Rejection!

First things first.

http://www.ralan.com/

That is an AWESOME site. They maintain a listing of fantasy and science fiction publishers--and even some other publishers--letting you know the rates you can expect, what kind of submissions they want, and even how long it takes these folks to reply. I wish I'd checked them before; I submitted twice to Tor fantasy. They take forever to respond. This time I cherry-picked one that replies much earlier. Very nice.

Did I mention I submitted to Tor fantasy? A new novel, but again, not the novel they were looking for. (sigh)

I loved Tor Fantasy's old FAQ page. It's informative and nice, especially for noobs like me. It's gone now, unfortunately, but it included this little gem.

"How can I increase my chances of getting my book published?"
"Well, write a book we'll like. We aren't going to accept a book we don't like just because we haven't bought anything in a while, and we won't turn away a book we like because of market pressures. If you're not sure if it's perfect for us, send it in. We might like it, we might not. It's worth a try."

It was an honest attempt to let you know that it's a subjective process. The right author, the right publisher, the right time.

My time is not now.

How do you avoid the feeling that you have been slapped in the face by the meaty hand of editors everywhere when that form letter comes to let you know that you aren't good enough, that you, personally, are a failure, and a horrible person? To let you know that YOU STINK?

You can't, really. You just have to move on to another publisher, consider how well you're selling your work, and consider options. Find a smaller publisher, a larger publisher, more mainstream, less mainstream...

In my case, I'm trying a smaller, more focused publisher. Refer back to that link from before. Aio Publishing is aimed at... well, off-beat thinkers books. Books that want to think and be all literary and dramatic. "Densely written sociological speculative fiction with deeply developed characters"? I gasp and cringe in awe and hope, for this is what I want to read, what my book aspires to BE.

Now, it's not a perfect fit. They don't like murder; I want to examine the causes of violence, and so there's a lot of murder in my book. They don't want a military book. My book spends some focus on the military. They want a book with a strong literary voice. Having trained in journalism, my voice is quite literally a whisper; I prefer the more subtle voice.

Those little wrinkles aside, I think this is a much better fit than Tor. MUCH better. A little online research, and POW. I'm a lot closer to something good.

Well, I expect them to reject me as well. But now I have a plan, a list. A resource that shows me which publishers are closer to what I'm all about, what I want to be. My plans for the book.

Very nice.