Call in the reinforcements

"I wrote for twelve years and collected 250 rejection slips before getting any fiction published, so I guess outside reinforcement isn't all that important to me."
--Lisa Alther, author

Unlike Lisa, I'm all about reinforcement, both as the reinforcer and the reinforcee. Of course, there's the ABA approach to managing my kids' behaviors -- m&m, anyone? There's my piano teaching, too: the Suzuki method relies heavily on reinforcing small successes, very similar to ABA. And we all work for the reinforcement of a paycheck.

But a beginning freelancer doesn't get a big paycheck from anyone, so the reinforcers have to come in other ways. Certainly, a byline is better than an m&m, any day. And recognition from friends and colleagues feels wonderful, not to mention the occasional email response from a random reader, or a nibble from a new editor.

While the phone call from the magazine editor last week was wonderfully reinforcing, I've also been obsessing a little about it. I haven't heard anything more from her, despite my having sent her several story ideas and another complete submission within 24 hours after the call. I'm feeling slightly sad about it, even though I'm also telling myself that there's still hope; editors are very busy and I can follow up (gently) in a couple of days. But that hole I shot in my foot isn't getting any smaller.

So along with the obsessing comes the analyzing, and I've been wondering why I'm so panicked about this. Yes, it's a prestigious magazine, and yes, it has a huge readership. It pays very well and I will jump at the chance to be published there, if and when another chance comes. But the sun does not rise and set on this one publication. There are other books on the rack.

So I broke open my Writer's Market book yesterday, for the first time in months. Last August I had marked a few magazines I had in mind, but hadn't done anything about them because I didn't have very many clips. But now, I have quite a few published articles, and I'm thinking about putting out some feelers. And it might be a good time to do it, since I'm not drowning in assignments at the moment.

So today I will query a magazine or two, and hope that some reinforcement comes out of it eventually. And in the meantime, I'll be proud of myself for doing it. Maybe I'll even have an m&m.