Scene 1; Act 8: Guest Author David Fingerman & Edging Past Reality

In our continuing program to feature new and exciting authors, I present this week's special guest as part of my contribution to the Virtual Book Tour;

David Fingerman

Edging Past Reality: A Collection of Short Stories

I want to thank Magician of Oz and all the other blog sites that have been generously donating their space and time to help promote authors. I'm about half way through my tour and I've found it exciting, challenging, rewarding, and a lot of work. The interviews and promoting my books has been great, but I think I'll change my routine just a bit this time. To be totally honest, it's getting a little tough to be different and original in promoting my books with every new blog. There's only so many ways I can say how great a read "Edging Past Reality" is, and keep your eyes open for "Silent Kill" which will be out soon (keep up with the latest at my website: www.davidfingerman.com). I'm not going to talk about promoting my books this time around. Instead, I've been chatting with a number of writers who are just starting to send out their work and the topic of rejection letters became quite common. So on this blog I'd like to share my insights on rejection letters.

Last year I was asked to speak at the Rochester Writers' Festival. They wondered if I would speak about dealing with rejection. I asked them what did they know about my personal life? It became quite clear they meant dealing with rejection letters from my writing – they weren't the least bit interested in my personal life (their loss). I told them either way, I was over qualified. They thought that was a good thing – for my speaking about the topic, not my personal life – there they still didn't care.

Like many writers I save my rejection letters. Like many writers I have enough to wallpaper a room. My favorite is a four page, handwritten critique. My second favorite is a 2x3 post-it note stuck on the first page of my story. All it said was "no." Unlike many writers, rejections hardly bother me at all anymore. Why? Publishing is a business. I don't know them; they don't know me. It's not personal. Yeah, it still stings for a minute, but then I realize that most publications print a very small percentage of what they receive. It's not uncommon to look at a specific publisher and find that they reject 99% of the material they receive. Looking at that logically, I can't get too upset that I'm not in their top 1%. Besides, how can I get upset when they send a handwritten note that said they like my style and please try again? For form letters, well, they're jerks and I'll just send my story off to the next publisher. Never forget – it's all subjective.

To prove that point I'll use as an example a fantasy story I wrote a number of years ago. I sent it to what I thought was a sure hit magazine. A few weeks later a got back a scathing rejection letter criticizing almost every facet of the story. The plot was weak, it took too long to get started, the characters were one dimensional, etc. I was told it wasn't worth salvaging. The editor ended by telling me to change the cartridge on my inkjet because the printing was too light. What that told me was the editor was going blind – I used a laser printer and it looked just fine. Anyway, without changing a word, I sent it to another magazine. A few weeks later I got an acceptance letter and a contract.

Next time you feel down because your book or story got rejected, just remember that Gone with the Wind was rejected 38 times, Jonathan Livingston Seagull got 140 rejects. Ray Bradbury has had somewhere around 1000 rejects in his career. And if you want to feel a little smug, think of the guy who rejected Carrie and told Stephen King "We are not interested in science fiction that deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."

I wonder if he still has a job?

Wanna learn more about David Fingerman's book; Edging Past Reality: A Collection of Short Stories?

Then here's the place to be:

Edging Past Reality: A Collection of Short Stories