Thursday, February 28, 2008

Disciple, to appear in The Black Gate

A new category for this blog, sales! This week I sold a short story called Disciple to The Black Gate. This is my second sale to them, something that suprises me no end. They are an adventure fantasy market, and adventure fantasy is extremely competitive. Furthermore, my first sale to them was a story that isn't technically fantasy.

So it goes like this. Years ago I was in a funk and I wrote a story in one sitting that I didn't much like, but I sent to The Black Gate. A year later, long after I'd forgotten about it, I get a personalized rejection from them, saying they liked the story but had suggestions. I was boggled by the fact that they'd personalized the rejection. After reading it, I sat down and reworked another story The River People, and sent it to them. A year later (The Black Gate has long response times) I get a request to rewrite part of it, which I did, and then it sold.

During this last bout of correspondence, The Black Gate was officially closed for submissions, but the editor invited me to submit anyway. So I submitted my story Disciple, one of my personal favorites that I could not find a home for. I got another rewrite request, and then another sale.

Just goes to show that: a) perseverence pays off and b) one shouldn't be afraid to try new markets, even if they seem like a bit of a stretch.

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