Podcast interview

A few months ago I was interviewed by Jeff Rutherford for his Reading and Writing Podcast. Listen to the interview at:

http://readingandwritingpodcast.com/022-reading-and-writing-podcast-michael-bracken-interview/

How easy we forget

One of the drawbacks to being a prolific short story writer is that, in the drive to create and submit new work, it's easy to forget about previously submitted material.

This morning, for example, after looking through my file of submitted work in search of a particular story, I realized a few of my manuscripts had been away from home far too long.

So, I sent follow-ups to editors questioning the status of stories submitted in 2007 and 2008.

But I don't ever just ask, "Have you made a decision yet?" Should an editor fail to respond, where am I? I'm stuck sending yet another follow-up letter.

To avoid this, my follow-up letters include something similar to the following: "If I have not heard from you by [insert date], I will presume the story was unsuitable and will feel free to submit it elsewhere."

That way, if an editor fails to respond to my first follow-up letter, it also serves as my withdrawal letter.

Story eighteen

I completed and submitted by 18th story of the year this evening, a 4,700-word confession that I started writing on the 24th.

A mash-up I won't write

Hawaiian police are shipwrecked on a deserted island in Jack Lord of the Flies.

Published

My confession/romance "Must Love Dogs" appears in the June True Confessions.

Published

My confession "Always the Bridesmaid" appears in the June True Love.

Published

My short romance "All-In for Love" was published today at The Long and Short of It, where it will be available for a week.

Disappearing act

I'm a strong advocate of record-keeping, something not enough writers seem to do. I believe writers should know exactly where they've submitted a manuscript, what the response to it was, and, if accepted for publication, what rights they licensed to the publisher and for how long.

I've met too many writers over the years who didn't and don't keep good records. They resubmit stories to publications that have already rejected the stories, submit a manuscript to multiple publications at the same time without realizing they've done so, and don't know what rights they've licensed and so have no idea which rights they still control.

So, I have a copy of every contract I've ever signed.

Sort of.

I became a professional writer back when we all used typewriters. Photocopiers were expensive machines owned by businesses, not by part-time writers working in their spare bedrooms. To make a copy meant sneaking copies on the copier owned by our employers or driving into town with a pocketful of change to use the over-priced and poorly maintained copier at the grocery store.

The same went for faxes. Fax machines were office machines and, on the rare occasion when a writer needed to fax something--publishing moved much slower then and most business was done through the U.S. Postal Service--the fax was sent surreptitiously from work or from the local print shop.

I was ahead of the curve.

I owned a fax machine.

And my fax machine had the ability to copy.

So I copied all of my contracts, using my fax machine, before returning the originals to publishers. Without leaving home! Without having to look over my shoulder at work!

On thermal paper.

Guess what.

Thermal paper fades.

And I now have several blank sheets of thermal paper in my files where once I had copies of my contracts.

Sigh.

24

I received another acceptance this afternoon, my 24th of the year. This time it's for a 5,100-word confession I submitted March 27.

22, 23

I woke this morning to find two acceptances waiting in my e-mail, this time for a pair of confessions I submitted on Monday.

What happens when you die?

After my death, I won't care what happens to my writing. But I'm not dead yet, and I do worry.

My will--such as it is--doesn't designate anyone to care for my literary estate. Who in my family comprehends copyright law well enough to understand the 1,000+ contracts, letters of agreement, acceptance letters, and other correspondence related to the assignment of various rights that I'll leave behind? Who in my family comprehends publishing well enough to seek publication or republication of existing manuscripts? Will they see my bulging filing cabinets as a potential--albeit small--income source into the future, or will they simply see a room full of paper and old magazines and books no one has read that must be discarded before my home can be sold?

And how often do the files of workaday writers--those who publish regularly but lack the fame of a bestselling writer or the renown of a multiple-award-winning writer--disappear when the writers die? How much literary trash and literary treasure has been lost because writers like me failed to find someone--anyone--willing and able to care for their literary estates?

And why do I even care? After all, I'll be dead.

Character ethnicity and why some of my characters are indeterminate

Years ago, when I started writing confessions, there were a dozen or more confession magazines, just as there were several mystery magazines and several science fiction/fantasy magazines.

Confession magazines--women's magazines featuring a specific genre of women's fiction known as "confessions"--served two distinct readerships. Many of the confession magazines featured white characters for a white readership; the rest of the confession magazines featured black characters for a black readership.

The best paying confession magazine--then, as now--was True Story, a few confession magazines were on the second tier of payment rates, and the rest were grouped in the third tier. I came from the science fiction genre where the mantra was to submit to the best paying publication first and work down until the story sells. Which I did.

But there was a problem with this. If I wrote a story intended for one ethnicity, I had to revise the manuscript before I could submit the story to a magazine serving the other ethnicity. In those days I was fortunate that I used a correcting Selectric, the top-of-the-line, every-other-writer-envied-me typewriter.

