djuse1I write a lot. Short stories, flashes, poetry, non-fiction, novellas, novels—you name it, I’ll give it a whirl. Genres including, Sci-Fi, fantasy, horror, noir, literary, slice-of-life, YA—I’ve written and been published in most.

I have well over two-dozen submissions out at present—waiting for responses on 8-10 of those which should come within the next week or so. And that’s one of the hardest parts of the whole thing, isn’t it?

Putting the right manuscript in the right editor’s hands—that’s what it takes to become a published author, make no mistake about it. And have no illusions otherwise.

You can write a great little story, say a flash about worm men tunneling up and slaughtering some medieval village—a gripping little cross-genre horror/fantasy, and yet nobody seems to take to it. You sent it hither and thither and been rejected a dozen times. Hm, Is something wrong? Does this little tidbit of terror actually stink?

Flash is difficult to tweak—you end up with a different story. Hopefully marketable. And yet there is that little worm men story in your stack of completed works destined to remain unloved and unpublished. Or is it?

Back to basics. You can write, make up a world no one else could, put ink to paper and it sings. Then you send it off to market, to market. But will it get home again, jiggety-jig?

So you wait. And wait. Then comes the reply via e-mail or your own self-addressed-stamped-envelope. Sweaty-fingered you open the correspondence—and there it is, the response is…

Look, that’s all you can do! Your job is to write, find a market interested in the type, the genre of writing you do. The rest is not in your hands.

What is in your hands is quality, freshness, a voice that tickles the readers ear—that usually takes care of the rest.

Writing is hard. Waiting is harder. Rejections hurt. But doing less is worse. Rejections will come—so do better with the next submission—sharpen that sword, give your protagonist the means to accomplish their task, make it appealingly descriptive, hard-boil it a bit more—make it even more fantastic! Oh, and did I mention–just because many markets tell you not to send another submission until you’ve heard back from them, that doesn’t mean you have to wait to write the next submission you’ll send to them.

Oh, and those worm men? Perchance they might be worm women—gives the story a different prospect, huh?

DJ Barber writes stories, flash, poems, and novels. He was born in the northeast and lives in the northwest. When not writing he has a wife and two dogs that keep him busy.
He has been published online at Every Day Fiction, Moon Drenched Fables, Tales From the Moonlit Path, Big Pulp, Every Day Poets, and Everyday Weirdness.

In Print DJ has been published by Darker Intentions Press, Odyssey Magazine, has a short story in the anthology, Damned in Dixie, and has a flash in the Best of Every Day Fiction 2008.

DJ would like to remind everyone that even a broken clock is right twice a day.