Not counting my Shadowrun work, I’ve had a total of six stories accepted for publication with only three of them returned to me with editor requested revisions. In fact, they were the first three stories I ever published. Stephen R. Sullivan and Jean Rabe taught me a lot about writing when they tore my first two Blue Kingdoms stories to shreds. As much as it wounded my ego, I needed that editing.
Then I attended Viable Paradise. Came back, wrote like crazy for a thirteen months, and had three more stories accepted for publication.
The first two stories, "Locke-Down" for Blue Kingdoms: Mages and Magic and "Another Day, Another Labor" for A Guide to Your Career from Hell, didn’t have any requested revisions at all. Granted, Steve made a few minor changes to "Lock-Down" himself, but they were typographical issues that he could resolve without my intervention.
This trend worried me. In theatre, it’s a bad thing when the director refuses to give you direction. I though the same applied to editors and writers. This week, I attended the Superstars of Writing seminar with Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, Dave Farland, Brandon Sanderson, and Sherilyn Kenyon–Tracy Hickman even made an appearance. So, I asked the editors of the crowd about this "problem" of mine, to see if I should really be concerned.
KJA’s responded that he had enough work to do without adding to his pile of things, so if a story didn’t need revisions, he wouldn’t try to find any. Eric and Dave both dittoed the sentiment.
I was floored, and glad I asked the question.
This morning, I opened up my email from Lee Martindale. "Silk and Steam" has already been accepted for the 2011 publication of her Ladies of Trade Town anthology and this was the official edit before publication. She sent me .pdf copies of my bio and story, not MS Word with track changes on, and had one–count it, 1–revision request. I used the phrase "like chickens cluttering around a feed pile." She pointed out that the word "clucking" might have been a better choice. She’s right of course. I don’t know what I was thinking when I typed "cluttering."
But the point is, it’s a trend. It really is a trend. I’m suddenly writing fiction that needs little-to-no revision upon acceptance.
WHOOT! <insert Snoopy Dance here>
