From New Jersey to Timbuktu, to Bermuda and ’round back again through China, where they are making viruses for us all to enjoy, there are some truths we hold to be self-evident, or what we all should know to apply at every turn. One of them is…never burn a bridge.
Once again, the meaty meaning of this was made apparent to me in my professional writing life with a UK publisher (see here for the imprint my erotica is being published under, here for the overall link to their full site) over the past two weeks.
As the story goes (or is), way back when I had submitted some short erotic stories to this particular publishing house. Once every few months, I am emailed a royalty statement on these stories, which has never amounted to enough that any monies have yet been surrendered to me. This is not unusual when you spread your stuff (‘You spread your stuff? You are so naughty, Ralph!’) across lots of different publishers and maybe only tickle one or two stories with someone, single stories that need to be priced modestly, as they are single stories after all. But I took it upon myself to reach out to the powers that be beyond the seemingly nice guy who emails me those updates to see if they might be amiable for more fiction from me.
Why the hell not, I figured.
Guess what?
I not only was able to send more stories to the publisher, begin my relationship anew with them, and get contacted by a wonderful editor there who is steering my submissions but I was told with the new round of naughty stories I sent, this publisher will as much put out my new stories as singles as they will collect all I had with them with the new and publish them in my first-ever collection with them. They also agreed to look at more stuff from me (‘There you are again, Ralph, showing off your stuff!’).
The lesson here…yes, never burn a bridge. What’s more, go back now and again and see if you might shore up the girders, secure a few bolts better into the framework, and make sure the toll collector isn’t sleeping on the job; in other words, attend to that bridge you built, even if you built it way back when. It’s like when my buddy T. (I shan’t give his full first name so as not to ‘out’ him and his work situation) tells me of seminars he and his fellow workers need to take about being sensitive/mind full/’woke’ at their place of employment. What T describes, and he and I always simply say, is, one doesn’t need a course or email chain to teach workers how to obviously get along; one just needs not to be a dick.
A simple lesson learned, like don’t burn a bridge.
So, onward and upward here. While I get up and rolling with my new/old stories I hope if you read this, you might think twice about the next time you come to that crossing and want to throw a match at it (get my meaning?) or when you start to be a dick, you might stop.
Again, because I can, will, and want to, let me alert you to Andrews UK, the publisher I reference above. And again, you can find them here: andrewsuk.com
