InsaneJournal

In Which I Throw Around Metaphors with Casual Abandon
I'm not sure what brought this on, but I was thinking this morning about how people sell their first stories. First, the sure way to not be bought? Is not to send the story. Don't make the editor's decision for her.

After that, it doesn't always depend on the story being well-written and nothing beyond that. The overall market's an issue--your story might be the latest of its kind, but all the markets have five stories on the same theme already. The specific market is an issue; maybe your story isn't quite right for what they publish, or their editor can't stand vampire stories, or they've already bought one like yours and you were too late. Maybe the length of your story was wrong for the last gap left in that anthology, so they bought a shorter one. You can control these things somewhat by keeping up-to-date on potential markets and editorial tastes, but not always.

Another issue, I think, is much more difficult to define. I think there's a range of space between competent fiction and between salable fiction and skilled fiction. Some markets buy a larger range than others; this doesn't necessarily correlate to their circulation or pay rate, incidentally; I think it's more related to specific qualities the editor is seeking for their publication, like "nifty-keen idea" or "emotional immersion" which may be accomplished better by a competent story than a skilled one. That sale, or lack of sale, is up to the editor.

I feel that every writer, though, has a turning point at which their craft skills turn a corner, or drop off a cliff and then fly upwards, or insert cool metaphor here. After that point, you're more likely to sell. It's as if various skills coalesce into a story that is almost always salable if you find the right market. The only way to reach that point is to write, and to challenge yourself when you write. I don't think it happens, or it happens much more slowly, when every story is essentially the same. Writing has to stretch, and fail, and limp along, and then leap to grow. I suspect that before that point, a lot of people stop trying.

Learning plateaus, so then you have to put in extra effort to go even higher, aiming for a higher plateau. This never stops. It's why writers who sell regularly still complain. Writing is hard.

That's the point.