Quote:
Originally Posted by JwkOKC
He may well have been; I never met him although I did get a personal rejection letter from him once (and never submitted anything to Astounding/Analog again).
All of us who get involved with writing and editing have to be somewhat arrogant to expect payment for what another friend once described to me as "a skill learned by the third grade." In Campbell's case, I think his comment had more to do with Wayne's payment schedule of $20/published page which led Campbell to submit first drafts rather than take the time to polish anything at all.
However his rejection letter was rather acidic -- although directly to the point -- and at the time I was far too inexperienced (and too arrogant myself) to realize what it meant to get more than a printed rejection form, especially from the top editor in the genre.
|
You know the best compliment I ever received, I didn't realize how big until years later. It was when a woman told me she didn't have to edit what I had turned in for the newsletter. She could use it exactly as it was.
Hey arrogant is one thing and I agree with you there. The problem is too many wannabe authors are another word that ends in ant. They think because "big name" does something, (be it em dashes or serials) they think they can do it too without actually looking at how the other person did it.
Heck, I ran across an "author" one that thought because HH did serials, he could too.
Only a few problems with that,
1. They wrote in different genres. Sci-fi and Fantasy is not one genre.
2. He thought serials just ended on cliffhangers with no resolution whatsoever.
3. Lastly he had no concept of proper grammar use.
Oh and no, he had not actually even looked at a serial.
By the way welcome to Mobileread.