Three Reasons
I just received an email letting me know I’ve sold another story – “Cinders”. Those on the “Felicitations” list (who get a free flash story each month) read it last November. If you want to be on the list (or want to read the tale again), email fellissimo[at]hotmail[dot]com. It’ll eventually be podcast at http://SFZine.org.
There are three reasons publishers take a long time to respond to book submissions (and yes, I admit #2 is paranoid):
1. They’re overworked (always true, but sometimes it’s MORE true).
2. They feel physically ill when they look at a re-submitted book (such as the one I’m currently waiting to hear back on – I know that’s MY reaction when someone I’ve read asks me to read the new, better version).
3. It’s perilously close to a “yes” answer – which means quite a large number of people need to read it (and they have to read the whole thing, too).
The moral of the story is: if your book sucks, you’ll get a reply in 1-3 months.
If your book doesn’t suck, it’ll take forever – and the answer will almost definitely still be no.
Hmm. . . that was kind of depressing. I’d better put in another cute picture of my cat.
Felicity Banks 
Steff Metal said,
October 27, 2009 at 6:55 am
Number 2 is soooooo true.
say, I have this re-edited novel called Thorn, and I was wondering …
just kidding 🙂
Felicity said,
October 27, 2009 at 10:13 am
LOL! I’d like to pre-order ten copies, though, if I may 🙂
I had a notion the other day that you and I could put author comments on each other’s books. It’s just a theory – I don’t know how these things work. But our genres (and our general state of near-publication) match up pretty well.
In any case, you have my unconditional offer for author comments, because I *really* like “Thorn”.