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Hehehe - you're laughing with me, right? Right?
Hey who groaned at the back.
This productivity business sucks (insert personal preference), but I shall jolly along. Besides, it's kinda funny to get four rejections in four days in a brand new four-day-old year. I could probably take ten days without breaking. Although, I'm classing the rejection count as three because one was from Clarkesworld. I like to think of Clarkesworld as rehab for stories. Somewhere they can rest awhile and learn that no isn't a scary word.
Right, anyone have any tips on how to nail a board to an inbox to stop the mail flowing through. And for telegram enthusiasts (don't tell me if you are one, some things should be kept to yourself) apologies for the comma, I'm sure they weren't allowed (stop)
I just read through a great blog over at Don't Pet Me, I'm Writing. It's the blog of author, Tawna Fenske. Her latest post about Writing Regrets was amazing. It got me thinking about my own path as a writer.
I've read a lot of blogs by authors who, understandably, choose not to make public, their road to success, or should I say, the bumpy path of rejection that led them there. As I said, I understand. Being as public as we are now-a-days, what with blogs and social networking, it's really hard to expose our weaknesses and our self-doubt, much less, our failures along the way. It's a vulnerable position not many people ever want to put themselves in.
But you see, I think it's actually so brave for anyone to do this, and it helps so many in the same position.
Tawna's blog post about writing regrets was so helpful. It really made me stop and look at myself in the deepest possible way a writer can.
See, here's the skinny: I started writing THORNE (a middle-grade, urban fantasy...the first in a series), and believe me when I say this book went through some changes along the way; initially, it was a lot longer, until I discovered it was too long for MG, and so, I thought about it for a couple of weeks, and decided to take a chapter out of the book, and write an entirely new book around it; it became the first in my series, and what was left of the original became book 2, and it worked out amazingly-well.
Ever since then, I've revised, and even recently, I virtually rewrote it in order to tighten it up. I love the end result. That said, one agent I queried a few months ago requested a partial, and later rejected it saying that, although she loves the way I write and the story concept was great, she simply wasn't drawn into the 12-yr old protagonist enough to offer representation. She also suggested I rewrite the book in first-person; she's actually the second agent to make that suggestion. So it makes me wonder if I made the right choice when I first wrote the book.
I've always loved first-person narratives. I love how it allows me to dive into the mind of the characters like no other format can. So, I started trying to rewrite the first book as a narrative from David's POV. It's coming out great, but something in my guy keeps gnawing at me: Could this actually work in first-person? It just doesn't seem to have the same haunting quality as the original, and I'm afraid if I try to bring out the haunting nature of David's inner demons and anger, it might come off as more "woe-is-me".
I don't know....
As for queries, I just don't know what else to do. I can't begin to tell you how many websites I've read on queries, agents, agencies, publishers, writing, and all things authory. On the wings of my dream to see my work out there, I've studied more than I even did in school, and that's saying a lot. And yet, every time I query agents, I do it with what I believe to be a new and improved letter, and still, the rejections keep pouring in. Ever since I started this process back in 2004, I've received probably...and here's the part where I leave myself vulnerable to ridicule and speculation...close to 200 rejections; all based on different letters and different versions of the book's first chapter.
I feel so lost.
Back in 2007, I was approached by a publisher who'd been following my blogs on Myspace, and asked that I send them a partial. Desperate as I was to see my book out there, I pishawed the writer on my should who warned me that publishers don't do this. In the end, they loved it, and asked for more. Then I was told they wanted to publish the book.
Two editors there both commented (apparently) that my book had some of the best dialogue they'd ever read. And that was just the beginning. Sadly, in 2008, a week before the book was to come out,
It has been over two years since I've written about perspective, but given the events in my personal and writing life in the last few weeks, it's time to remind myself that everything has to be kept in perspective.
