I received a rejection slip today for my comic book, “The Alberic Heresies,” a mere three days after the publisher received the submission. Given the truckloads of submissions they receive every day, I imagine they simply sent me the rejection slip without having actually read the comic — at least, that’s what my ego hopes. My mind, on the other hand believes they just didn’t like it.

The rejection contained the usual stuff, acknowledging my time and effort, but explaining somewhat sadly that my book just wasn’t strong enough for the competitive marketplace. I never expected them to publish us from an unsolicited submission, anyway — I knew it was a longshot. But the reality of the rejection has gotten me thinking about how books like ours do get published and the amount of face-to-face marketing, glad-handing and constant self promotion required to get people pay attention to you, where your pitch ceases to be unsolicited and dumped in the slush pile. Unfortunately, I know I’m not the guy who can walk up to someone at a convention and make a good impression, nor can I sidle up to a publisher in a bar and confidently order him a round of drinks and slowly booze myself into his good graces. I just don’t have it in me to kiss ass to build relationships with people I probably wouldn’t even like under ordinary circumstances, and who I’m certain wouldn’t like me, even if I was buying a round. And that’s my problem in a nut shell.

1 Comment

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  By Joe Williams, July 8, 2006 @ 7:36 am

  I think your series has a great hook. I wanted to read it from the first time I saw what it was about. It surprises me with the success of “The DaVinci Code” and even in comics books like “Rex Mundi” that this book couldn’t find a home at Wildstorm, Dark Horse, Top Cow, Oni, IDW or even somewhere else.

  It amazes me how much silly crap gets put in the Diamond Previews catalog each month and yet how hard it seems to be for people with original ideas and angles to get published. Maybe you need to submit it to all the book publishers before the graphic novel market implodes under the weight of all the new releases. Anyway, good luck. It’s hard out here for a comic pimp…

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