Yesterday, I received a
revise and resubmit email
from one of the larger publishers.
With a revise and resubmit,
the editor lists what she’d like fixed
in broad, general terms,
and then offers to look
at the story again
if these revisions are completed.
The work is enormous
and there’s no guarantee of
a publishing contract.
The serious writers suck it up,
rewrite their stories,
and resubmit them.
If the revisions show improvement,
usually the editor will work
with the author.
Many of the writers,
however,
won’t do all that work.
They’ll sub their stories
to other publishers.
Which is fine
because editors don’t want
to mentor writers
they can’t work with.
One of my buddies says
that working on TV and video production
is his dream.
Another buddy does this for a living
and offered to take him on a shoot.
The weekend was rainy and miserable
so the dreamer passed,
claiming he’d wait for a nicer day.
That day never came
because the doer never extended
the offer again.
If you want an achiever as a mentor,
she will likely ‘test’ you
before she works with you.
Expect this,
and when this test comes,
do your damnedest to pass it.
BTW… John Mongillo has a GREAT post
on how he tests prospective sales hires.
Well worth a read.