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Rejection by Cancellation I recently had a new first in pulbishing. Well, a first for me. I have had some similiar experiences, where I never get an email and the project never seems to have been published, but never an explicit explanation. An email several weeks after the close of the submission window. My story wasn’t rejected or accepted. The publisher decided not to move forward because, "we've decided to take the unusual step of not moving forward with this anthology. We did receive many stories of good quality and great themes--however, in the totality, we did NOT receive enough stories that adhered to the requirements of the open call to fill out an entire volume." So they were not going forward with the anthology. I was puzzled, usually publishes are awash with several hundred submittals and their rejections or approval emails comment on the quality of submissions they received. Was my story one of the good ones? Drats! That’s what Charlie Brown would say. |
A Strange Writing Experience For the past month, I have been writing daily political news-commentary articles for an online news site. An English language site in a foreign country about politics in the United States. I have long had an avid interest in politics and was surprised to get the freelance contract. I thought it might be fun, about a thousand words a day, every day, for 0.03/ word. This is a strange experience for me, in several ways. First of all, it’s a liberal leaning slant. Not that these labels mean anything. I find myself now left of center when I had considered myself slightly right of center most of my adult life. I felt things were right with the country when Reagan and both Bushes were elected, not that I agreed one hundred percent with everything they stood for. To me, I feel like its politics that changed, more than me. Anyway, I find myself writing articles about the danger of tariff wars, a president talking about a third term, alien enemies, late-night purges at government agencies, etc. that are considered liberal. As a relatively new, but older ‘writer’ or ‘author’: I find it strange to write to a daily deadline after having been retired for several years. It’s strange to write non-fiction, after having spent the last several years working on novels and short stories. Which I have not given up, and what I most enjoy. Finally, it is strange and somewhat disappointing that I will make more money in one month of political commentary than in chasing novels and short stories for more than five years. I can’t disclose the site name; the articles are only posted as bylines of the Editorial Team. Maybe if you search around, you might find some of them. I’ll see how long this lasts. |
Information Only The 22nd amendment does not say a person can not hold the office of president more than twice. Only that they can not get elected more than twice, these people are clever. There in lies the wiggle room. Don’t trust me? Read it and see what some experts say. A 1999 Minnesota Law Review article called "The Twice and Future President" explains that a twice-elected president could become vice president and then — if the current president were to be removed from office, resign or die — return as commander-in-chief. The federal government-sanctioned record of interpretations of the Constitution also points to the possibility of a former two-term president serving as speaker of the House of Representatives or as another federal officer who could become president through the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. Public Service Announcement from Taboo Services |
| Except that Amendment XII says: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." And Amendment XXII makes it clear that one can only be elected President twice. I accept that Constitutional law experts know better than I do, but one of them should explain to me how XII wouldn't apply in this case. Those other cases, sure, maybe. But not VP. Except that laws don't matter anymore, in general. |
Robert Waltz  - That is a good point that legal scholars have pointed to that as well. The confounding difficulty is it sets up a sort of circular logic. to be completely honest, I think Steve Bannon is playing a bit of bait and switch here. The current President is 78 years old, Bannon is vested in the movement. If he can keep the interest in the movement alive, then maybe a surrogate runs in 2028, like maybe Donald Trump, Jr. and the current president stays living in the White House and enjoys his Dynasty. Just a thought. |
| Or even better, how about this foolproof scenario? A Republican majority in the House of Representatives selects Trump as Speaker of the House. You don’t need to be elected to anything to be Speaker of the House. You don’t even need to be a member of Congress. And the Speaker of the House is third in line for the presidency. So, all you need is two willing patsies instead of just the one who will run for POTUS and VP with every intention of then stepping aside to make the Speaker the default replacement. Because it’s really easy to find people who will run for president just to win and resign... |
Trump Says He Is Considering Third Term So, you thought my post a few days ago was silly "Note: Ready for A Third Term? Sorry for touchi...". You probably thought it was just some fringe reporter quoting Steve Bannon. To me, it was an obvious trial balloon from a long-term ally. Trump has joked about it a few times since getting elected, also small trial baloons. Now check out Associated Press, CNN, New York Times, NPR, Politico . . . It's already blowing up the internet. Associated Press Article  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. This will be a story you will not be able to avoid. Have a good week. |
Damon Nomad  - I'm with you on this one. There are no limits to what he will try to do. None. He's our Nero and Caligula rolled into one. |
