My average probably skews higher in part because of my tendency to try places where I don't think I stand a very good chance. Frex, I generally baptize every new story with a half-sheet from F&SF, though I don't expect to sell there. (Some day I will, and then I'll faint. Don't ask how many stories of mine they've booted already.)
I also tend not to give up on stories. If there's something I like about them, then somebody else might like them too, so why shouldn't I keep trying? I've only ever semi-retired two stories, and really retired two. The semi-retirements are "Execution Morning" (which I retired, then de-retired for Glorifying Terrorism, and lo and behold it got bought after all) and "The Waking of Angantyr," which I keep holding onto for a year or two at a time, revising, and then trying again. With the two that I permanently retired, there were still things I liked about them, but they were minor and outweighed by the things I didn't like, and I didn't think their substance was good enough to be worth trying to salvage.
My record appears to be a story still out on the market; counting contests, it's on its thirtieth trip out the door. But dammit, I still like that story, and it's almost sold a couple of times, and surely someday I'll find a home for it.
Someday I'll have the guts to link numbers to stories, and tell people which ones got rejected a million times before selling. I'm not quite brave enough for that yet, though.
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yati
no subject
Date: 2007-04-29 04:06 am (UTC)I also tend not to give up on stories. If there's something I like about them, then somebody else might like them too, so why shouldn't I keep trying? I've only ever semi-retired two stories, and really retired two. The semi-retirements are "Execution Morning" (which I retired, then de-retired for Glorifying Terrorism, and lo and behold it got bought after all) and "The Waking of Angantyr," which I keep holding onto for a year or two at a time, revising, and then trying again. With the two that I permanently retired, there were still things I liked about them, but they were minor and outweighed by the things I didn't like, and I didn't think their substance was good enough to be worth trying to salvage.
My record appears to be a story still out on the market; counting contests, it's on its thirtieth trip out the door. But dammit, I still like that story, and it's almost sold a couple of times, and surely someday I'll find a home for it.
Someday I'll have the guts to link numbers to stories, and tell people which ones got rejected a million times before selling. I'm not quite brave enough for that yet, though.