Comments on: What it feels like to submit a manuscript

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:08:00 +0000

https://www.google.com/search?q=i+wished+him+to+the+cornfield&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=CXQlUYKdNeiAiwL4gIGgCw&biw=1275&bih=852&sei=DHQlUaKGJ8rXigKWgYGgDg

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:03:00 +0000

http://www.google.com/search?q=children+of+the+corn&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS405US405&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_3ElUa3JAs7hiwKeooGIBg&ved=0CFsQsAQ&biw=1536&bih=722

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:57:00 +0000

Keeping the path to the cornfield clear.

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:14:00 +0000

My weapons of choice are avoidance, sarcasm, passive-aggressive humor, and bald mockery. What do you do with the chainsaw?

By: invictus

invictus — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:02:00 +0000

Of course, but it’s far less exciting than you may have imagined on your own :)

Boy meets girl at an out-of-town convention, boy and girl get along like a house on fire, boy and girl go to their respective home towns and strike up an email correspondence. One day the correspondence suddenly cuts off. Boy and girl both sulk for days on end, thinking the other person decided to abandon the whole thing… Eventually one of them (I forget which) breaks down and send a follow up “did I say something wrong?” email — and they discover a message got lost in transit. Fast forward about three years: Boy and girl get married.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:53:00 +0000

Besides my desire to not lose my mind, it’s not a great idea to answer correspondence when I’ve got a ban-hammer in one hand and a chainsaw in the other.

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:17:00 +0000

Good to know. {crosses off ‘Antinous’ from secret list hidden in back of desk drawer}

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:30:00 +0000

I generally don’t answer e-mails until the end of the day, like three in the morning. When you work on the computer all day, it’s a bad idea to start thinking that you need to deal with everything instantly.

By: ldobe

ldobe — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:14:00 +0000

Sounds a lot like submitting job applications online.

It seems like an automated response would be the most basic and rudimentary courtesy, but I’d say over half the time I submit an application, I never hear back.

That’s what’s most discouraging and dehumanizing about looking for a job. The brick and mortar places tell you to apply online, and when you do, there’s no acknowledgment that they even got the app.

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:04:00 +0000

Is there a story to go with this…?

By: invictus

invictus — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:05:00 +0000

I almost didn’t get married because of a misplaced email.

By: awjt

awjt — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:01:00 +0000

Sounds a lot like internet dating: “Why didn’t she write me back yet, dammit?” And it’s been, like, 15 minutes.

By: otterhead

otterhead — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:55:00 +0000

That entirely depends on the nature of what I’ve sent them.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:41:00 +0000

are their pants unzipped too?

By: Shane Simmons

Shane Simmons — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:21:00 +0000

“Has someone died? If so, I’d think you could at least drop me a note explaining the delay.”

I’m doing an extended stint as a stay-at-home dad, and this reminds me of office life. ”Did you get the email I sent earlier? I need your response on that right away.” And if the person is your superior, you clamp down on your frustration as they stand there waiting for your response, so you stop what you’re doing, check your email, and respond to the email they clearly sent, then immediately stood up, walked to your desk, and proceeded to interrogate you on why you hadn’t answered their email yet…

I took Merlin Mann’s advice on 43 Folders years ago, and set my mail client to check mail every 30 minutes. Sometimes I wonder if I screwed myself out of a couple of raises by not constantly, obsessively checking my email…

By: eastblock

eastblock — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:34:00 +0000

Almost like waiting to see if Boing Boing will pick up a link you submitted…… ;-)

By: Kevin Pierce

Kevin Pierce — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:14:00 +0000

That’s how I feel when my phone is spacing out on me: What in the world could you be doing that is more important than me?

By: Supernumerary

Supernumerary — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:50:00 +0000

But just imagine how bleak and meaningless their lives would be without the light and joy your words doubtless brought to them. You are doing a service, clearly.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:42:00 +0000

“What I really want, Doctor, is this. On the day when the manuscript reaches the publisher, I want him to stand up–after he’s read it, of course–and say to his staff, ‘Gentlemen, hats off!’”
-Albert Camus, The Plague

By: otterhead

otterhead — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:22:00 +0000

Sure, at first. But then you start to get worried about their health and hope your sheer genius hasn’t given them a heart attack, and it turns to crushing guilt… vicious cycle.

By: Supernumerary

Supernumerary — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:10:00 +0000

I want to live in that world. It sounds glorious.

By: Joe Vanegas

Joe Vanegas — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:39:00 +0000

With online submission systems, the publisher’s computer generates the “got it, thanks” email almost immediately. It is surprisingly satisfying despite the lack of human interaction.

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:59:00 +0000

Just replace that first part with the word ‘e-mail’ to a friend/spouse/lover. ‘I’ve been sitting here for two hours composing this letter, and they don’t have the good grace to be sitting there waiting for it? Are they too BUSY?! Why am I providing any evidence that I’m thinking of them, when they’re clearly not thinking me. Don’t I mean **anything** to them? Well, fuck ‘em. If they don’t care, I don care either. {delete}

By: otterhead

otterhead — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:55:00 +0000

Whenever I send in work for review and don’t hear back for a few hours, I just picture the client/editor reeling back in their chair, stunned and amazed, unable to type or, much less, communicate their joy at the finished product, and figure they just have to regain the power of speech before they can reply.

By: peregrinus

peregrinus — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:44:00 +0000

It’s so easy to send a ‘got it, thanks’ message. This is obviously some jealous torture game practiced by editors.

I wonder how I’d cope – I’d pursue them until they acknowledged they had it, otherwise I’d be sure they didn’t. I’d be frightfully boring to them.

By: Art

Art — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:12:00 +0000

When I don’t hear back from an editor for an hour, I say, “no news is good news”

Over a day, “Maybe they’re busy”. Over a week, “well ain’t that rude?”.

A month? I should follow up with an actual phone call.

(Note to self: Be nice, Art. Maybe they didn’t receive it.

By: Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:19:00 +0000

Of course! I’ve got blurbs on half a dozen of Steve’s books!

By: Sethra Lavode

Sethra Lavode — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:26:00 +0000

Thinking one of my favorite authors reads another of my favorite authors is soooooo cool. Cory if you read these, do you actually read Brust’s Vlad/Khaavren series? And if you do well I might as well ask if you also read Neal Stephenson.

By: Nadreck

Nadreck — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:35:00 +0000

Edward Gorey’s “The Unstrung Harp” nails it the authoring game pretty well too!