arlan@inuxm.UUCP (A Andrews) (11/02/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** In answer to Mark A. Poling's questions about getting published in the SF field: the way to do it is to do it! Trite as it sounds, one must keep on until something clicks. I first sent an SF story to Fred Pohl in Galaxy days, and he was kind enough to send it back quickly, with a written note on the manuscript. I was not smart enough to be encouraged, so I stopped trying for several years, and began to attempt articles--for FATE, for fanzines, for UFO magazines. And, in those fields with much lower standards, I began to get published! Eventually, I sold one article to FATE and got paid! This turned me on again, and I tried SF off and on for several years, collecting form letter rejections from HJohn W. Campbell and Ben Bova. Finally, I wrote letters to Brass Tacks in Analog and Bova printed all of those, so I made it into ASF even though I didn't get paid. Meanwhile, I kept doing articles about UFOs, ESP, firewalking, etc., that did sell. Once I even helped edit and publish a one-issue magazine called ASTROLOGY PLUS! and there put in my own story and several articles. Continuing...finally sent a poem to Scithers in 1979 and he published it in the January 1980 issue of Isaac Asmov's SF magazine--"Rime of the Ancient Engineer," a terribly lovely pun poem. Within weeks I submitted and sold a novelty thing to Ben Bova--"SF Table of Elements" that was in the June 1981 Omni, and finally in 1982 sold some short funny things to Stan Schmidt at Analog. Was I in heaven-I had made the magazine I had loved for so many years, and getting paid, to boot. Had the ASF formula down pat. No such luck. Stan bounced several of my funniest things. Found the best indication I had of the saleability of stories was to submit them to a friend of Analog leanings for comment. So far, what he's said will sell, does, and vice versa. I've learned to trust him. Find yourself a literate friend and 'do likewise, is my advice. And finally--in 1983 Schmidt asked me to submit something for the mid-Dec. 1984 spoof issue; I did, and he bought one of the three I sent to him. That was the last so far, although we are negotiating the editing of a novella (serious) that he partially likes. On the other hand, my friend P. M. (Pete) Fergusson, down in Clarksville, IN, sold a poem to Schmidt a couple of years ago, and then the very next story, a novelette, got a cover! (Gertrude, ?1985, I think; and two subsequent follow up stories. Pete's got "Snapshot of the Soul" in the current ASF, a story I started to write five years ago, and didn't. Great minds, you know...) Now, as far as waiting in agony for that thick manuscript to be returned in your mailbox, just check into my story, "Critical Path", that was in ASF in 1983 sometime, and rest easy--soon, it'll be over very quyickly. Now working on a novel, which turns out to be a hell of a lot of work, and not nearly as much fun as short funny things. [Schmidt: "Arlan, Analog needs short funny things, and they're hard to find."] [Andrews: "So we are, Stan, but at 5.75 cents per word, we can't afford to eat enough to grow...] --arlan andrews analog irregular libertarian Mensan UFO consultant (no s---!) anarchist (beyond Yuppism) RAH fan