Life for me has been pretty darn good lately. I'm in my third semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts. I will graduate in July with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. My picture book, BENNO AND THE NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS, published in January 2010 by Kar-Ben, has received starred reviews from both School Library Journal and Jewish Book World. I have five Author Visits lined up between now and the end of November for Jewish Book Month. A few weeks ago I learned that BENNO will be going into a second printing. And I learned last week that BENNO was awarded a Gold Medal in the Multicultural Picture Book category by Moonbeam Children's Book Awards. Life is pretty darn good! So why do I need perspective? Because as good as my writing life has been, my "other" life has been, both, even better, and profoundly sad.
Last week my daughter got married. It was a glorious weekend. Probably the happiest weekend of my life (so far). All our friends and families were together to celebrate. It doesn't get much better than watching your children grow up - whether they're heading off for their first day of kindergarten, starring in a high school play, graduating college, or walking down the aisle. Life's events are to be cherished and enjoyed. Two days after the wedding, I got on a plane to Florida to say good-bye to a cousin of mine who is dying of colon cancer (PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - if you are over 50 get a colonoscopy!). We had hoped that she would make it to the wedding, but that was not to be. After deciding to stop treatment in early August, the doctors expected her to have six months and with pain medication they were to be a good six months. But life doesn't always work out the way we expect it to.
And that's where perspective comes in. Yes, My writing life is great right now. My personal life is great right now. But all of it can change in an instant. Getting published is not the be all and end all of our lives. Yes, some of you may say, "Well, that's easy for her to say. She's published." But I truly believe it. Writing is a part of my life. It is not my life. My full life is a combination of friends, family, activities, hobbies, and beliefs. Not one thing defines me. I think that keeping perspective keeps me on an even keel. No one could have been happier at their daughter's wedding than I was at mine. And no one could have been sadder bidding farewell to a loved one than I. But by keeping a balance of what's good in our lives with what's bad, makes it all easier.
So, the next time a rejection arrives in the mail - and there will be rejections - throw a hissy-fit, threaten to stop writing, say nasty things about the editor or agent who turned down your gifted prose, eat a box of chocolates, drink a bottle of wine, and then remember the good things in your life. Drag yourself back to your desk and send your masterpiece out again.
Oh, yeah, and when I get my next rejection. Remind me of this post!
Ever try to write a rebus for a magazine? You need to tell a story with a defined beginning and middle, plus a delightful surprise, or twist, at the end. You have roughly 100 words to do all this. It helps to include some suspense, and you must make sure every line has a few words that can be represented as pictures. Some of the pictures, often nouns, need to be repeated throughout the story, but the repetition can't make the story as dull as "See Spot run." Here is a sample rebus story by Mike Carter from Highlights.
Have I tried to crack the rebus?
You bet. I have a folder full of rejected rebus stories. The rebus has the charm of a puzzle easily solved - for the reader, that is, not the writer. My weak spot is plotting that surprise ending and writing it with punch, but I persevered because I loved these stories as a child and they're still favorites with beginning readers.
My most recent rebus tells the story of a girl putting a favorite book in a special place so she'll remember to take it on vacation and then -you guessed it- she forgets where, and searches for the book when it's time to leave.
Highlights is buying it for their rebus page! Smile.
Maybe you've never tried to write a rebus, but what do you struggle with? Plot? Dialogue? Description? Backstory?
Here’s a question for those of you who are familiar with the, um, challenging process of querying agents: What do you think about agents’ “no-response rejections,” which seem to have grown in popularity over the years?
Do you think they’re a necessary evil, given how bogged down agents can get with unsolicited queries? Or do you think this don’t-sell-don’t-tell policy is unfair to writers, who, after hearing only crickets for weeks or months, may be left wondering if agents even received and/or read their e-queries to begin with? Who knows? Maybe they got lost in cyberspace or the spamosphere (the queries, that is, not the agents)?
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this particular type of rejection (lucky you), here’s the gist. According to some agents’ submissions guidelines, if you haven’t heard back within a certain period of time after querying them, say eight weeks, you should take it to mean they’re not interested in seeing a submission from you. Once that amount of time passes, you should go straight to your agent query list, maybe on querytracker.com, and select the “query closed/no response” box. Done. Grr.