Typewriter. Not computer. A revision meant retyping an entire manuscript.

This was not time- or cost-effective.

I discovered a trick to avoid having to retype manuscripts. I stopped giving my characters physical features that were associated with one ethnicity or another.

I made them fat and skinny, tall and short, big-hipped and small-hipped, large-breasted and small-breasted. I gave most of them dark hair--black, brown, auburn--and dark eyes--brown, hazel.

Then I could send the manuscripts to any of the confession magazines without revision. This was much more time- and cost-effective, and for several years I sold every confession I wrote.

(For a few years I even wrote confessions on assignment, creating 5,000-word stories based on one-paragraph descriptions sent me by an editor.)

The publishing world has changed over the years. There are only five confession magazine still being published--and they promote themselves now as romance magazines--so I no longer need to use this trick.

But I still do.

Not always, but frequently.

It's no longer a trick; it's a habit.

20, 21

While I was away from the computer yesterday evening, two more acceptances--my 20th and 21st of the year--arrived via e-mail. The first is a short romance I submitted March 10. The second--a confession submitted on April 8--is the one I mentioned in my "Always be kind to editors" post on April 9.

Virgins and veterans

I currently have 62 manuscripts in editors' hands (or buried in their slush piles) awaiting decisions.

Some of these manuscripts are virgins, out for the first time, eager and ready to impress editors; others are jaded old veterans, having been out and back a dozen times or so, hoping for nothing more than to be in the right place at the right time when an editor has a hole to fill.

One file drawer contains an uncounted number of manuscripts that aren't currently in the hands of any editor. They are retired from travel--some temporarily; some permanently. But each one remains eager to go out again, eager to please a new editor, and every time an anthology's call for submissions crosses my desk or a new publication announces its submission guidelines, these manuscripts vie for my attention. "Send me," they all say. "Send me."

I would send them all, if I could, but only a few are chosen.

And maybe, just maybe, this time they'll catch an editor's eye.

Kindle update

I sold my first copy of Unbridled Love today. I'm now well on my way to becoming another Kindle millionaire.

Story seventeen

I finished and submitted my 17th short story of the year this evening. This time it's a 2,100-word ghost story I started writing last week. All I had was a call for submissions from an anthology editor, a vague idea, and a couple of random sentences. After a long discussion with Plot Monkey this weekend, I realized I was trying to tell the story from the wrong character's POV. Once I changed the POV, the entire story fell into place. I wrote most of it yesterday and spent a few hours today revising the draft until I felt everything flowed. Then off it went.

19

I received my 19th acceptance of the year today, this time for a 5,700-word confession I submitted April 3.

Kindling

My romance novella Unbridled Love is now available for Kindle at Amazon.com. This is a story that was too long for the confession magazines and too short to be a novel. It joins my young adult novel Just in Time for Love and my private eye novel All White Girls in Kindle format.

Always be kind to editors

Last night I submitted a story to a market to which I've never previously submitted and received an e-mail in return asking how I'd learned about it.

I replied that two former editors--editors of now-defunct magazines that had published several of my stories--had mentioned the publisher and that both of the former editors had since had work released by that publisher.

This morning I woke to an e-mail that said, in part, "I'll read it and let you know the outcome..but [editor's name redacted] already gave you a thumbs up!!!"

Maybe this story will sell. Even if it doesn't, a door has been opened into a new market, and I owe the opportunity to former editors.

And any editor that gives me a three-exclamation-point thumbs-up to another editor is aces in my book.

Story sixteen

I finished and submitted my 16th short story of the year today, a 2,700-word romance I started writing on April 3. This one was a bit of a challenge, and I actually had to print out and read/edit several drafts on paper before I felt I had written the story I wanted to tell.

17, 18

Two acceptances today, my 17th and 18th acceptances of the year. Accepted were the story I queried yesterday and the story I submitted on April 2. Both sold to anthologies.

Story fifteen

I completed my 15th story of the year earlier this evening, this time for an anthology seeking stories about rock 'n' roll relationships. It's a 2,300-word story that I started writing last night and finished a few minutes ago. This particular editor wants to see queries rather than complete manuscripts, so the query left here a few minutes ago.

Story fourteen

I completed and submitted my 14th short story of the year this morning. This time it's a 5,700-word confession that takes place during one fateful summer. I started writing this one on March 23, finished it last night, and proofread/edited it this morning.

Story thirteen

I finished and submitted my 13th story of the year this afternoon, a 1,050-word bit of erotica that I started yesterday.

16

I received my 16th acceptance of the year today, this time for a Take Your Dogs to Work-themed confession I submitted on the 22nd.

Published 3x

My confessions "Memorial Day Madness" and "A Daughter's Homecoming" appear in the May True Confessions, and my hardboiled crime story "Meat and Potatoes" about a con man/killer appears in the just released anthology Biker Boys.

