Friend of a friend knows Somebody

Chalice may be sitting on the desk of a big-deal publisher’s Somebody. I’d sent a copy to a “friend of a friend who knows Somebody,” because friend’s friend did preliminary reading for Somebody and said she would look at it.

Like the other 10 hard copies I sent off for feedback (with about 10 in electronic form), the spiral binding was for reader convenience and it was printed two pages on each side of each sheet to save paper.

Yesterday my friend got a call from his friend that she had sent it on to Somebody who said the submission was not even formatted to standards available online, but Somebody would read the first ¼ and give it to one of her readers who would read the whole thing.

Chagrin mixed with appreciation mixed with a modicum of “…but if I had known…” tempered by “… should I have assumed…?” I guess work pushed even in the direction of traditional publishing channels should have been formatted to traditional standards.

As we were walking his dogs through the manzanita near the river talking mostly about his divorce, my friend asked how I will feel if Somebody says Chalice is crap. My answer was sloppy, involving art and ego and opinions and the market place. All true, but only pointing at the nexus.

Which is that Chalice is not crap and knowing this gives me serenity. It is vastly improved from where it started and there is room for improvement still. I am doing my best and soon it will be done.

Chalice may not be for everybody, but it is not crap. And the opinion of one Somebody doesn’t change that, though of course I hope she likes it. 

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About Erik Dolson

Erik Dolson is a writer living in Oregon

One Response to Friend of a friend knows Somebody

  1. Brings to mind a Steve Earle story: He was once on a show with Jerry Jeff Walker chortling over a bit of delicious payback. Seems a Somebody at a music publishing firm told him he hated his songs, that they were the worst songs he’d ever heard. Fast forward a few years and Somebody is an exec at a different publishing company, required to sign a very large check to Mr. Earle to renew publishing rights on some of those very same songs.
    I guarantee that Steve Earle never entertained Somebody’s opinion of his art.

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