But here’s what troubles me. Recently, I caught a few posts from agents, some of whom follow the no-response/rejection policy, which gave me pause. In one post, an on-line interview with an agent, the agent invited anyone who’d e-queried him but never heard back during a certain time period the prior year to resubmit. He bravely admitted he’d been so bogged down, he’d fallen hopelessly behind, and had been unable to get to all the e-queries he’d received during that time. Now that he was finally caught up, he wanted to give those queriers a second chance. I just hope they caught this interview, or read it elsewhere, so they knew about it.
Another agent recently blogged that he’d been having computer problems so if writers hadn’t heard back within two weeks of querying to feel free to re-query. I hope his queriers caught his post, too.
Because electronic and human blips like these happen from time to time, does anyone wish that agents would ban the non-response policy, and respond to every query with at least a form rejection, if only to make the rejection official? Or is this simply asking too much of them?
Now, before anyone jumps down my throat, let me clarify: I’m not taking a particular side. Frankly, I’m torn about this issue. I would, however, love to hear what our Paper Wait readers think.
Before I close, a little anecdote. A few years ago, I attended an NJ-SCBWI conference. During the agent panel portion of the morning, after giving their submission wish lists, most agents added that they would only respond to queries if they were interested. The last agent, however, gave her list then added, “Oh, and we respond to every query we receive.”
The entire room broke into applause.
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By:
Kristi Holl,
on 8/2/2010
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Writers First Aid
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You meet an editor or agent in an elevator or the banquet line. They turn to you and ask, “What’s your book about? Why are you the person to write it?”
Which One Is You?
Do you give a confident 30-second talk summarizing your book’s main points and why you’re the only one who could do the project justice?
OR
Do you say, “You know, that’s a good question. I’m a lousy writer! Who do I think I am anyway, masquerading as a writer? It’s a dumb book idea.”
Of course you don’t spout that second example!
And yet, many writers do that very thing to themselves every day. That evil little voice in your head or over your shoulder whispers, “That’s a stupid idea” or “That’s been done before–and a lot better” or “You’re never going to finish that story.” And like agreeable little twits, we nod and tell ourselves, “This is a dumb idea. I’m never going to finish this. This concept was done last year–and a whole lot better!”
Then, discouraged for another day, we head for the ice cream.
Pitch It to Yourself!
The name “elevator pitch” means a short speech you have ready for that opportune moment when you can market yourself or your book idea to someone that might buy it. Every day–even many times a day–you need to pitch your writing project and yourself TO YOURSELF.
How are you going to sell your story idea to yourself? What elevator pitch can you give to yourself when you’re surprised, not by an agent or editor in the elevator, but by your own nagging questions?
- When “voice in the head” says, “This is just too hard!”
- You say, “I have done many hard things in my life. I can do one more difficult thing.”
-
- When “voice in the head” says, “There’s too much going on in your life for you to write now”
- You say, “Writing is at the top of my To-Do list because it’s important!”
-
- When “voice in the head” says, “Editors and agents scare me!”
- You say, “Even when I feel anxious, I can act like a professional.”
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- When “voice in the head” says, “I can’t write because I can’t tolerate rejections”
- You say, “NOT writing is the only rejection that matters. It’s a rejection of my dreams. I can write a little each day.”
Write Your Own Now
Take a few moments today and write at least three elevator pitches of your own, counter-acting the voice in your head. Write the pitches on cards and tape them to your computer. When the “voice” badgers you the next time, read one of your cards OUT LOUD. Several times.
And if you’re feeling very brave, add an elevator pitch in the comments section (up to three pitches) that you can begin pitching to yourself today!
In 1953 a fledgling business called Rocket Chemical Company set out to create a rust-prevention solvent for use in the aerospace industry. It took them 40 attempts to get the formula right.
Voila! WD-40, which stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt.
I find that inspiring! What if they’d given up on number 39? Then I wouldn’t have my favorite solution for unsticking locks and making my sliding glass doors actually slide.