Reviewed

In a review of Best Gay Romance 2010, Eric Page writes:

"These stories explore the idea that one night, one week or one summer can be as romantic as a life spent together. From the sweet, everyday and unexpected discovery of love on your own doorstep in ‘Total Package’ by Michael Bracken, to the more sophisticated wisdom and suggestiveness of ‘The Falls’ by Natty Soltesez this paperback collection of (sometimes very) short stories is a good read, leaves you feeling warm, covers all the kind of love from first to make-up and even, in this most cynical and bitter of reviewers hearts, lit a candle of hope that we might all get a chance at the ‘happy ever afters.’"

Story twelve

I completed and submitted my 12th short story of the year this morning, a 5,100-word confession that takes place at a family reunion. I started work in this story on March 23, finished the bulk of the writing on the 25th, and proofread/edited the final draft yesterday.

A Sherlock Holmes pastiche I'll never write

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are engaged to locate a pedophile that's been terrorizing London. Holmes, using his superior deductive reasoning, determines that the pedophile is at one of the city's schools and goes undercover to roust him out.

After the pedophile is arrested, Dr. Watson asks Holmes, "And at which school did you discover this cretin?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary."

Research tip

Those of you who like to tie your stories to holidays and other annual events might be interested in checking out this page from the U.S. Census Bureau:

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/index.html

It contains lots of good information about significant annual events. (For example, did y'all know that May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month AND Older Americans Month? I didn't. I just knew Mother's Day was in May.)

Story eleven

I finished and submitted my 11th story of the year this evening, a 2,900-word confession centered around Take Your Dog to Work Day. I started writing this story on February 2, but wrote most of it last week and this afternoon.

15

I received my 15th acceptance this morning, this time for a deal-with-the-devil story with a twist: the deal is actually with one of the devil's less-experienced minions.

14, again

Because a story accepted for an anthology at the beginning of the year was unaccepted by the publisher when the editor turned in an anthology that was too long, my tally of acceptances dropped by one. So, today's acceptance of a confession submitted February 13, becomes my 14th acceptance of the year.

What's that smell?

"The most important thing, especially on a first draft is to remember that it is a FIRST DRAFT. It is supposed to be crap. Give yourself permission to write crap and you’ll be amazed by what happens."--Candace Havens, Genreality

You shouldn't be. If you give yourself permission to write crap, you'll write crap.

I've quoted Ms. Havens out of context--this was part of a much longer post about overcoming writer's block--but I've seen this advice presented many times by many writers, and I find it repulsive.

While a first draft may be imperfect, one should never settle for producing crap. The more loathesome your first draft, the more work you'll have to do to your manuscript to create a publishable draft.

Why create unnecessary work for yourself? Why not produce clean drafts at each stage of the process? Do your best with each draft and you'll find yourself producing fewer drafts. You may even reach a point where your first draft is your final draft.

(And these days, with word processing software and personal computers giving us the ability to revise on the fly, who's to say what constitutes an actual draft?)

Literary mash-ups

Literary mash-ups are all the rage these days. The one I'd like to write, but probably won't, is the story of the horror writing bear who lives in the 100 Acre Woods with his friends Piglet and the Raven: Edgar Allan Pooh.

-1

I'm down one acceptance this year.

I woke this morning to find an email from an anthology editor. The complete manuscript was too long and the publisher suggested cutting three stories. One of them was mine.

Sigh.

Story Ten

I finished my 10th story of the year a few minutes ago, a 680-word mystery that'll be headed off to Woman's World in the morning.

14

My 14th acceptance of the year came with no effort on my part. Out of the Gutter is producing a "Best of" anthology and asked to include my story "Professionals," from issue 2, in the anthology.

Of course, I said they could.

12, 13

I received my 12th and 13th acceptances today, for a Mother's Day-themed confession and a Memorial Day-themed confession.

Published

My story "One-Night Stan" appears in the April True Confessions.

11

I received my 11th acceptance of the year this morning, this time for a short essay I wrote about working in my grandmother's corset shop when I was a teenager. My grandmother's shop specialized in serving the needs of mastectomy patients and the "tasteful" anthology is "celebrating the most female of body parts, the breasts."

Clean up your act

A few days ago I received a copyedited short story manuscript back from an anthology editor with a note that it's "always a treat to edit a story that doesn't need much editing."

Of all the things an editor can say to me, that's probably the best. I strive to produce clean manuscripts that, if not perfect, are as close as I can get.

Why? Because I also sit on the other side of the desk and see the God-awful manuscripts many writers submit--manuscripts filled with spelling, grammar, and stylistic errors; manuscripts filled with extra spaces and inconsistent paragraph indenting; manuscripts that make me scratch my head and wonder just what the hell the writer was thinking when he hit the send key or stuffed hardcopy in an envelope.

