Wiccan Writing Copyright © 2000 by Ed Howdershelt     We all think. Just as other organs demand the right to function within our bodies, so do our brains.     We can't really avoid thinking, but it tends to produce an itch of sorts within a person that usually requires attention.     Some people scratch that itch by creating works of art or literature, throwing themselves into their chosen career, or by questioning various aspects of life.     Others seem to find thinking exhaustive and irritating, so they watch TV or take drugs to keep the itch from becoming something that might need serious scratching. (That may be an oversimplification, but to what degree, really?)     Something impels the thinking people to follow specific paths or to construct them, but at any given time, an uncountable number of people may be individually "re-inventing the wheel" concerning any given subject.     This is because reference material - the discoveries and thoughts of others who have previously considered that subject - has been either only slightly recorded.     In many cases, reference material hasn't been recorded at all because someone couldn't find a publisher who was willing to take a chance on expending financial resources for what seemed to be too small or nebulous a purchasing audience.     While there may seem to be quite a few publishers of Pagan/Witch/Wiccan and other metaphysical material, there really isn't a large number of them compared to the number of publishers as a whole, and many of those tend to specialize, which further limits the available field.     This also means that you almost have to know someone who can put a word in for you or have a well-known name in order to reasonably quickly rise to the top of the vast pile of submitted works on an average editor's desk.     Otherwise, your work will be quickly scanned by an intern (free or cheaply-paid student labor, in most cases), who will put the initial 'yes' or 'no' stamp on your work and either forward it up one level or put it on their own 'reject' pile.     From there, it will likely be reviewed - equally quickly - by an assistant editor, who will either agree with the intern or toss your work on his or her reject pile.     If your work makes it past the assistant editor, it will warrant a look by an editor who can actually make a decision to publish it (or not). If the decision is 'yes', you will then face the editing process and could wait as long as two years to see a copy of your book on a shelf in a bookstore.     Don't think that these people are influenced only by the quality and relevance of your work. They aren't saints and they have bad days, just like everybody else.     Your work may have the bad fortune to arrive at the desk of someone who is having a snit-fit about a boyfriend or girlfriend at the end of a day full of flat tires, child-care difficulties, and other vexations.     Add the probability that there are the usual tight-budget considerations and that a surprisingly large quantity of quality work makes it through the gauntlet to the small pile of manuscripts deemed worthy of publishing.     Some authors are content (almost, anyway) to wear their rejection slips like dueling scars. They keep them in boxes and drawers and mount them in notebooks like prized photos of loved ones. Sometimes they even frame them proudly and hang them on their walls.     Rejection slips. How they grow; they make no money, neither do they spend. Except as badges of courage or wallpaper, they're worthless and useless.     I'd much rather put my works on a high-traffic, ad-sponsored website that charges a reader nothing, but pays me and will continue to pay me - ad infinitum - every time someone clicks on my works.     If anyone reading this is inclined to make pious noises about receiving money for writing about metaphysically-important matters, don't bother. I don't want to hear it. If you truly feel that way, take the money anyway and give it to a meaningful charity.     If your experiences and learnings would be of value to someone else, why shouldn't they be of value to you? * * *     If your words would help other people over hurdles of knowledge or enhance their travels along their paths, those words deserve to be published somewhere.     You don't have to know how to make web pages or run a website.     You don't have to be a computer tech to hit an 'upload text' button and then select a file to publish on the Internet. Ed Howdershelt Indexes to my other articles and ebooks may be found on my websites: Abintra Press! and