In my position as Managing Editor of Every Day Fiction I have to make daily decisions on who we publish and who we don’t. This is a pretty major thing considering that authors who publish with us get read by, at last count, 1500 people–a number that is unheard of outside of the professional level magazines. Oh, and last year, we nominated six authors for the Pushcart Prize.
Sometimes you meet an author who’s on the verge of breaking out. One such author is Brian Dolton. He’s subbed a bunch of work to us recently, and I’ve accepted every one… but every time I see a new submission I want to reject it. Why? Cause I worry he’ll stop submitting unless it’s a challenge. It’s my fear that if I don’t occasionally reject stories, authors will think that they’re better than us and move on. Now, Brian is a humble, courteous author, and a writer that I admire… and as long as he keeps subbing great stories we’ll keep publishing them.
But I can’t help wanting to reject his work every time I read one of his stories. Brian, if you read this, consider that a challenge!
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My question to you would be: with each submission, is he getting better as a writer? Or is is his work staying the same? Maybe something to challenge him to do is to really outdo himself. Get him to write something not just great, but phenomenal.
It totally want a publisher to buy everything I write.
SMD, Brian is absolutely maturing as a writer. I actually did reject something he wrote… almost a year ago. In my opinion, he’s someone to watch.
Silvia, well then submit something!!!
Three words: flash is hard.
But if I do some flash in the near future I will send it your way.
flash is hard, but I think there’s something to be learned in the challenge
Is that why you sometimes reject my stories, Jordan?
I gotta keep you on your toes, Nick!
Hey, I only just discovered this post! You really should be cross-posting to lj, Jordan… although I probably shouldn’t read stuff like this, it’ll give me a swelled head. Many thanks for the kind words.
It seems I unknowingly took the challenge and got you to reject “Waiting In The Corners” (which was actually an older piece than some you have published). Hadn’t sent anything since because, simply, I am out of flash pieces. But I just wrote something last weekend that needs some tweaks and polishes but I have high hopes for… should be with you soon!
And thanks again for the very kind words!