I may never be an artist of staggering genius whose name adorns magazine covers or whose stories open or close anthologies, but, by God, I'll be one of the craftsmen editors rely on to fill a magazine's back pages or an anthology's middle section, one of the craftsmen he knows will produce solid stories requiring minimal editorial effort during editing and production. It's a good thing to be.

Story nine

I finished and submitted my ninth short story of the year this evening. This time it's a 5,100-word confession with a Father's Day theme. I started writing this story on the 19th and worked on it every day except Sunday, which means I averaged 1,000 words/day.

Published

My story "Easter Magic" appears in the April True Story.

Published

My article "Hunt Youth Discover Gardening!" appears in the March/April issue of Texas Gardener.

Story eight

I'm printing out the final draft of my eighth short story of the year and will drop it in the mail tomorrow. This is a 3,100-word bit of erotica I started writing October 11, 2008. I'd completed about a third of the story--the opening scene, the last scene and some notes in between--before I picked it up again earlier this week.

10

I received my 10th acceptance of the year earlier this evening, for a 3,700-word bit of crime fiction about what happens to two college boys on Spring Break in the Caribbean.

Pick-up line prompt

On the SMFS list a writer mentioned that her critique group's writing prompt was to create a 100-word flash using a coroner's pick up line...and that none of the six members could even think of a pick-up line for a coroner.

Here's what I came up with:


THE VOODOO MURDERS
By Michael Bracken

Detective Peters sat at his desk, thinking about the new coroner, an attractive young redhead who'd been assigned to the case as soon as the detectives realized there was a serial killer on the loose. Peters was daydreaming about her and wondering if she thought of him the same way.

He was startled when the phone rang, and he snatched the phone's handset from its cradle. "Detective Peters."

"I'm finished with the voodoo killer's latest victim," the new coroner said in her most seductive voice, "so if you want, you can come down here and get a little head."

Story seven

This morning I finished and submitted my seventh short story of the year. This is a 2,100-word story about a hitman unable to fulfill his contract.

On January 5 an anthology editor who previously accepted one of my stories asked if he could include me as a probable contributor to an anthology he was about to pitch to a publisher. This doesn't happen often. Not to me. So, of course, I said he could.

This past Monday I received an e-mail from the editor telling me the publisher had OK'd the anthology. I had already jotted notes for possible stories just in case the anthology sold, but I didn't really like any of them. Tuesday I had another idea. This one I liked and I spent the next several evenings writing and rewriting the first two paragraphs. The first two graphs set the tone and I couldn't write the rest of the story until I was happy with the opening.

Yesterday morning I wrestled the opening into shape, spent the day writing the rest of the story, and surprised myself late in the day with a little twist that made my planned ending even better. I let the ms. sit overnight, proofread/edited it this morning, and sent it off.

Now I wait to see if I met the editor's expectations...

Story six

I finished and submitted my sixth short story of the year this morning. It's a 2,100-word confession set at a wedding.

I wrote the first paragraph on January 27, wrote the rest of the story yesterday, and did the final proofread/edit this morning before sending it off.

9

I received my ninth acceptance of the year in today's mail, this for an erotic vampire story I submitted February 7, 2009.

Published

My short romance, "Cat Lover," was published this week at http://www.longandshortreviews.com/LASR/story.htm.

Tending to my story garden

I've spent the past few days tending to my story garden.

My story garden contains several hundred stories-in-progress.

Some freshly planted seeds are nothing more than a title, an opening sentence, or a one-line description of the concept.

Others stories have sprouted into opening paragraphs and opening scenes.

A few stories have matured into spindly outlines, with structure but no foilage, while others are a disorganized riot of foilage that needs to be trimmed into shape.

A few are almost ready to bear fruit, missing only a scene or two.

So I've spent the past few days tending to my story garden, plucking away dead growth from a few stories, adding foilage to a few outlines, adding structure to a few sprawling stories, all the while reminding myself of the many story seeds I've planted over the years.

Before too long, one of the story seeds will grow into a mature story plant, ready to share with others.

Published

My science fiction short story "I Can't Touch the Clouds for You," first published in the July 25, 2005, edition of Sun, was reprinted in today's edition of Seeds.

8

I received my eighth acceptance of the year earlier today, this for the story about "One Night Stan" I submitted Sunday evening.

Story five

I completed and submitted my fifth short story of the year this evening. This is a 3,900-word male-P.O.V. confession that I started writing November 4, 2007. It started with a typo in another story: "one night stan" instead of "one night stand." When I spotted the typo, I thought "One Night Stan" was somebody I could write a story about.

So I did. I wrote much of the first half back when I had the idea. I worked out the plot for the second half and wrote a couple of the key scenes a month or so ago. Then today I wrote the filler scenes that tie the key scenes together, cleaned up some rough patches and typos (none that inspired new stories, though), and wrapped it all up this evening.

Show me the money!

A freelancer's financial life is much like roller-coaster riding: It has its ups and downs. Occasionally you go off the track, but, usually, you wind up back in the station where you started.

