I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Sunday, September 30, 2007

I'd like to buy a Clue, Pat.

One half of the best editor husband and wife teams out there, Jeff VanderMeer, gives his 10 Clues for the Clueless on how not to behave while submitting. On the flip side he gives his 10 Editor Responsibilities. Good reading. And just for the record, Jeff gives good rejections (I'm still looking for a home for Robert's Thunder, Mr. VanderMeer, I will let you know where I place it). He certainly walks the walk.

5 comments:

Todd Wheeler said...

Hurray! I'm not clueless!

Fortunately, I haven't run into the editor behavior (well, not much).

Steve Buchheit said...

Todd, oh, sure. But I'll bet you've thought about querying before the state responce time was done. :)

I only had one bad query experience, Weird Tales had a story for 8 months, and the day after I sent my email query I had my SASE in the mail. The editors were nice about it. One of the reasons why I like that magazine.

Todd Wheeler said...

Between thought and action is some interesting quotation that I can't remember.

I just had a submission bounce because the editor's yahoo e-mail is unhappy. I'm guessing inbox full. And at his submission deadline, too.

Camille Alexa said...

And you got that response to your question about whether it's all right to send thank yous to helpful rejections!

Steve Buchheit said...

Camille, yes he did. Jeff is really good like that. So now I have a plethora of really good ideas.