| I'd be interested in knowing exactly what he said, but all I can find is Kristen Welker talking about what he said. But even that is somewhat illuminating as she said she proposed several methods to him about how he might get a third term and he essentially agreed those were possibly methods. Kristen Welker suggesting to Trump that perhaps JD Vance might run at the top of the ticket with Trump as VP and Trump not rebuking her for her suggestion is not the same as Trump saying "I have this secret plan". The most interesting part is that Welker starts her report by saying "President Trump called me this morning". Anyone with secret plans doesn't call up the press and offer to answer questions. You cannot deny that press access to the president in this administration is unparalleled. |
Ned  - You make a fair point as to whether this is out of context. He is quoted from multiple sources from a telephone interview with NBC news as to being serious about it and that there are ways. I have not heard it directly, but seems like credible sources. |
Ready for A Third Term? Sorry for touching on one of the taboos, but have you seen the article from THE HILL . There are several other articles. Sorry, to say told you so, but I told you so. Remember this post "Note: Case Dismissed! Remember My 2022 Essay-Story? ..." And this essay-story,
I’m only the messenger  and I have poor impulse control on these topics. Something to get the weekend off on a bang. |
| I'm become pessimistic about the fate of our country. We've only begun to see the results of the catastrophic 2024 elections. Whatever happens, our country in 2028 and beyond is almost certain to be fundamentally different from the one we left behind in 2024. Indeed, I think the survival of our country as one unified nation is, while still the most likely outcome, no longer certain. At 75, I suspect I won't live long enough to see how this all works out. |
| I wake up every morning with a sigh and then while I'm having my coffee, groan as I load the news and wonder what fresh new he!! has happened today. Eventually people will get tired enough to do something, but until then we're all stuck feeling the pain of this crack monkey dumpster fire. |
Max Griffin 🏳️🌈  - I sadly see things very much the same way. The levels of division are nearly unprecedented. |
Counting Sheep for Writers I usually have no problem falling asleep. There is something I have been doing the last couple of years that seems to work well for dozing off. A derivative of counting sheep that helps with writing. There are two versions of the exercise. First is coming up with a story concept for a submission call when I have a few vague ideas in mind. I focus on one, and think of how the climax of the story might look and how I might get there. What might the main character be like to play out in this plot? I sometimes fall asleep with nothing helpful, but I often have an idea that seems to work and usually can recall the basics the next morning. The second version is very similar, but it is for the final stages of a story where I know something is not working and I have an idea why, but no solutions. I consider solution options as I head for la la land. This has also worked. Sleep tight and don’t the bed bugs bite. |
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published So many lessons learned since starting down the path of becoming a traditionally published author about five years ago. I knew what I wanted to write: espionage thrillers and crime mysteries. The idea of short stories sounded like training wheels to me, I was arrogant enough to start with three novels as a series. Espionage thrillers. Eventually got a contract for all three, the first two got published and bombed. Wrote a second trilogy of crime mysteries, never published. The last two years, I focused on short stories and have nearly ten commercial credits. Mostly horror and two science fiction. Horror stories! How horrible that would have seemed to me when I started on this journey. Crummy slasher gore is what I would have mumbled under my breath. Well, it’s not all like that. You can write what you want. If you want to write short stories for the commercial market, it seems to be about seventy percent horror and twenty percent science fiction. |
| I was called 'an overnight success' by the publisher if Invasive Species... despite the fact it was my 5th trad published book and I'd had over 80 short stories in print by then! And that after too many years! Keep at it. I think not giving up and being willing to take critiques is what makes a writer successful. I have no doubt you will get there. |
| S 🤦 - Thanks for that. It will keep me young of mind and spirit as I continue, hopefully, to improve. Take the rejections as lessons to learn from and keep writing. |
| I think there's merit in writing short stories. They help you refine elements of craft, for example. They also help you with things like characterization and tension. The smaller pallette forces you to make every word count, which helps tighten your prose. Markets are tough, though. Most short fiction markets are hyper-specific about what they want. If you can write to this kind of demanding prompt, you can make sales with even flawed fiction. Indeed, looking at what some of these markets publish, they are not looking for effective prose at all--in some cases, I wonder if they even know that means. Instead, they are looking for splashy stories that fit precisely within the narrow scope of things they will consider. Novels are even more hit-or-miss. Commercial publishers are looking for the next best-seller, which means they are endlessly looking for imitations of the most recent best-seller. Again, if you're interest in imitating another author's voice instead of developing your own, it's a hard sell. I want readers, to be sure. But I don't write for sales, which seems to motivate almost all publishers, whether for short fiction or novels. There used to be venues, even niche venues, that were all about publishing good stories as opposed to making money off of stories. Making money off stories changes the focus to marketing rather than writing. It's telling how many of the authors on the NY Times best-seller lists started their careers in advertising. My advice if you want to make money writing stories is to study marketing, not writing. On the other hand, if your goal is artistic, to produce prose that touches the reader in moving, intimate ways, study writing. |
