First Thursday Review

It was a small gathering this past Thursday, with only six in attendance. We had only two pieces to critique (Zack's The Dead Machine, which his fans inside and outside the group will be happy to hear he has picked up again, and David's history of Hermit Mountain), giving us a lot of time to discuss the business of writing. This largely focused on submitting and her ugly stepsister, rejection.

This began with me reading highlights of a rejection letter from Balzer+Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins. Essentially, it's a one-percenter, a term derived from your likelihood of receiving it. Publishers claim they accept one-half of one percent of all submissions, though agency submissions might increase that number slightly. That said, here's the breakdown:

• Publishers reject 90% of all submissions with a form letter.
• The remaining 10% receive a personal rejection, a general summation of what the editor liked and didn't like.
• Of that 10%, 90% will still say, "Thanks, but not thanks," and good luck placing it elsewhere.
• The remaining 10%, or one percent of all submissions, get the following: "Rework this and resubmit it." That's what I got from B+B.

So with that encouragement (all my struggles with this will be the subject of a future post), the floor was opened to questions on submitting to publishers, what various rejections mean, etc. I handled most of the questions, but Zack was a great help in discussing how Frostie the Deadman found a publisher. (Zack won a YA contest.)

All in all, it was nice to touch on this aspect of the business, keeping in mind that the purpose of all this writing is to publish it somewhere. We often focus on improving writing (yes, absolutely necessary), but it's good to remember the larger publishing world outside friends, family, and fellow writers.

Next time, we'll review selections from Billy, Zack, and Kay, as well as the picture book rejected by B+B, in the draft that they saw. It has already undergone revisions in the hope of seeing it on the shelves some day. Or better yet, in the hands of a child reading it!