I haven't felt a whole lot like blogging or LJing lately. Life has been somewhat difficult and I have wanted to keep to myself.
But...
There's quite a discussion going on in various forums at the moment as to who should take responsibility for an author's career. Is it up to the author or the editor to further a work and push it for consideration within Year's Bests, Awards etc.
Opinion tends to be that it is up to the author to take care of the interests of the work. If the editor doesn't, then maybe the author should take control and get the story under the eye of the people that matter.
I agree.
But, I have to add another opinion as to why certain stories weren't picked up by a certain editor for a certain Year's Best. Maybe the editor simply didn't think the stories were of high enough quality. While the editor made her own comments regarding submission practice, at no time did she say she hadn't read the stories.
Most of us being published in the Australian market are earning a reputation, virtually overnight. We go to Cons, we hang out together, read each others' works, pat each other on the back. We take a certain level of success for granted.
However, we are competing in a world-wide market. I know Ellen Datlow keeps tabs on what's going on. If a story of Exceptional Quality had appeared in Shadowed Realms, I doubt she would have let it slip by.
So maybe we're arguing from the wrong corner. Maybe we should just accept that our work isn't world standard and try that little bit harder.
Just my opinion.
1 comment:
This is certainly a valid point.
However, in the specific case of Shadowed Realms, Shane states in his original post that:
For the astute, you'll notice no Shadowed Realms stories. That's because none were sent to Ellen in 2005. I have it from the horse's mouth that at least one story would have made the list had Ellen read it. Likely more.
If we take this statement as true then it does imply that one or more stories of Exceptional Quality did slip by.
(I, for one, would love to know more about both the horse and the stories that apparently slipped by, but I fear that would be opening another can of worms entirely! :-)
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