that.
As a publisher, I consider it my responsibility to take a strong position on our reputation, our morality, and the quality of our product. Without integrity, I am nothing. I also have a responsibility to examine and criticize the morality of this industry. As a private citizen, I have nothing but contempt for the people who pander to the base human mindset by producing twaddle and smut. Whether it is the tabloids, Hefner, O. J. Simpson, or Random House is irrelevant to me.
As to our alleged demands on writers, I do not consider specifying our criteria for manuscripts to be an unreasonable or unprofessional activity. I am telling, as clearly as possible, what we will and will not publish. I have reiterated these standards in several places including my essay, "Message to Writers" in William's Archives. In that essay, I do spell out in detail the whys of our standards.
In this business, you will find that most publishers will not bother to tell you what they expect. The guidelines they offer are, at best, vague. They will simply reject a writer with a form rejection saying, "Not appropriate." They may also advise you to buy and read their publication. That, of course, is a good idea if you intend to write for a magazine.
Since there may be some confusion on the issue, I want to emphasize the difference between our quarterly Journal, "The Wesoomi Reflection," and our book publishing effort. While we cannot deal with book manuscripts at this time, we can accept some short pieces for the journal. I want to make it very clear that providing a forum for new writers is one of the missions of our Quarterly Journal.
Although our staff can produce adequate material, we do wish to encourage new writers. Therefore, we are prepared to examine and hopefully publish a limited number of unpaid pieces from new writers. Before you get indignant about working for nothing, think about what is being offered. This is a space where you can showcase your work without losing control of it. We simply ask for first North American serial rights. You still own your work. There are details on the Reflection's web page. We will still be very particular about what we will put under our trademark.
I have said that this will be the first, in a series of essays about writing and publishing. I feel I have much to share and I want to do that. In addition, I want to encourage writers to do what I did. That is to give serious consideration to self publishing. I'm not here to say it is an easy route. What I can say is, for many people, it will be a very satisfying experience.
The thrust of these essays will be to explain how a writer can self publish. I will, of course, put emphasis on the errors I have made in hope of saving others the pain. As I said, I am singularly unsuccessful. Still, I forge ahead, because I think I have something to say and offer. I want others to get in on it as soon as possible. What I would like to see come about is so many people getting into self publishing that the power thugs will lose control of the industry.
I am also aware that I made a commitment to write some essays
on Algebra. I still expect to do that. I'm just not sure when
or how. For next time, I expect to sketch out the issues and points
which I consider important in writing and self publishing. After
that, I can take them up in separate essays.
Please Notice:
Since these essays were written cost became prohibitive and our
quarterly journal was discontinued. We do have a weekly website
column called Forum where writers may express themselves in a
limited format. The criteria for submissions to the Forum are
in the first Forum essay.
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