This is especially true for writers at or near my level of success (selling regularly, but mostly to pay-on-publication markets). I earn enough from freelancing to maintain a modest lifestyle, but the income is highly irregular. Budgeting is nearly impossible because I rely on many checks of varying amounts that arrive randomly throughout the year.

For example, on January 14 I had 4 cents in my checking account. The morning of January 20 the kitchen cabinets were mostly bare, I had a stack of unpaid bills almost 2 inches thick, and only a few dollars in cash. That morning I raided my savings account to pay the two most pressing bills. Only 10 days later, my kitchen cabinets are full, all my bills are paid, I've replaced the money I took from savings, and I have a healthy balance in my checking account and cash in my pocket.

Many people live paycheck-to-paycheck--some don't have a choice, others because they've made bad choices--but freelancers living check-to-check when they aren't sure when the next check will arrive and how much it might be deal with a much more difficult financial situation.

Are there ways to to turn the roller-coater ride into more of a train ride (still on a track and still with ups and downs, but at least with a destination in mind and more time to plan for the ups and downs)?

There are many, and here are a few that help me deal:

1) Find steady gigs. In my case, it's a former client that made me a part-time employee. That's two checks a month, for the same amount each time, paid like clockwork. For another freelancer it might be a regular column or a publisher that contracts for a specific number of articles or short stories each month.

2) Find semi-steady gigs. For me it's two clients. One hires me by the hour and cuts me a check every two weeks. Even though the checks arrive like clockwork, the amount varies wildly based on the number of hours I worked during that two-week period. The other pays me a flat rate each week. Even though the amount is the same each week, the checks arrive somewhat sporadically.

3) Produce a lot of a material for as many markets as possible. The more different places there are that owe you money, the more likely it is that one of them will send you a check on any given day.

4) Whenever possible, write for pay-on-acceptance publications.

On the flip side is managing outflow:

1) Pay your bills on time. This prevents late fees and damage to your credit rating.

2) Use credit cards sparingly and pay them off promptly. This prevents interest charges.

3) Build a savings account. The more money you have set aside to deal with emergencies, the less likely it is that a problem or bump in the road will turn into an emergency. (Many emergencies are the result of a failure to plan ahead.)

4) Stock up on non-perishables when you can.

5) Learn to love peanut butter.

I'm sure there are many other ways to deal with the ups and downs of a freelancer's financial life, but doing these things have helped me enjoy the ride. The next time my financial roller-coaster car crests the top and heads down I can throw my arms up and scream with joy rather than grip the steel bar holding me in my seat and quiver with fear.

Story four

I also finished my fourth story of the year, the 4,400-word story of a contract killer I mentioned a few days ago. I don't know where I'm sending this one, either, but it's finished and ready to submit.

Story Three

I finished writing my third story of the year earlier this evening. It's a 1,600-worder that straddles the line between dark crime and horror fiction. I haven't yet submitted it anywhere because I'm not up to speed on my dark crime/horror markets and will need to do a bit of market research before this one goes out.

Interviewed

I was just interviewed by Jeff Rutherford for readingandwritingpodcast.com. The interview won't be posted for a month or so. In the meantime, why not drop by and listen to some of the other interviews.

Another story I probably won't write: "The Vampire Umpire"

He only works night games, and every time he turns into a bat he gets hit with fastballs.

Published 2x

My stories "Lucky Clover" and "Spring Fling" appear in the March issue of True Confessions.

Tracking stories

Scott D Parker is tracking his short story production this year. His goal is 12 new short stories in 2010. Will he make it? Follow his blog to find out.

7

I received my seventh acceptance of the year this morning, for a short romance I submitted last July.

Stories without markets

Friday morning I woke with an idea for a short story, mostly an image and brief series of events that I knew would make a strong opening scene. I roughed out that opening scene before my morning shower, went about my day, and returned to the story around six that night. I worked on it until midnight, woke at seven the next morning and continued writing until I had a 4,400-word draft around three Saturday afternoon.

The story is complete, though I have to proofread/edit it and make make a few changes before I have a final draft to count as a completed story for the year.

My dilemma is that I have no clue where to submit the story. It doesn't fit any of my usual markets--too violent, too sexual, too long, too male--and the few Web zines that it might fit don't pay. (I'm not opposed to placing work with non-paying markets; I just can't put food on the table that way.) What to do, what to do?

Some of my best stories are like this. The ideas come unbidden, they don't fit any particular market, and they take bloody all forever to place.

Still, I'm not one to look a gift muse in the mouth. In a day or two I'll pick this story up again, give it a good going over and then submit the manuscript somewhere...because it'll never sell if it sits in my filing cabinet.

6

I received my sixth acceptance of the year earlier today, this time for a bit of crime fiction featuring a guy who collects debts for the mob. This will be in an anthology that wasn't specifically looking for crime fiction, but was looking for stories about "muscle men."

