How I Made My First Sale

My first story sale was to Marion Zimmer Bradley for Sword and Sorceress III, but that really isn't where things began. I'd actually submitted a story for the previous anthology, but it was rejected. Over the next few months, the first Sword and Sorcerous came out and I had an opportunity to see the types of stories she bought. I had also read a few of her Darkover novels, so I had an idea of what she wrote.

Ironically, I had submitted that first story because I had read in a writer's magazine that she didn't send out form rejection slips, but actually gave some feedback. What I got back was such scathing criticism that I decided to never try submitting anything again. However, a few months later I had to opportunity to see her at a science fiction convention. By that time, I had become a fan, so I attended all the panels she appeared on. I learned many things from the panels, but the most important thing I learned came not from what the panelists taught, but what I observed.

Editors are human. They have their own tastes and what one loves, another might hate. I submitted that first story to another editor who also rejected it, but for entirely different reasons. Years later, I ran across that first rejection slip from Marion and it was not the horrible missive I remembered, but a note about the size of a quarter of a piece of paper.

Long before that, though, I had decided to make another try at selling her a story. This time, I had a better idea of what she might like. I made it a fairly short story because I knew that would have a better chance of selling. I also made a list of possible topics. One of them was a twist on the civil war concept of brother against brother, father against son. What would it be like for a mother and son to face in battle?

What I ended up with was a story that made my best friend cry. I didn't know it a the time, but she had given up a baby for adoption years earlier. The story is dark, and sad, but sometimes it touches people, too, and for reasons I never anticipated. Needless to say, Marion did buy "More's the Pity", but in her foreword she says that she almost didn't. I'll explain more about the story and how it led to two others, as well as two unpublished novels, next time I have a chance to post.