Author, Writer, Storyteller I'm sticking with the world of written fiction. An author, we all know who they are. Or many of them. Grisham, King, Rowling, Patterson. People who make a living from writing stories. Writers, people dedicated to the craft of word smithing. They write stories and poems in multiple genres. They have a command of the written word, and have mastered grammar and punctuation. Storyteller, they know how to spin an entertaining tale and have a reasonable competence in grammar and punctuation. Me? Author not even close. Writer, not even close. Story teller, I'm getting close. How about you? |
| The definition of "author" seems dedpendent on fame. That seems questionable to me. The late Gene Wolf, for example, was most assuredly an accomplished and talented author, but how many people have heard of him or even read his works? Emily Dickenson never published in her lifetime, but she also qualifies, both now and while she was living when no one knew who she was. Indeed, I'm not unsure about the value of this kind of taxonomy. It suggests some people aren't worthy of being called "author." I'd rather respect the creative and artistic vision that people bring to their writing, even if it's flawed. If someone creates a fictional world, with fictional characters, however flawed, in my way of thinking, they are fiction author. I think there's value in writing, even impperfect writing. I took the trouble to look up the very first story I ever wrote and posted it here: "The Kindness of a Stranger" . Look at it and you'll see it's deeply flawed--a badly written story by any measure. Luckily for me, better and more experienced authors on writing.com found me, mentored me, and helped me develop. They didn't scoff and tell me I'd written a bad story and wasn't qualified to think of myself as an author. I certainly did write a bad story, but that didn't erase my voice, however broken and unformed it was. Just my $0.02 worth. Oh, and I've read you, Damon Nomad  . You are most assuredly a skillful and accomplished author. |
Early Acceptance Sometimes I get rejections from editors well before the submission window closes. I usually think it's a positive sign if I haven't heard before the window closing. Just a positive signal not an indication of acceptance. I am used to receieving an acceptance for a short story submission call around the end, or a month, two or more . . . This week I got an acceptance a few months ahead of the close of the submission window. My interpretation is that I nailed it. I'm sticking with that point of view, so don't offer me any other explanations. |
| I can confirm that most letters will go out after the window closes. I'm being a little bit more pro-active with submissions for the July issue, though. I've sent out ten rejection notes to stories that, for a variety of reasons, I know we'll never consider. I've already accepted one story--from an author on WDC I'm familiar with--and that author is aware of the acceptance. A couple more know that they are on our "short list" for possible pulication becuase I asked for some revisions. I can almost alaways tell from the first 2-3 paragraphs whether or not the story has a chance, so perhaps I should be more proactive in sending out rejections. One thing that amazes me is the open call says that the most frequent cause of a rejection is a weak opening, and references a blog entry on the Tales website that discusses what an effective opening should do (it's one of my recent newsletters). It's obvious that less than half of the authors submitting have even looked at it. |
Non-Member Views In looking at my WDC statistics, I’ve noticed that the majority of story views, maybe 70%, are from non-members. I’m guessing that means someone who does not log in? Now, I’m realizing that is probably just another artifact of the web crawlers from the bot armies. I’ve got no worries about the search bots, they are likely populating search engines for Damon Nomad. Scrape away! Any observations about non-member views? |
Do Credentials Matter? I’m guessing your answer depends on the context. If you are ready to board a plane, the idea that the pilot did not have a license would likely give you pause. If you are nervous about flying you might even think of the engineers who designed the plane, and the mechanic who repaired the engine. Expecting and hoping that they are properly credentialed. If you are in a hospital with a loved one, you likely feel comfort from a practitioner from a top university who is properly licensed. I worked in professional settings for nearly forty years where credentials mattered, even though they were no guarantee. More of a threshold for basic competence. This is WDC so let’s think about writing. If you are choosing your next book to read, I suspect that the author's credentials mean next to nothing to you. I have seen advertisements for MFA’s in Creative Writing and wondered why aspiring authors would spend tens of thousands of dollars to get an MFA in creative writing. Do you have any thoughts on credentials for aspiring fiction writers? |
