{"id":21378,"date":"2016-02-01T15:25:35","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T20:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=21378"},"modified":"2016-02-01T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T20:29:09","slug":"never-give-up-never-surrender-my-44-year-quest-to-sell-a-short-story-to-analog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/01\/never-give-up-never-surrender-my-44-year-quest-to-sell-a-short-story-to-analog\/","title":{"rendered":"Never give up, never surrender: My 44-year quest to sell a short story to Analog"},"content":{"rendered":"

I made my first short story submission to Analog<\/em> in 1972. Seven days later, editor Ben Bova rejected it.<\/p>\n

Why am I telling you this?<\/p>\n

Because 44 years and two editors later, I’ve finally sold a story to Analog<\/em>!<\/p>\n

And here’s how I got from there to here.<\/p>\n

On June 22, 1972, when I was but a wee lad, I slid the manuscript of a story titled “No Pun Intended” into a manilla envelope and mailed it off. I no longer have any idea what that story was about, and I no longer have the ability to check. Long ago, I destroyed<\/a> all evidence of my first three novels and 25 short stories. So all I know is … it included a pun, because I made mention of that fact in my cover letter, and because of, well, that title.<\/p>\n

On June 29, I received this response.<\/p>\n

\"AnalogRejectionLetter1972\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I didn’t realize at the time, since I’d only been submitting my fiction for a year or so, how rare it was for someone as green as I was to receive anything but a form rejection slip<\/a>. I also didn’t realize how many years of sending additional stories to Analog<\/em> I’d have ahead of me before I’d receive a second personal response. <\/p>\n

But even if I’d known, that wouldn’t have stopped me.<\/p>\n

I’ve lost track of how many submissions I made to Analog<\/em> during the intervening years, first to Ben Bova, then Stan Schmidt (for more than three decades!), and now Trevor Quachri. Were there 25 short stories? Fifty? It’s probably been more than that, but I don’t know for sure. And it doesn’t really matter.<\/p>\n

What matters is—in the face of rejection, I kept writing.<\/p>\n

What matters is—in the face of rejection, I kept submitting.<\/p>\n

What matters is—I never took it personally. I knew that I wasn’t the one being rejected—it was only the words on the page that weren’t the right match. <\/p>\n

What matters is—this is proof that what I’ve always believed, what I’ve continually said in panels and workshops—is true. It\u2019s the tale, not he or she who tells it.<\/p>\n

What matters is—if we find joy in our work, if we let the work be its own reward, if we worry more about our next story than our last one, eventually the walls will fall.<\/p>\n

Even ones which have remained standing for 44 years.<\/p>\n

And not just for me.<\/p>\n

During the San Jose Nebula Awards weekend a few years back, Sheila Williams mentioned that she\u2019d just purchased a story from someone for whom it was their 72nd submission to Asimov’s<\/em>. I loved hearing that! It reminded me of the truth embodied in a Samuel Beckett passage I’ve always held close to my heart—<\/p>\n

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.<\/em><\/p>\n

But it also strengthened my belief in that great quote from Galaxy Quest<\/em>. You know the one—<\/p>\n

Never give up! Never surrender!<\/em><\/p>\n

I didn’t. And I won’t. And 44 years later, I’ve sold an 11,600-word story to Analog<\/em> as a result.<\/p>\n

One final thought: Don’t worry … even if you should come to a different decision in your writing career, should decide you need to step back from the struggle, whether for a short break or for a lifetime … I won’t judge you. And I’ll still love you. I just want to support your dreams, whatever they are, in any way I can.<\/p>\n

Now you’ll have to excuse me. I’ve got some celebrating to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I made my first short story submission to Analog in 1972. Seven days later, editor Ben Bova rejected it. Why am I telling you this? Because 44 years and two editors later, I’ve finally sold a story to Analog! And here’s how I got from there to here. On June 22, 1972, when I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[729,731,29],"class_list":["post-21378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-analog","tag-ben-bova","tag-my-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21378"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21430,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21378\/revisions\/21430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}