WRITING

Thanks for everyone who responded and has responded about articles and submissions and acceptances and declinations. I’m actually quite well and ok with all that has happened so far. I think it definitely didn’t feel good at first, but it rubs off very quickly for a few reasons.

One, somehow my identity isn’t connected to those things. It is true that as human beings we are somehow wired to receive our definition from outside ourselves (Donald Miller). I believe that. The question is in whom do you invest the authority to define yourself. Well, if you notice, whenever I have received anything back that was not accepted, I never say “I was rejected,” but I always say “the paper was rejected” or “it was not accepted” simply because that’s the actual accurate truth. It’s not a reflection of me as a person.

Secondly, I also understand that it is possible to have something of worth or something that is good and people to view it as useless or meaningless or unimportant. Besides the fact that reviewers can have chips on their shoulders, personal agendas, or seek to dismiss some articles so the head editor doesn’t think he (associate or reviewing editor) accepts everything, people may not like you as a person or your style and let it influence the decision. I often think of people like the Beatles whose music was rejected 30+ times. Same thing can be said of Lincoln and his losses (forget that if you don’t think he was a good president) or Einstein and math class, or Galileo and his theory about the earth going around the sun, etc.

So I’m good. I’m ready to begin rewriting the two papers I’ve heard back on. One is still out. Because of the time I’m publishing something from my thesis, it is not new (according to one of the reviewers), so I will combine it into another making a total of 3 papers instead. They should be publishable as long as I can put the correct length, use the right tone, title it correctly, put no controversial equations, and write very short simple sentences with only one independent clause. We’ll see. So wish me well.

I definitely am not in favor of publishing houses and publishing magazine where a group of people on the “in” decide if your work is good enough. Well, publishing houses are a bit different, but you get the idea. I’ve disliked trying to find a research article with information I need and being denied access to it without paying money. That shouldn’t be for information that advances the front of knowledge in our relevant fields in society. I really believe that should be free information.

And as I’m tempted to do self-publishing if I ever write a book, I’m also tempted to do extra-journal (outside journal) publishing. The only thing is that to get professorship jobs, they want to see you in journal publishing. So we’ll see. I should be ok. And will eventually get three publications out of it for sure. Right now, I’m moving on to work on some new projects. And I’ll resubmit those two papers next week.