Etiquette

There are two schools of thought regarding bandages (Band-Aid, as it turns out, is a brand name): those who advocate swift removal, and those who prefer slow.

Each method has its merits as well as demerits.  The swift method is painful but gets it over quickly.  The peel method isn’t as painful, but lasts longer.  It reminds me of submitting stories for publication.

After screwing up my courage for weeks, I finally submitted a collection of stories to a publisher.  This is a combination of some twenty-one weird tales, only eight of which had been previously published.  To me they looked, in turn, impressive and pedestrian.  Since I have a storehouse of unpublished pieces, I was able to make substitutions until I finally got what I thought was a moody collection.

Tom Petty’s song “The Waiting” has always had a special poignance to me.  The question is, would I prefer a swift jerking off of the bandage or a slow peeling where I can feel each hair pulled in turn?  

I’ve had rejection letters the next day after submitting a story.  That always makes me feel like an idiot.  I mean, a single day?  Don’t they have hundreds of submissions to wade through?  Was mine so bad that they could tell right away they didn’t want it?

As long as I haven’t heard back, there’s hope.  Of course, I’ve had stories out for over a year with no response.  I consider them rejected by default after that long.  Books, however, are a different matter.  You wait until they say no.

Even so, I’ve had indie publishers not bother even to do that.  Seems that if someone has put the effort to write 80,000 words, polished and shined them, the least you could do is say, “no thank you.”

But I’m getting ahead of my story here.  Right now I’m waiting.  Although I’m a slow Band-Aid man, that is still the hardest part.