| It does depend on the country. In Australia, by the time they are 13, children should have been taught all the basics of writing - it is part of the national curriculum, and I know it's still there because my son is almost a teacher. Talking to USians, it depends, apparently, on where you live as to the level of education you get. Why do I mention this? Because there are many writers who I have read their drafts and they need someone to teach them the basics of how to write. Trad publishing editors are not going to accept a work that was written by someone who struggles with written English basics. No, no matter the story, if it involves too much work, rejection is in your future. And if you self-pub, readers will not tolerate it, either. No matter how good you think the story is, if a reader does not understand what you have written, then you've lost them. I am looking here at publishing. Writers who just want to write for themselves and their friends, for fun, or to get cathartic release with no desire to be published, it does not matter. Sort of. Understanding does still need to be there. So... the MFA. I have found a number of trad publishers of novels who will not look at you without the MFA. Being Australian, I got a Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing) at university (my 3rd Bachelor's degree) and the US publishers accept that. When I asked why, I was told it is for 2 things: 1) it shows a writer is serious about being a writer; and 2) it shows they have been taught how to structure publishable writing. There are methods to their madness. And since getting my BA(CW), I have had 3 books trad published, only 2 beforehand, so... |
It All Comes Down to Timing and Scale Our colleague Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008 posted an interesting note about the possibility of other life in the universe. The often contemplated question leads to the question of hearing from them or even communicating with them. When you consider the size of the universe, you soon realize the possibility of communication is highly doubtful given our short time here on Earth and the scale of the universe. Some quick numbers illustrate. The universe's age is about 14 billion years, the age of Earth is about 4 billion years, humans first appeared about 300,000 years ago, first cities about 10,000 years ago, and the first radio telescope about one hundred years ago. We have been able to receive radio signals about 0.03% of the time since we first stood erect on the planet. Not a lot of time to get a signal, right? What are the odds that another planet of intelligent species developed on the same timeline as us? Anyone’s guess is as good as mine. Let’s say it happened, right next door in the Andromeda galaxy. Our friends on Earth-Prime started sending radio signals in our year 1940, about the same time we had our first radio telescope. We will get the signal in about 2.5 million years. Will anyone be here to hear it? Let’s say they evolved millions of years before us and an apparent signal arrives tomorrow. Is it a real signal, are they still alive? Let’s send a response! Ah, it will take 2.5 million years for them to get it. Yes, timing and scale, therein lies the paradox of getting evidence to answer this age-old question. |
| Robert Waltz - I don’t think your reasoning. is flawed. Arguments about whether the Fermi Paradox is in fact paradoxical hinge on the nature of the values you want to assume for factors. In my post I was getting at the last and most often ignored factor, L for lifetime civilizations send signals. I understand the elite scientist who first met to discuss the Drake equation in detail were keen to avoid casting estimates for this element for which there is no singular data point. How long will we exist before we destroy ourselves or something else does? That is the implication. The shorter the time, the more likely no overlapping advanced civilization will overlap to receive. Thanks much for your thoughts and comments. |
Robert Waltz - Thank you for presenting your thoughts about life, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial. My brother and I used to think the same way. We oft tried to think of a way to determine whether our technologies, at least as far as interplanetary and intergalactic travel is concerned, are the most advanced in the universe. As you pointed out, life on this planet is incredibly diverse but only humans (as far as we know) have ever traveled outside our tiny atmosphere. There could exist planets very close to us in astronomic terms, which teem with life but not necessarily life capable of leaving its own planet or its own galaxy. Since we have only started to explore a minute segment of the universe around us, we have far too little data to declare that a paradox exists. |
What is Your Story Worth? How can you answer such a question? People write for many different reasons. Let me add a condition, if you want your story commercially published. I’m going to stick with fictional short stories. Sorry to say, the best objective measure is what you get paid. I will stick with US dollars. Let’s stick with short stories. Suppose you chase after submission calls for traditional publishing. In that case, you have seen there is often a reference to professional rates of around $0.08/word, semi-professional rates around $0.01/word, and flat rates that hover around twenty dollars. Your story of say, three thousand words would be worth $240, $30, or $20s. In a story for an anthology collection for example. The book publisher could make hundreds or thousands of dollars on a collection including your story or they might even lose money. They do the marketing and distribution and you're done. What if you self-publish, appalled at the idea that a publisher might make thousands of dollars while you get say a measly thirty dollars? You collect twenty of your best short stories, giving you sixty thousand words. You are serious so you pay for ISBN registration, a professional copy editor, and a cover artist. Probably will invest about $400. You publish freely on Amazon and other commercial sites. At that moment you are in the hole, four hundred bucks. How many books do you have to sell to catch up to the $30 you would have gotten? Say ten bucks a pop, only 43 books. You have no marketing budget, which can be horribly expensive. Do you lean on friends and family? How many can you sell? There is a wide range of averages reported, from about 100 to 500. You can likely make a net between $570 to $4500. From about $0.01 per word to about $0.08 per word. Funny how that worked out, huh. The traditional publishing route incurs less burden and risk and you can quickly move on to the next story. Self-publishing gives you more control, more potential upside, but also potential losses and consumes more of your time. Choose your path but your story will likely be worth about $0.01 per word at the end of the day. Or you may choose another way to judge how much your story is worth.  |
