Refocusing my writing

A week ago I had a lovely rejection from the editor of a major science fiction magazine.  So why am I so excited about a rejection?  Because it told me something useful, for the first time.  He told me I had some good ideas in my story, and that he liked my protagonist, Alenis.  And even more importantly, he said that he hoped to see more of my work in the future.

Twenty years ago I would have dismissed that comment as a mere platitude, but today I know better.  I know that editors only say such things if they really mean them.  So I've been invited by the editor of one of the US's major SF magazines to send him more work.  That's quite an achievement.

One of the sessions I attended at Eastercon was a discussion about the annual Milford Writers SF workshop.  There I learned about a writer who has fifty stories out at any one time, and is selling many of them.

So I'm going to refocus my writing efforts for the rest of the year.  I'm going to switch from working on novels to writing and submitting short stories.  I'm looking for that breakthrough, that first sale of a  story that unlocks the world of mainstream publication.  Short stories are quick wins.  If someone doesn't like one it's much easier to move on to the next idea than when working on a novel.

I had set myself a goal of sending out five short stories every month.  It's time to up the hit rate.  I think now I'm aiming to have 30 stories on submission at any one time.  It will take me a little while to get to that level.  I do have around 30 marketable stories, but I'll need to keep producing more.

There has been a recent resurgence in markets taking SF short stories, and new magazines are appearing every month.  And the big difference now from when I started submitting is that most submissions are electronic.  It only costs me my time to format and submit a file.  When I started sending stories to the U.S. it was by expensive airmail and International Reply Coupons.  I couldn't afford to attack the markets seriously.  But now I can.  So excuse me while I go and write a new story.

Wendy Metcalfe is the author of Panthera : Death Spiral and Panthera : Death Plain and the short story collection Otherlives.  Find out more about her at www.wendymetcalfe.com