Number of rejections before breakthrough

[alexvss]

Oops, I somehow missed that you're Brazilian. Também sou brasileira!

I suspected it, because of the name.

 

[Pete Mullineaux]

How long until you made your first sell? How many rejections have you received?
I began writing short stories in English back in April, and I received 180 form rejections since then. I'm still unpublished.
I joined critters.org and won an award for most productive member there. I also pay beta readers.
Today, I finally started thinking about giving up...

I'd recommend giving your writing to one key person you feel will be both sympathetic/positive but also honest in a constructive way - someone who will have an interest in the genre you're writing in.

 

[alexvss]

I'd recommend giving your writing to one key person you feel will be both sympathetic/positive but also honest in a constructive way - someone who will have an interest in the genre you're writing in.

Hey, Pete. Thanks for the comment.

As I've stated, I'm a member of critters.org and ocasionally pay beta readers. But this "one key person"... and didn't find him yet.

 

[alexvss]

Do you submit to Portuguese-language markets? I've seen a few that pay, especially in Brazil. You'd be competing against slightly less people and in your first-language.

I know a couple of pro-published writers who have had success using Critters. I tried something similar and wasn't impressed with the feedback I got - it seemed people were just trying to get their credits.

As for giving up - the writers who make it are the writers who don't give up! I've been submitting for 2-3 years and have around 70 short story rejections from pro or semi-pro markets so far. I set a target to make two pro-level sales, and although writing seems to get harder the more I do it, I'll keep trying until I get there. Then either set new targets... or give up.

@AlexH, I do submit to Portuguese-language markets, but they pay very poorly. The one that pays the most pays an equivalent of U$ 29,00--and they rejected me ten times now. They also just publish twice a year.

What we have in Brazil are these predatory anthologies, that don't pay and make you buy copies in order to get published. I was a victim of those predators: I bought 20 copies from R$ 400. The stories suck. I only like my own story in that anthology. To this day, I wasn't able to sell all of the copies. Who wants to buy that sh*te?

I know that predators also exist in English-speaking markets, but, in Brazil, in exception of some four or five magazines, they are the rule.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Although I do consider the feedback I receive, I'm not a guy who rewrites much, no. I adjust some things here and there, but that's it.

I'm sort of surprised that you pay Beta readers when you don't seem to get much out of the process, that is, if they are not providing you with feedback that inspires you to do more than make a few changes here and there. If you are paying already, maybe you should consider a developmental editor, as they might show you new ways to look at what you have written.

Rewriting, if you don't approach it too mechanically (which some people do—and by that I mean focus only on the mechanics, going through looking only for things like too many adverbs, or too much passive voice) can actually be the most exciting and fulfilling part of writing, as well as being the process whereby the writing becomes improved and polished. With all the basics down, you can let your imagination really go: find connections between the different elements of your story that you hadn't suspected, opportunities within the plot that you didn't recognize before and therefore passed by. Things fall into place, new ideas take shape, and old ideas fill out beyond the mere outlines they were before. It can be fun and fulfilling and inspirational, as well as tremendously beneficial not only to the story you are working on at the time but to other work you will do in the future. It is, in fact, where a lot of learning how to write really, really well can happen. So I urge you not to dismiss revisions as a necessary step in your development as a writer. Not every writer does substantial revisions, of course, but I think you will find that almost all the great writers do.

All of my stories have meaning and hidden messages, so of course that I want to pass them along.

Well, this can be a problem. First of all, hidden meanings may forever remain hidden even if people read and love your stories. If you are going to be disappointed if no one recognizes them ... well you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. (I speak from experience.)

But conversely, hidden messages that are put in intentionally may actually come across as not hidden at all. They may strike readers as terribly obvious, almost polemic (if that is the kind of messages they are). But we can't help putting a lot of ourselves and the way we see the world into our writing, can't help exposing the things that obsess us, even when that is not our direct intention. So sometimes the best hidden messages are the ones that are hidden even from us, the ones inserted subconsciously, and only recognized by us ourselves much later. (Oh! That was what was boiling around in my subconscious when I wrote that. Of course it was! It fits exactly with what I was feeling/what was worrying me/what happened to me years before.) They can be far subtler and of deeper meaning than the other kind of hidden message. The other problem with hidden messages we put in on.

The other possibility if people recognize your hidden meanings is that your writing may come across as cold and overly clever and not sufficiently sincere. Greatly talented and capable writers can do this and get away with it, but it can be a tricky, tricky business early on. Of course I haven't seen your writing and have no idea what it is like. Maybe you are doing this with far more skill and more heart than most who start out to this when they haven't been writing long. I am just speaking in general terms. You, yourself, are best positioned to consider whether any of this may apply to you. I offer it merely as something to look for in the stories you have already written or are writing now.