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August 11, 2011
On the Road to My Pro Pin - My 2011 Goal!
I finally remembered not to lose a rejection letter for my novel Rollover. Even though it is a rejection in eMail - I submitted the novel three times and heard back once. So I will take the eMail. I want my PRO pin.
I tend to misplace rejection letters. I've had a few.
The lack of feedback (an agent and an editor are among the missing) is scary. But that's the publishing business. Inefficient, cumbersome, in the midst of explosive change. Unfortunately, the lack of R&D leadership in this country has the eBook explosion brake on and people running in circles.
We need better user interfaces. We don't have anyone to create them.
We need a standard all-reader format. ONE! We have partisan behavior not only in Washington - so we need, as consumers, to put pressure on all the tablet and smart phone and eReader hardware makers to get their you know what together! But I am afraid we will see this shakeout take awhile. People are still jumping into the pool. (This is way past time to have been settled.) And we still are short on talent. A problem that is world-wide BTW.
Back to the PRO pin.
The PRO pin has a downloadable Ap form. Not a "fill in form" for eSub - a PDF" print it out and write in the answers". I got signatures. I rounded up word count, ya da ya da ya da.
Next comes the interesting instruction:
Send the application with the rejection letter and the synopsis and full manuscript – printed on paper.
This is 2011.
This is ridiculous.
This is why I have never attended an RWA conference and seldom read their publication.
They are obsolete!
OK - they will accept a CD.
OMG - MEDIA! Obsolete media but media.
Now, I HAVE a CD "burner" for the G4 and G5 (Big Apple Tower Systems now retired), but never used it on the G5, the BIG MAC Tower. I certainly haven't gotten the new software to try it on the iMac. (Different CPU.)
And my stack of CDs went home with my son one day. (Which is typical behavior for my children.)
So, when I read that RWA requires a copy of your novel - in paper (OMG) or on CD - I went - Are they crazy? And why can't they take an eSub? Like - email the ap and the book?
Because RWA is somewhere left in the dark ages.
OK - a CD I can handle. Mailing paper I reject. I Like Trees!
I asked my son to burn a CD for me, since I never replaced the stack that went home with him. I emailed HIM the two files (synopsis and full manuscript) that I should have been able to eMail to the RWA. (And yes, the three book submissions were ALL done via eMail and .doc files.)
When I went to collect him and his to go see Cowboys and Aliens (LOVED IT!!!! Will get the DVD! Just to watch Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.), he handed me my burned CD. Properly labeled.
He had used a blowtorch!
(Normally he microwaves them. This process, however, is known to destroy a microwave. It only takes 2-3 seconds. Lovely art form. A little expensive to create. IT guys should never be allowed to become bored.) (IT is Information Technology - it's an acronym to the non-tech among you.)
I cracked up on seeing the poor thing. All waverly and cracked. It is fragile!
Distracted, I tried to leave the parking space with my brake on and tried to drive from 0 MPH in 3rd gear. In a truck.
He eventually gave me the real one to submit- in a case. Ready for mailing.
I must submit because I am going to try a 4th time to sell the book. The first in a series. HOT COPS SERIES! ROLLOVER! SNOWBOUND! and CROSSFIRE! Written because I spend too much time driving up and down I5.
I am a very stubborn woman.
Besides, the editor who rejected it thinks it should have already been sold and that it is a very good book. That's nice to hear. If only she could have bought it!
Now, what is the PIN after the PRO pin????
I need to set new goals. Besides getting the Cowboys and Aliens DVD that is.
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