B.J. Thrower: FENCE OF PALMS publishing history

The Publishing History of "Fence of Palms"

A reprint of my first nationally-published sf short story, "Fence of Palms ," is now available at DNA Publications. "Fence of Palms" will be available on the DNA Publications website for three months.

This is a particularly satisfying reprint opportunity for me, as the editor of the magazine who originally published the story chopped, cut and butchered it without my permission (I assume for space reasons, but a logical explanation from the editor was never forthcoming). If I had known what he was up to, I would have withdrawn the story immediately, even though it would have meant giving up my first professional short fiction sale. I was not given the chance to withdraw it, of course, and I had already received galleys of "Fence of Palms" that were fine. "Fence of Palms" was published in butchered form and I only knew when I received my contributor's copies. I am confident I could have sold the story to another professional market. At the time of its acceptance, the magazine was only the fifth market to which the story had been submitted. Besides, as you'll see (or have already seen) in my Tribute to Ray Lafferty on my Biography page, Ray liked the story just the way it was written. I certainly respect Ray's opinion of what is and what is not good fiction more than I'd ever trust this certain editor's opinion on anything writing-related.

In response to my letter of protest, the editor in essence told me that I had no right to complain, that he was doing me a favor. This is gross unprofessionalism. Professional editors never add their voices to a writer's work, they don't rewrite or chop out huge sections of a work, they ask the author of the piece to do it if they believe it needs major changes. In my experience, a work that needs major changes can't pass muster with an editor in the first place. I brought the matter to the attention of SFWA's Griefcom, who were sympathetic but who were--at the time--concentrating on making this editor pay his writers in a more timely manner. The president of OSFW (Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers) Warren Brown, also wrote the editor a letter of protest, which was ignored. I'm eternally grateful to Warren Brown, a wonderful writer himself, for taking a stand with me against such editorial butchery. This was a devastating incident for me, as you can imagine. But as you are also aware, I picked myself up, wiped away the tears and persisted in my writing career. This is a tough business, if any of you needed to be reminded, and sometimes newer writers suffer from this type of abuse. I told the editor in my letter of protest that I figured he would never have dared do this to a more established writer.

My special thanks go to yet another Warren: Warren Lapine, DNA Publications publisher, for reprinting "Fence of Palms" in its entirety, and paying me well for it too. Warren understands what professional editing is, and if not for him I wouldn't have this opportunity. I have at last found the vindication I've sought for this story, and for myself as a writer. And I hope my website visitors will do me the honor of visiting the dnapublications website and reading "Fence of Palms" for themselves.

The Publishing History of "Fence of Palms"

Copyright © 2001 by B.J. Thrower

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