Published & 5

My story "St. Patrick's Day Romance" is the lead story in the March True Love.

And today's mail also brought my fifth acceptance of the year in the form of a contract for another confession, an Easter-themed confession I submitted on December 27.

Hack House

A totally new writing environment.

An old hotel converted into individual "writing rooms." Each room comes with a private bathroom, a mini-fridge, a desk, and a couch. Writers are encouraged to decorate or outfit their private rooms as they wish.

The cafe on the main floor is open to the public, and is ideal for those writers who need to work in a busy environment, yet need to be close to their writing room for when they want/need privacy.

The lounge, also open to the public, is open in the evenings for writers who like to mingle. And drink.

The entire facility has wi-fi, a maid service, and other amenities. Once each quarter, Hack House sponsors a two-day writing conference for wanna-be and would-be writers not yet ready to have their own room at Hack House. Once a month, Hack House sponsors readings or open mic nights. Hack House writers-in-residence are encouraged to participate or to isolate themselves as appropriate to their needs.

To the extent possible, staff consists of college students majoring in English, Journalism, Creative Writing, and other related programs.

Hack House.

Where the words are.

4

I received my fourth acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this for the private eye short story I submitted yesterday.

Published

My short romance "Putting the Kart Before Love" was published this week at The Long and Short of It.

Story Two

I finished writing my second short story of the year a few minutes ago. This time it's a 4,200-word private eye story written in response to an open anthology call. I started work on the story on July 19 of last year, wrote it in fits-and-starts, and then had to do some heavy editing of the last draft because I had put in too many dead-end clues and had to remove them for the story to make sense.

The editor of this anthology likes to see queries, so I queried him and am waiting to learn if he wants to see the full ms.

Update: The editor asked to see the full ms.

3

I received my third acceptance of the year today, this for the article I submitted yesterday.

Non-fiction

Though I'm not actively seeking non-fiction assignments, I did pick one up late last year. I just finished the 2,000-word article and submitted it to the editor. Because the article was assigned, and because it's already on the editorial calendar for the March/April issue of the magazine, an acceptance is highly probable. Still, it's never wise to count unhatched chickens...

Reviewed

Bookgasm reviews Out of the Gutter 6 and gives a shoutout to one of my two stories:

In longer pieces, Michael Bracken examines the dangers of sex with plastic bags in “Games[.]”

Looking ahead at 2010

I have a single writing goal, and it's been the same each year for several years: To receive an average of one acceptance per week over the course of the year.

Some years I achieve or exceed my goal, some years I don't.

Some years I alter my approach, in part to see what impact a new approach might have on my ability to write and sell, and sometimes simply as a reaction to changes in the marketplace. For example, last year I saw the demise or scaling back of several publications where I had previously placed multiple short stories, publications I could count on for several acceptances over the course of any given year.

Last year I made three changes:

1. I targeted one high-paying publication to which I had never sold anything and wrote several stories targeted specifically for that publication. The result: 12 rejections. (One of those stories sold this year, without revision, to a much lower-paying publication.)

2. I targeted a genre in which I had only a handful of sales over the previous 30+ years. The result: Nine acceptances, two rejections, and one editor who likes my stuff so much he asked to include my name as a probable contributor in an anthology proposal he's currently pitching.

3. I wrote and submitted more to a group of publications where I'm a long-established contributor. The result: 23 acceptances, 17 rejections.

(Of course, several stories that I submitted last year under points 2 and 3 above have not yet generated responses.)

One other thing I started doing late last year and hope to continue this year is an attempt to write and sell at least one short story tied to each month of the year. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've often done well with Christmas and Valentine's Day stories, but there are many other holidays and events throughout the year that might generate story ideas and story themes.

So far I've had three January stories published (all tied to New Year's) and two February stories published (both tied to Valentine's Day). I've placed three March stories (two tied to St. Patrick's Day, the other tied to Spring Break), and I've submitted two more Spring Break stories. I've also submitted two April stories (both tied to Easter) and two May stories (one tied to Mother's Day, the other to Memorial Day). This is an interesting challenge and it's going to be fun to see if I can actually do it.

Beyond that, I plan to use my uncommitted writing time for fiction and don't anticipate actively seeking additional editing, non-fiction, advertising or public relations assignments because my current clients keep me busy with these kinds of projects.

In the end, though, while my approach may have shifted a bit, my goal remains the same as each previous year: 52 acceptances.

I have two already; only 50 to go!

Story One

I finished and submitted my first short story of the year, a 4,500-word confession tied to Mother's Day. I started writing this on January 7, finished writing it late last night, and let it sit until this morning for a final proofread/edit before submitting it.

2

Editors have been taking advantage of the holiday weekend. I just received my 2nd acceptance of the year, this time for a 3,100-word story about a skateboarder who thwarts a purse snatching, by an anthology of stories about skateboarders.