WD-40 Your Manuscripts
No, don’t spray the greasy mist on your manuscript. But do take the WD-40 as your slogan. Don’t stop submitting until you also have tried many, many times!
In order to spur myself on to submit several book manuscripts that I had “retired” after just two rejections, yesterday I was reading in Ralph Keyes’ The Writer’s Book of Hope. I was encouraged by some very famous “WD-40″ kinds of authors who would have remained nameless if they’d given up so early.
- Despite being represented by a top literary agent and being read by prominent editors, John Knowles’s A Separate Peace was rejected by every major American publisher who saw it. (It was published in London.)
- Other famous books that went through multiple rejects include: Look Homeward, Angel; Love Story; A Wrinkle in Time; All Things Bright and Beautiful and many other novels that became classics and continue to sell decades later.
- Twenty major publishers thought Chicken Soup for the Soul had no commercial prospects, despite the authors being experienced speakers and aggressive marketers.
- Stephen King’s first four novels and sixty short stories were rejected.
Having your work turned down is no fun, and I won’t sing the praises of being rejected. I hate it too. But we must come to terms with it, accept it as part of the writing life, accept criticism if it has merit, and get on with it.
A Necessary Part
As Keyes puts it, “To working writers, rejection is like stings to a beekeeper:
a painful but necessary part of their vocation.”
And now…in the spirit of the inventers of WD-40, I’m off to submit my manuscripts another 38 times.
[I'm curious about you. 'Fess up. How many rejections do you get on a manuscript before you give up on it?]
Hopefully, reading through SlushPile Hell will help new writers avoid making the same mistakes as the ones made in queries to this crusty lit agent. You can also find SlushPile Hell on Twitter at @SlushPileHell.
I'm resurrecting my Golden Marmot Awards because I keep coming across sites and tweets that, while they may be a tad too cynical or crusty for my Golden Cupcake Award, still make me laugh.
Sadly, I wasn't able to import the previous winners when I moved to Squarespace, so am starting from scratch again. If you'd like to nominate a tweet for the Golden Marmot Award, feel free to RT the tweet in question with the #marmotaward hashtag.
One of the first and hardest steps on the road of a writer is getting used to the idea of rejection. Getting that first rejection letter can be considered a milestone though, an event to celebrate. When you really think about it, the first taste of rejection gives you more in common with every other successful writer on the shelves today. You should feel proud. Giddy.
Then comes that second rejection and Kapow!!
Those thoughts aren’t comforting anymore and get replaced by more scathing ones…
You suck.
Your writing sucks.
And gee, are those crow’s feet around your eyes getting deeper or what?
My experience with rejection has been much like that. I’ve gotten form rejections and good rejections. Rejections that have made me want to work harder. And rejections that have made me want to go on a margarita and dark chocolate binge. And little known fact about me – most of my rejections have come to me on a Friday. Usually after an inspiring critique group meeting or day of writing. Just when I’m feeling at one with the whole crazy publishing biz, the rug gets pulled out from under my feet. Thudding door stop snail mails. Quiet, stealthy e-mails. Reject. Eject. No matter how they came to me, the effect was the same – ouch.
Of course, now that I have an agent none of this should bother me, right?
Excuse me while I spit take.
Oh sheesh, it sure has! But as with any life experience once you get past the sting, surprising feelings bubble up.
On my recent trip to NJ, I had the privilege of meeting face to face with my agent. On a very hot, hazy early afternoon in NYC we chatted over salads about my writing career. A week prior to our meeting I’d found out we had FIVE passes (a much nicer word than rejection, btw) on my manuscript. I was glad I’d had a week to get used to that idea. It sure was a doozey of an e-mail to open, and while I didn’t collapse into a chocolate binge to numb the sting, I sent out a few e-mails to writer pals who I knew would tell me everything was going to be okay. A week later, I was able to look at it, somewhat objectively.
