How I
Got Published in South Africa
by Sonia Pressman Fuentes
"If
you make this many changes in your memoirs, it will either cost you a
fortune, lose you the [book] contract, or make you a lifelong enemy in
the publisher."
I often browse
the Internet for information on marketing my work and that is how I came
upon the December 1997 issue of WritingNow.com. The section
"Writers Around the World" by Linda Davis Kyle contained an
interview with Dr. Joseph Sherman, a professor of English at the
University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, a writer and
translator, editor, public speaker, and television personality. Dr.
Sherman sounded like an interesting man.
Because I'm an
inveterate letter-writer and knew no one in South Africa, I decided to
send Dr. Sherman an email, introducing myself as a founder of the
National Organization for Women (NOW), a lawyer, writer, and public
speaker. I mentioned that I had recently completed my memoirs, excerpts
from which had appeared in various publications.
To my surprise,
I got a quick -- and totally unexpected -- response. Dr. Sherman invited
me to submit a piece for publication in a literary/cultural quarterly he
edited called Jewish Affairs. I was, of course, delighted.
What writer wouldn't be? I emailed Dr. Sherman that my memoirs contained
two types of pieces: (1) humorous family pieces, with a Jewish flavor;
and (2) articles about the women's-rights movement. Again, his response
took me by surprise. He said he'd be interested in a piece about women's
rights.
Actually, I had
written only three pieces about women's rights. "Representing
Women" was then about to be published in Frontiers, the
women's studies journal of Washington State University [18.3 (Dec.
1997)]; the second piece concerned the Sewall-Belmont House, the
headquarters of the National Woman's Party (NWP), on whose Board I
serve; and the third was about my encounters with three legendary
Feminists: Alice Paul [a founder of NWP and the drafter of the Equal
Rights Amendment (ERA)], the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray (an author, lawyer,
civil rights activist, college professor, and the first African-American
woman Episcopal priest in the United States), and Catherine East (a
government staffer who had held significant positions relating to
women's rights). Because Jewish Affairs didn't run previously-published
articles, and the Sewall-Belmont House would not
be of interest to South African readers, only the "three
feminists" piece was a possibility. But there was a problem. I had
arranged with NWP to sell the Alice Paul segment of the "three fems"
piece in its museum shop. When I informed Joseph of this (by this time,
we were on a first-name basis) he responded, to my dismay, as follows:
"Given the
fact that your piece on Alice Paul is going to be published elsewhere,
it would be good to have a section of your memoirs that has not been
published yet."
I was in a
dilemma. I did have other pieces, but it was more important for me to
get my "three fems" piece published because of its historical
significance. I didn't, however, want to antagonize Joseph by pushing
its publication, and I didn't think it likely that he would change his
mind. Nonetheless, I thought it was worth a try, and I wrote him again
suggesting he publish "three fems."
To my surprise,
Joseph backed down. He wrote: "Leave things . . . as they are --
I'll pass round the piece . . . and get some other views." I asked
him to send me a copy of Jewish Affairs, and he did. Writers are
always advised to review the publications to which they want to make
submissions. I'd never done that -- I simply don't have the time -- and
I wasn't doing it now since I'd already submitted the piece. But I was
interested in seeing what the publication looked like.
When I received
it, I was dismayed. I had expected Jewish Affairs to be a small,
commonplace magazine. Instead, it was a scholarly journal, beautiful in
appearance and impressive in content. The writing was of very high
quality. Joseph had told me that all submissions had to secure the
approval of his editorial board. I could not imagine why the board would
approve my piece, which seemed more pedestrian in tone than others in
the copy he sent me. Furthermore, my article had little to do with
Jewish affairs. But I was not about to withdraw it from consideration.
The board
approved my article. Then, we had three crises involving endnotes, Dr.
Margherita Rendel, and my endless revisions. I had sent the first draft
to Joseph by regular mail, but all our subsequent correspondence was
conducted by email. Joseph wanted me to submit what he optimistically
thought would be the final draft by email. The piece, however, had
numerous endnotes. In the past, whenever I attempted to email a piece
with endnotes, either as an attachment or a cut-and-paste, the notes
were either erased or came out as gibberish.
A computer
expert whose advice I sought told me about rich text format [RTF]. I
tried that, and the result was an email from Joseph headed "All is
retrieved!"
Then Joseph
pointed out that one of my endnotes, which cited two articles by
Margherita Rendel, a London friend, was incomplete. Since Margherita
does not have email, I faxed her asking her to fax the proper citation
to Joseph. Several days passed, time was running short, and Joseph had
not yet heard from her. I suggested we omit the incomplete citation.
After Joseph had done that, Margherita faxed me the correct citation.
Joseph agreed to revise the article yet again to include it.
The revision
problem was serious. Every time I read the article, I saw ways to
improve it and sent changes to Joseph. It would then take him hours to integrate the new material mechanically
because his typesetters worked from carefully formatted diskettes. He
was becoming increasingly concerned by my continuing revisions. "It
is always fatal to allow contributors to make changes after
acceptance," he wrote at one point, and at another: "You will
see no more of it till it's published, else you'll be writing and
rewriting forever."
But I kept
revising. I realized he was as much a perfectionist as I and that his
concern for excellence would prevail. It did. He incorporated every
change I submitted.
At the end,
when I wrote that I thought the piece was good, he responded:
"After about four rewrites and three copy edits, it should be. If
you make this many changes in your memoirs, it will either cost you a
fortune, lose you the [book] contract, or make you a lifelong enemy in
the publisher."
I responded:
"Who cares about any of that if it improves the memoirs?"
In fairness,
though, Joseph did point out that the revisions he permitted me to make
were exceptions, and that normally he expected authors to submit pieces
for consideration in final form. Due to the then-socio-political sensitivity to women's rights in South Africa, his interest in the piece
resulted in his giving me extra leeway.
In April 1998, "Three
United States Feminists: A Personal Tribute" was published in Jewish
Affairs.
-- SPF
© 1998 Sonia Pressman Fuentes. This article was
originally published in September 1998 as "Getting an Article
Published in South Africa" in writingnow.com
and then under the present title in the mid-April 2001 issue of Writer
Online at novalearn.com/wol. |