2009 in review

Here's what happened in 2009:

37 acceptances

61 rejections

29 short stories published, 3 articles/essays published

I completed (to final draft) 216,310 words of short fiction. (I only tracked completed short fiction, not words written for incomplete projects, nor words written for non-fiction, advertising, or public relations projects).

That's an average story length of 2,884 words; the shortest story was 10 words, the longest was 6,600 words.

I completed and submitted an average of 1.4 short stories each week.

Income from
Advertising & Public Relations: dropped to $0 (My primary client for A&PR put me on payroll in 2008 and I did not seek freelance A&PR work in 2009)
Editing: Up 6.77%
Fiction (not novels): Up 20.49%
Non-Fiction (not books): dropped to $0 (I did not seek non-fiction assignments in 2009)
Royalties (from all books): Up 175.86%
Seminars/Teaching: Down 15.85%
Salary: Up 50% (See Advertising & PR above)
Overall gross income up 6.45%

Observations and lessons learned:

Although I am now employed part-time, I still earn the majority of my income from freelancing.

My rejection rate was much higher this year than in years past. This is, in part, because I attempted to break into new markets in 2009. (Woman's World, for example, generated 12 of my rejections. Although many of the rejections included a personal note from the editor, thus encouraging me to continuing attempting to break into this market, a rejection is still a rejection.)

Income from short fiction increased, in part because I sold to fewer low-end markets and to more mid-range markets.

Income from editing went up as a result of additional work from one of my two primary editing clients.

There's an old cliche that says, "Do what you love and the money will follow." Maybe there's some truth to that statement. My gross income was higher in 2009 than in any year since 1996, and I still love what I do.

1

I received my first acceptance of the year today, for an 800-word romance I submitted October 16.

Hopeful notes

My year ends on a pair of hopeful notes. A few minutes ago I learned that one of my essays has been tentatively accepted for an anthology, and yesterday I learned that one of my short stories is being held for further consideration by a magazine that has published my work in the past.

While neither will count as an acceptance for this year (alas, "maybe" isn't "yes"), perhaps they'll count in next year's total.

Published 2x

My story "Chance Encounter" appears in the February True Story and "Total Package" appears in Best Gay Romance 2010, edited by Richard Labonte and just out from Cleis Press.

Story seventy-five

I just finished and will tomorrow submit my 75th short story of the year. This time it's a 4,500-word Memorial Day confession. Plot Monkey and I came up with the idea for this story and roughed out the plot on November 7. We were sitting on the bench in my front yard and we challenged ourselves to come up with a story based on something we could see in my neighborhood. What we saw, about a block away, was a group of bikers--motorcycle riders, not bicyclists--and that became the impetus for the story. Because the plot was fully formed I was able to write the entire story yesterday and today and still enjoy my third Christmas celebration, an evening out at the movies, and a couple of extra hours of sleep this morning.

Story seventy-four

I'm about to submit my 74th short story of the year, a 4,100-word Easter confession I started writing December 18. I finished writing it yesterday but didn't have a chance to proofread/edit the manuscript until this afternoon. It'll go into the mail tomorrow.

Reviewed

At MobileRead.com, Gummy has this to say about my 2005 crime fiction collection Yesterday in Blood and Bone:

The stories are sometimes short to the point of being abrupt. One author called him this era's Mickey Spillane. He may be better, actually.

Cool, huh?

36, 37

One of my Christmas wishes has already been partially granted. A few minutes ago I received my 36th and 37th acceptances of the year. One is for a St. Patrick's Day confession submitted November 3; the other is for a Spring Break confession submitted December 6.

All I want for Christmas...

...is for editors to respond to my submissions (acceptances preferred).

...publishers to pay me what they agreed to pay me, when they agreed to pay it.

...and the opportunity to keep writing for another year.

Published 3x

My story "Love After Death" appears in the February issue of True Love and my stories "Games" and "Snub Nose Love" appear in issue #6 of Out of the Gutter.

I miss rejection slips

When I started writing in the early 1970s, photocopiers were not ubiquitous. Not every publishing office had a photocopier, so multiple copies of generic rejection slips were often printed on the office mimeograph or on a printing press using hot metal type. Later, photocopiers mostly replaced mimeographs in the office and offset printing mostly replaced letterpress in print shops.

But rejection slips remained slips of paper that accompanied unwanted manuscripts home from the slush pile.

Over time we learned how to read those rejections slips. No, not the generic copy printed on them that said, in one way or another, "Thanks, but no thanks." We learn to read the implied messages.

A poorly photocopied rejection slip? Didn't make it past the intern who's being punished for accidentally insulting a senior editor's spouse.

A crisp, photocopied rejection slip? The intern actually read the first page of the manuscript.

An original, printed rejection slip--not a photocopy? The intern kicked the manuscript up to an assistant editor.

