I HATE YOUR GUTS!!!!!

Sometimes, that's how it feels.

A personal insult. A slap in the face. As one writer friend said, like your favorite dog just died.

Of course, I'm talking about rejection.

In the writing industry, especially as a freelancer, rejection comes often, sometimes too often.

Think about this.

My last four PUBLISHED pieces of fiction were rejected 11 times before finding a home. I NEVER broke a 50% "go ahead" rate on my query letters and don't know anyone who ever has.

Publishing is competitive. It is hard. It takes a lot of perseverance.

I'm not going to name names, but there is a guy on one of my mystery writing lists who is a professional news writer. He had a book, chatted with an agent at a conference and she expressed interest. He sent her the book and she declined to represent it. Now, he's saying he's lost the desire to write.

What's important is what the agent said in rejecting him. The book wasn't right FOR HER.

It is important to keep in mind that there are MANY reasons for rejection and only one is "you suck." Here are a variety of reasons I've been given over the years:
• We already have a story like that in the works.
• Too similar to one we did six months ago.
• Too violent for our publication.
• We don't do profiles.
• We don't print first person pieces.
• We have too many stories on backlog right now.

My favorite...and I'm going by memory was this:
Clay,
Can't use the idea you pitched...we published one identical to it in last year's annual and you should know. You wrote it.

The point is rejection happens for many reasons. And yes, sometimes it is because a person is simply a bad writer, or a piece was very poorly written.

Don't take rejection too personally. Certainly, if a query or a story gets repeated rejections, you want to take another look at it, but there are so many reasons -- and the rejections are usually form letters -- it's just not worth getting worked up over.

Praise pours in

I felt a little weird about this post, because it really is tooting my own horn. However, a great deal of praise is being given to The Last Cowboy and Jessie, both of which were recently published. Part of this site is geared toward self-promotion, so I thought I'd share, in the event you've not read the stories...maybe these comments will get you over to the sites.

But first:
The Last Cowboy - www.shredofevidence.com
Jessie - www.acruelworld.com
Both are under the byline E.C. Morgan

FROM STEFANIE (via phone conversation)
Perhaps the highest compliment came from my friend Stefanie who told me, after reading The Last Cowboy, that she was amazed at how much I crammed into so few words. I do believe it was the tightest story I've ever written and I appreciated her comments very much.

FROM PHILL (via e-mail to me)
I read and enjoyed both. Both primaries rose above mere retribution and took on a defender role.

Interesting turn at the end of "Jessie"--using a predator's weakness as bait.

Life imitates fiction--I know you read the recent story about 3 guys who setup a fake female profile on MySpace to play a prank on one of their friends and they ended up hooking a 40-something year old man--strike that: male. A man would never engage in such behavior. I had already read your story before hearing about this on the national news.

FROM HANK (posted on A Cruel World's forum)
Very believeable story, with a nice little twist at the end. Well-written. And they did get what they deserved!

FROM ADELA (via e-mail to me and in reference to The Last Cowboy)
I loved it....it brought tears to my eyes.

FROM DEDRA (via e-mail)
Good job! Glad the writing's going well.

There were many others, including kind comments from five significant mystery authors...though the markets are low-paying or no-paying, comments such as these give me motivation to keep going.

In other related news, a new software program being developed for writers is going to be using The Last Cowboy as an example of good writing!!! I can't say much more at the moment, but in about three months, I'll share that information with everyone.

Thank you all for your support and for your kind comments!

Good money writing

A few years ago, I had the joy of working as a full-time freelance writer for a couple of years. I never made so much money (but I did have to pay self-employment tax which took a bite out of it), but it was very hard.

I firmly believe you can make plenty of money as a freelancer, either full-time or as a supplement to your regular income.

Here's some steps on how to do it.

• Put a value on your time.
I'd suggest establishing a rough hourly rate you'd like to be paid. Now most magazines pay a flat rate or by the word and that's ok. Estimate how long it would take to write an article, what the magazine pays, and then you can see if you'll the per hour rate you want. As an example, back then, martial arts magazines paid me about $125 per article. With my knowledge of judo, I could knock out a judo article in 2-3 hours...not a bad per-hour rate. However, if I got outside of judo, and had to spend 2 hours writing, 3 hours researching, a little time polishing...well, suddenly "do you want fries with that" started to look lucrative.

Also, this means avoid writing for free. If you establish a name in an industry, you will be approached to do projects pro bono. By and large, I avoided these, unless there was some other tangible benefit to doing the piece.

• Query first.
Why spend one second writing an article a magazine does not want? Writing a query letter will give you at least some idea that the magazine is interested in the topic. I always queried before I wrote the first line of any article.

• Query A Lot
When I was freelancing, I sent out a minimum of two queries per week, usually more. This is vital to creating a consistent and constant flow of work coming in. Of course, if you are doing this part time, you may want to reduce the number you send out.

• Recycle research material
I cannot tell you how many articles I wrote on stamp collecting. I wrote about collecting stamps with martial arts on them (Black Belt), cats (I Love Cats), fish (Tropical Fish Hobbyist), and the list goes on. I recycled the same material into several articles, all serving different audiences, and made quite a bit of money off it.

• Look to the Trades
Trade magazines serve people working in specific businesses and professions, and generally are not available on the stands. Many of these magazines pay quite well and the competition with other freelancers is much smaller than with consumer magazines. It is also easy to recycle materials. My article on writing a press release that works appeared in about a dozen trade magazines...and only required minor rewriting for each different magazine.

• Look at when you are paid.
Most magazines pay on acceptance or on publication. I eventually set myself up to write only for those magazines that pay on acceptance, since publication may occur a year or more after your article is approved. When I wrote for publication, it was under the understanding that the article would be published by a set date.

