I had submitted something or other to DC at some point and was told that they couldn’t accept it because the character in question was already reserved for someone else’s use. Then I submitted something and was told that the character in question wasn’t “cool” enough.
So, I did something sort of cheeky and I’m surprised it worked at all — I sent in a list of characters I was interested in and said, basically, “Look, it would save us both a lot of time (and me a lot paper and stamps) if you would just check off the characters that are both considered ‘cool’ at the moment and are also unreserved for someone else’s use.”
In retrospect, it wasn’t the slickest move. But as you can see in the personal note jotted below…it worked.
To a degree. Yeah, I got my list, but twenty years later, twelve novels, and a New York Times bestseller…and I still haven’t gotten to write anything for DC Comics.
No, no, I’m OK — I just have something in my eye, is all.