An original, printed rejection slip with one or two words indecipherably scrawled at the bottom? The assistant editor read a few pages.

An original, printed rejection slip with "Not for us" or "Try again" scrawled at the bottom? The assistant editor read the entire manuscript.

An original, printed rejection slip with the editor's name scrawled at the bottom? The assistant editor kicked the manuscript up to the editor, who read a page or two.

An original, printed rejection slip with "Not for us" or "Try again" scrawled at the bottom, followed by the editor's name? The editor read the entire manuscript.

An original, printed rejection slip with any comment related to the story--"weak plot" or "unbelievable characters," for example --scrawled at the bottom, followed by the editor's name? The editor read the entire manuscript and liked it enough to offer a few thoughts.

A personalized rejection letter that the editor took the time to type? That's almost a sale. Or the editor had too much free time, in which case the publication didn't have much of a slush pile.

Beyond that are responses that aren't actual rejections; suggestions for revision, requests for revision, acceptances contingent upon revision, and acceptances.

Today, though, all that implied information is lost to writers. With manuscripts submitted via e-mail, and responses, when they come, also arriving by e-mail, it isn't possible to easily suss out who may or may not have looked at the manuscript and what they may or may not have thought of what they read. Rejections are often cut-and-paste blocks of type with no personal touches added, and when personal touches are added, they may be nothing more than dropping the writer's name into a space reserved in the salutation and the story title dropped into another spot in the opening sentence.

And a sig line isn't a signature. It's just another cut-and-paste block of type.

Sigh.

Although I don't receive nearly as many rejections as I did back in the early 1970s, I miss rejection slips.

If writers worked the drive-through

So that's one novel, extra plot. Do want a short story with that?

35

I received my 35th acceptance yesterday, this time from an anthology for the story of a mafioso and what he does to move up in the organization. I submitted the story on December 4.

Story seventy-three

I finished and submitted my 73rd short story of the year this afternoon. This one is a 2,700-word Easter-themed confession. I began writing it on November 27.

Story seventy-two

I finished and submitted my 72nd short story of the year, a 5,500-word Spring Break-themed confession that I started writing October 16, 2008.

34

I received my 34th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for a 3,800-word confession I submitted on November 8.

Terminology

A few days ago, an agent asked her readers which conferences they would recommend to other writers, but in her example listed both conferences and conventions as examples. It bothers me that people who should know the difference, don't. My response:

Although there is some overlapping of programming and opportunity for writers between the two, there is a significant difference between conferences and conventions.

Conventions--such as Bouchercon, mentioned in your post--are FOR the readers/fans while conferences--such as Pennwriters, mentioned by a previous poster--are FOR the writers.

At a convention you're most likely to hear a well-known writer give the "and then I wrote" speech to a roomful of fans. At a conference, that same writer is more likely to give the "here's how I wrote" speech to a roomful of writers and would-be writers.

While attendence at both conferences and conventions can be beneficial to a writer, it's in the writer's best interest to understand the difference and to understand what they should bring to the event (if a speaker or panelist) or take from the event (if an attendee). Having appropriate expectations will play a significant factor in evaluating the experience post-event.

This morning I read a pair of blog posts by a writer assembling his first collection of short stories, where he continually refers to it as an anthology. It isn't. A collection contains the work of a single author. An anthology contains the work of several authors.

I frequently read blog posts and articles by authors who claim to have received galleys of their work, but have probably never seen a galley in their lives. The advent of desktop publishing programs such as Pagemaker, QuarkXPress, and InDesign virtually eliminated the need to produce galleys because these programs allow you to skip that production step and produce page proofs instead.

Why do these errors bother me this morning? Because if we, as writers, can not be trusted to properly use the terminology appropriate for our own industry, how can be be trusted to write about anything else?

Story seventy-one

I finished writing my 71st short story of the year earlier this evening, and the manuscript will go into the mail tomorrow. This is a 3,500-word Spring Break-themed confession that I started writing on October 27.

Published 2x

My story "My New Year's Casanova" appears in the January True Confessions, and my story "A Big Scoop of Love" appears in the January True Love.

Story seventy

I finished and submitted my 70th short story of the year this evening. This time it's a 2,600-word bit of crime fiction about a mobster angling to move up. I started writing the story on November 24, almost four months after seeing an anthology's call for submissions.

Published

My story "Hot New Year" appears in the January issue of True Story, which just hit newsstands in central Texas.

Google Books and my work

I am not a fan of Google Books and am even less so now that I've discovered significant portions of nearly every book I've written and anthology I've edited available via Google Books. Because many of my books are short story collections, this means many of my short stories are available for free, eliminating much of the incentive for readers to purchase the collections.

This, however, is an opportunity for you. If you've ever had any desire to read some of my short stories or portions of my novels, go here.

Tiger troubles

Tiger Woods is rumored to have had an affair with a woman in Las Vegas.

Apparently, he wasn't satisifed with a hole in one.