Cruel & Usual Punishment

[Peg Herring]

The Supreme Court is taking up the question of the death penalty, but that's not what I mean. For authors, it becomes usual to wait long periods to find out if your "baby" lives or dies. Agents, editors, and pub houses throw out casual approximations like "six to eight months" when accepting a MS for possible publication. One of my plays took three years to make it through the editing system at the pub house before acceptance, and I've gotten refusals so long after submission that I have to consult my records to see what I sent to those people.

There's no use complaining, of course. It's how the system works. I can't tell you which is worse: hearing nothing until it's over or hearing snippets that encourage but don't complete. Yesterday I got word that the editor in chief of a pub house wants to review my MS. Okay, that means less senior editors have recommended it, and that's good, right? But if I let that encourage my expectations and the EIC votes thumbs down, will it be more depressing than if I never learned that the project worked itself all the way to the top?

I won't think about that right now. I'll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day, and there are six months of days still to wait.