Gustavo Bondoni: Critical Darling
When I first started on this writing journey, the only measure of success was the number of rejections coming in. After that, it was the number of acceptances mixed in with the stream of rejections. It took quite a while, and many, many publications before I came to understand, deep in my bones, that the opinion of editors is much less important than the opinion of readers (it is still very, very important, just less so).
Editors are sometimes looking for something very specific while readers are the only ones who can truly pass judgement on the value of a work. This isn't because readers know more about the genre or stories in general than editors do. They don't. But the simple fact that they are looking to be entertained, or moved or just surprised, makes them the only valid judges of a written work. So I've come to give a lot more importance to reviews over the last few months than to rejections.
Strangely, and in spite of what the rejection numbers still say, readers really like my work. Whenever an antho or mag comes along with one of my stories in it, the words "highlight", "favorite", "best of the issue" come along with surprising (and yes, I am extremely surprised by it, despite the fact that I pour my soul into each and every one of these stories) regularity.
All of which is a roundabout way of pointing people to a very positive review overall of ResAliens #5, and some very nice words about my own story, "Protein". I love it when readers understand that I'm trying to convey important topics in what is, after all, a work of fiction (it's hard to keep stories set in African refugee camps from being overly preachy and whiny, so I'm glad the reviewer liked it).
Editors are sometimes looking for something very specific while readers are the only ones who can truly pass judgement on the value of a work. This isn't because readers know more about the genre or stories in general than editors do. They don't. But the simple fact that they are looking to be entertained, or moved or just surprised, makes them the only valid judges of a written work. So I've come to give a lot more importance to reviews over the last few months than to rejections.
Strangely, and in spite of what the rejection numbers still say, readers really like my work. Whenever an antho or mag comes along with one of my stories in it, the words "highlight", "favorite", "best of the issue" come along with surprising (and yes, I am extremely surprised by it, despite the fact that I pour my soul into each and every one of these stories) regularity.
All of which is a roundabout way of pointing people to a very positive review overall of ResAliens #5, and some very nice words about my own story, "Protein". I love it when readers understand that I'm trying to convey important topics in what is, after all, a work of fiction (it's hard to keep stories set in African refugee camps from being overly preachy and whiny, so I'm glad the reviewer liked it).