• Don't be afraid to walk away
The martial arts magazines were very good to me. I got my first publication credits on their pages. I made friends with the editors and enjoyed the work. Eventually, consolidation of magazines reduced the number of markets, and the magazines wouldn't come up on their rates, and they paid on publication -- one article was published more than two years after accepted. I finally had to come to the hard conclusion -- it was not profitable for me to write for these magazines anymore. Sometimes, you have to walk away.

• Be professional.
Study the magazines. Keep good notes. Be accurate. Meet the criteria set in guidelines. Make all deadlines. Revise happily. Establish good relationships. Set up a good query tracking system. Have goals. Maybe even a business plan.

Short Story Process

I was recently asked about the process I use to write short stories -- something I seem fairly prolific at.

Of course, it starts with an idea. When I get an idea that I think might make a good short story, I go ahead and open a Word document and write the idea down, usually in one sentence.

Over a period of days or weeks, I'll open that document and I might write down a few more words or phrases, but not begin work on the story in earnest.

For example, my recently published short story "The Last Cowboy," started from this sentence: A modern-day cowboy in Madisonville, Texas gains justice. Over a period of a couple weeks, I wrote down a few other words -- rape, slaughterhouse, revenge, defense attorneys, technicalities. Literally, over two weeks or so, I only spent maybe 5 minutes on paper with the story.

However, during that time, my brain was working. The idea was fermenting and turning over in my head. A plot was developing and more importantly, a couple of characters were starting coming to life. Finally, a rough outline appeared in my head.

My short stories tend to be short -- shorter than 3,000 words and often less than 2,000 words. When I finally sit down to write the short story, I write the entire rough draft in one sitting, as I did with the Last Cowboy, which came in at 1,300 words.

After I write the rough draft, I'll quickly go at it again -- this time primarily working to eliminate passive verbs and grammatical errors. Then I set the story aside and let it sit for a little while, usually a week to two. I then do my final revision, which is a "smoothing" out, a revision to make sure the story flows smoothly and makes sense.

The off it goes.

In the case of The Last Cowboy, that story was rejected by two magazines -- Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. After those two rejections, I did one more revision, which I think did the story a lot of good. The improvements must have been obvious as the highly regarded Shred of Evidence, an online magazine, accepted it.

Jessie is now published

The March issue of A Cruel World, www.acruelworld.com, is now up and contains my story "Jessie." To read the story, click on "issues" at the top and it will take you to the link.

They also have a forum, accessed via the links across the top. In that forum is a section to discuss the issue, and a section to discuss each author. I hope you'll take time to leave a comment or two.

Remember, the title of the magazine is A Cruel World.

WARNING ••• WARNING
This story is unlike any I've written. It deals graphically and directly with rape of a boy and his efforts to extract revenge. Some people will not enjoy this story -- heck, I was shocked at myself when I wrote it. That said, I believe it to be a powerful piece of fiction and am glad it found a home.

I used a graphic approach because I deplore child abuse in all its forms and I wanted the reader to feel, perhaps just a little, what it is like for a child to be sexually abused. Perhaps that will motivate someone to give to an anti-child abuse cause, or get involved in some other way. And of course, I wanted the child to win in the end -- and the story kept with a recurring theme -- doing an evil act for a good reason.

You have been warned.

Clay

An update

Well, here's what's going on right now in my writing world.

As most of you know, my story The Last Cowboy was published in Shred of Evidence. You can read it now at www.shredofevidence.com.

I'm awaiting the publication of Jessie, which will appear in the March issue of A Cruel World.

Two short stories, The Dohnut Shop and Duly Served, are making the rounds among magazines looking for a home. They are currently being considered by Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines, respectively.

I've recently completed a new short story, a mystery of sorts, titled High Seas. It is based loosely on an actual incident that happened while I was in the Coast Guard, but of course has some twists that didn't happen when I was a Coastie. It is currently "cooling off" and in a few days I'll turn my attention to revising it.

At the moment, I'm playing with three short stories that are in some level of development.

On The Wings of Rescue is set in the immediate aftermath of Katrina and features a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, a little boy and a group of opportunists.

Voodoo Blood is a classic police procedural with a supernatural twist.

The Triplets is what I hope will be a humorous mystery in which Barnacle and Addison Carlysle are hired to protect -- you guessed it -- the virginity of The Triplets -- pop's newest teen sensations.

Of course, work on the novels continues.

The importance of independence

Last week, I journeyed to Texas to join my friends at the Texas A&M judo team in a camp. As always, when in Texas, I made it a point to stop by Murder by the Book -- a great book store in Houston.

It is easy to run to Barnes and Noble or Borders, or even make a purchase on Amazon. Probably cheaper too. However, independent bookstores, such as Murder by the Book, serve a valuable purpose.

Murder by the Book sells nothing but mysteries and related titles -- suspense, thrillers, etc. Since they are an independent store, they tend to carry titles you may not find -- heck may not even be able to order -- at a B&N or Borders.

Here's an example, my friend Phill, who went with me, picked up a book that hasn't even been "released" in the U.S. yet. The store special ordered copies from England.

I purchased several books by foreign authors that are not otherwise easily available here. Likewise with a couple of small press purchases.

More importantly, independent bookstores such as this are strong supporters of authors, particularly new and up and coming authors. And that is important to the industry.

So whenever you have a chance, try to go visit an independent bookstore.

Shred of Evidence Story

I'm very excited to report that my short story "The Last Cowboy" is now published at Shred of Evidence, an online magazine that has garnered quite a few awards and an excellent reputation during recent years.

The story can be accessed at www.shredofevidence.com and is published under the name E.C. Morgan.

My thanks to editor Megan Powell for publishing the story.