Sorta FRC: My piece on food in Alan Furst's crime novels didn't make the cut, but the editor

E

erininny

Well-known member
of the tiny crime-fiction magazine I submitted it to (and who seemed to really like it four months ago) said it would be out this month. BLARGH.

Also, it had a recipe for marinated cheese. smileys/frown.gif

Poop. I don't think there's a kill fee, either. Double poop.

/end of whine

 
((((Erin))) I'm sorry it didn't work out this time smileys/frown.gif

And I have to ask - what is a kill fee?

Is the cheese recipe something you could use within another article?

 
End of whine. Beginning of wine. It's the weekend, and you have a bright future ahead of you.

After a bit of grieving you will surely rebound and "make the cut" in the future.

Is this article something you could share with us? Is it something you could submit to other publications?

 
Lisa, A kill fee insures that you are paid for all work that you

have done up to the time that the client notifies you that they are not going to continue. A client may cancel for any number of reasons, perhaps because they've decided not to pursue the project due to timing, money, or change of focus. They may also cancel the work because they are not happy with your initial work or for some other reason no longer want to use your services. Whatever the reason, the kill fee helps to cover your billable time and any tangible expenses (delivery fees, for example) incurred so far.

 
What a bummer! I know how hard you have been working on this. Such a tough

industry. I like Joe's idea. Any chance you can have Alan Furst's competitors take a look? Perhaps they would be interested and want to run with it? Or, can you finish the whole novel and see if someone would be interested in publishing?

I am sorry. You are a very gifted and talented writer. Something better will come along.

 
Thanks, Joe. I'll see if I can place it somewhere else. It's mainly about food in Alan Furst's

Kingdom of Shadows and Spies of the Balkans. Lots of good Central European tastes. But I'll dig up the marinated cheese recipe if anyone wants it. smileys/wink.gif

 
Thanks, Barb--it's just a small article, not a whole novel, so I'll regroup and re-something. smileys/wink.gif

 
You're allowed to whine since that's all I'm doing right now...

I agreed to review a very popular book and when I submitted my review, I was told it was "too negative". Well, that means to me the book was a piece of $hi+E. But there you have it. We have different standards. And ours are higher. Much higher.

 
The hotter it is, the greater the whine/wine...

I think you're WAY more entitled to whine at the moment, though... I get mean when it's blazing outside and there's no A/C. In Prague, the publisher I worked for didn't have A/C, and we worked in a glorified warehouse with a lot of metal on the outside... I remember standing up and announcing, in English, one July afternoon, that since the fan didn't reach my side of the office, I was leaving to work from home. And I walked out. And then waited for the bus, in the sun, for 20 minutes. A Pyrrhic victory.

Amazingly, that's not the job I was fired from! smileys/wink.gif

Anyway, hope you find sources of soothing, cool air.

 
What bad luck, Erin. Do you think a food magazine might be interested?

I can relate. I once was a freelance industrial analyst, and a law firm was interested in some work. I spent a long time outlining what I would do.When I hadn't heard from them, I called, only to be told that they were going to do the research in-house using my outline. I was so flabbergasted and angry that I didn't even think of billing them for the time I had spent. I was also young enough to think that lawyers would be ethical.

Try a food magazine - they often have off-beat articles.

 
That happened to me with artwork I did for our town. They asked for sketches then never

got back with me.

A year later I saw a billboard welcoming visitors to our town...with my totally unpaid-for artwork. Right down to the unique lettering I had created.

Like you, I was too young (24) and unsophisticated in the world of business to know how to recoup a fee.

Sometime after that, I ran into the councilman who had asked for the artwork. He was sitting at a restaurant bar with a woman. When I brought up the billboard, he just looked away and the woman said "Well, at least your artwork is seen now. Better late than never."

To which I replied: No. I don't feel better."

She, at least, had the decency to look embarrassed.

 
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