 Damon Nomad Having sold shorts and a couple of guest columnist entries to six different websites and magazine publishers. I find your analysis "Spot On"! Although, one project allowed me to collaborate on a real movie script. But other than that brief snippet of notoriety in the credits of a movie (that was received by the masses, marginally at best.) I have made, on average, 2.5 to 3 cents per word for my efforts over the last 15 years. Suppose I applied these fiction story earnings to offset the cost of all the classes, conferences, seminars, and other purchases like books and subscriptions I used to learn the craft of writing fiction. In that case, I am only about $15,000 in the hole. This number doesn't include non-fiction works I wrote as part of my Engineering career. But I received a salary for those efforts. I commend you for sharing the truth about the finances the unsyndicated writer not represented by an agent or big-house publisher might earn. But to the rest of the writers, out there… I offer that the lottery ticket in your pocket is indeed worth a million dollars or more… all day, or until somebody tells you, there was no winner in the last drawing. However, I will query… are not our dreams what the best stories are made of? So, I say… Write … Write … Write on! And let the pennies land where they may! |
Do the Search Bots have a WDC Trigger? Interesting observation on trending my views. I posted a new story and a few hours later I happened to check on the total views on my portfolio. There was a spike of about 160 reads since posting that story. I noticed that one of the referring URLs was the static items feed for WDC. Do the bots trigger on accounts with newly posted stories? I'm sure they don't. i suddenly became incrediby popular in that moment. |
Kåre เลียม Enga  - I also noticed some drones flying over my home and hovering aound the windows. Sure there is no connection. One of them was labeled SMaster WDC, not sure what that meant. |
| I've been running some experiments with my own portfolio and I notice that yes, newly posted stories make total reads go up by a lot, but also it matters whether items are marked "registered users and higher only" or "public". The public items get LOADS of hits, mostly from outside WDC. It made me wonder about whether they were being scraped for LLM purposes. (Given that places like AO3 and Internet Archive have had to deal with scraping, I imagine they are.) |
Secret Ingredient for a College Dinner Give this short-short story a read, maybe you had a similar experience. Ronald Reagan was president, and the setting was a large midwestern university campus apartment with four alpha males as roommates. All four of us had girlfriends in our third year and it was the Friday before a big football game. We have invited the girls over for dinner. It’s early evening, we have been drinking beer for a while and are now preparing dinner. We were not drunk, but our judgment was likely not what it should have been. We had it wired for a simple dinner, Italian spaghetti and green beans. Beans from a can, packaged noodles, bottled spaghetti sauce, and some ground beef for the spaghetti. As the noodles boiled, we realized we had forgotten the meat. Someone, I do not recall who, looked in a cabinet and suggested canned tuna. As I say, we had been drinking for a while. We went with it. During dinner, one of the girls said the spaghetti sauce was a bit odd. A few of us might have chuckled. Then one of the girls went and looked in the garbage bin and she shouted, “There are two cans of tuna fish and two cans of cat food in here!” We apologized and hand to heart, none of us knew how the cat food came to be in the cupboard or realized what we were adding to the sauce. The cans did look very similar, with a similar color scheme. We didn’t have a cat and they weren’t allowed in university housing. That remains a mystery.  |
| I have been drunk. Sometimes, very drunk. And I've almost always lived with cats. I have never mistaken cat food for human chow. Yet. |
| Never mistook cat food for tuna, but have commented more than once on how canned refried beans bear a striking resemblance to many canned dog foods. Long, long ago, though, I made a glass of chocolate milk using buttermilk. Once.  |
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1) they're telling the truth. Too many who submit do not adhere to the submission guidelines because they think they are above them because they are just that damn good at this writing thing. And if what they were looking for was a rather niche topic/theme, then this becomes increasingly likely.
2) it's a cover story for the fact they have run out of money and cannot afford to publish.
3) they have grown frustrated dealing with the sheer volume of AI-generated slop and have given up. This is becoming unfortunately increasingly common.
4) they have discovered another anthology with the same theme has beaten them to it, and hence have gathered the better stories. Being negatively compared can hurt everything the company puts out, not just this one volume.
Sorry to hear it, but as you can probably guess, it's happened to me as well in the past. Just one of the joys of settling in the trad-published sphere.