My big question to my agent was when should I go back to the manuscript and apply some of the suggestions. Her answer: it was way too early to concern myself with that. And while my jaw didn’t drop, my inner critic was stymied for the moment. What do you mean? It questioned. See, if I’d gotten a rejection letter on my own, I would have instantly sent out an e-mail/snail mail thanking said editor for their consideration and if I tweaked, would they reconsider? In my experience, I’ve never gotten a “sure, send it on back”, which leads me to believe, comments, however helpful or complimentary, are really just a pubs way of saying “We’re just not that into you.” And that’s okay.
As I ventured back to the ferry port that day through the manic, thumping streets of Manhattan, I had a revelation. My work will find a home. Those pubs that passed were just not that into me. Someone, somewhere will be into my work. Will fall in love with my characters. Will believe this story can stand on its own and that people will want to read it. A kind of peace came over me then.
Or maybe it was just delirium from heatstroke.
I’m not saying that I’m looking forward to another pass, but that I believe I’ll be able to keep it in perspective. And keep writing.
What are some of your revelations about rejections/and or the publishing biz?
Inspiration:- The Triple T [Mary Demuth] Rachelle Gardner's guest blogger gives us an inspirational mantra.
- If you haven't already, check out Buffy Andrews' blog The Write Stuff for wonderful quotes!
- Toni Morrison Talks Motivation [Spkn Wrd via @iainbroome] Great video interview with the famous writer.
- Keeping a Writing Log [Literary Rambles Tip Tuesday] Great tip to motivate yourself by logging a) date b) chapter c) time spent d) words written e) running total of words in the project.
Craft of Writing: - Overwriter's Anonymous [Editorial Ass] A recovering editorial assistant shows you examples of eight ways overwritten manuscripts can work against you.
- Dashes, Parentheses, and Commas [Grammar Girl--@GrammarGirl] Parentheses are the quiet whisper of an aside, commas are the conversational voice of a friend walking by your desk, and dashes are the yowl of a pirate dashing into a fray.
- Sentence-level Tension and Reversals [Edittorrent] The same way reversals of fortune or condition can drive a plot, they can up the tension in an individual sentence to jump start a novel and engage readers quickly.
- To Prologue or Not to Prologue [Nathan Bransford] Vote on your feelings toward a prologue. Also reference Nathan's previous post on prologues.
- What's Driving Your Novel? [C. Patrick Schulze] Author defines character-driven versus plot-driven writing.
- Theme in Query Letters [editorrent] Exploration of your book's theme and including it in your query.
- Pace-It's Not a Race [Nicola Morgan] Help! I Need a Publisher! gives advice on pacing.
- An EPIC Resource [Angela Ackerman] The Bookshelf Muse directs us to a fabulous site for fantasy writers.
- Fight! Fight! Fight! [Jason Black via @inkyelbows] Plot to Punctuation discusses crafting conflict and portraying your characters.
- Dialogue Quick Tips [Robert Gregory Browne via @thecreativepenn] Eight great tips for crafting dialogue.
This writing tip comes from my mother. My mother wasn't a writer but she was very wise. My mother said, "If at first you don't succeed try, try again." That is perfect advice for a writer. Your first draft will not be your last. Try, try again. Your first submission should not be your last. Try, try again. You can be certain your first "rejection" will not be your last. Try, try again, and again, and again.
By:
Kristi Holl,
on 5/19/2010
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A few weeks ago in “Find a Need and Fill It” I asked for your input concerning the topics you find most helpful in this blog.
Thank you all for the responses! It’s been very helpful. The requests fell into three main categories. Since I blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, that made it easy for me. From now on, this will be my general blogging schedule so that I can cover each topic area regularly.
What You Can Expect
Monday = Inner Motivation (includes:)
- fears–all kinds!
- discipline
- focus
- goals
- rejection
- lack of motivation
- encouragement
- a writer’s dream life
- procrastination
- working with our “inner editor”
- enjoying writing more
- perseverance
- creative inspiration
- writer’s block
Wednesday = Outer Challenges (includes:)
- setting boundaries
- time management
- distractions
- discipline
- writing schedules
- goal setting
- balancing writing with chaos in life
- balancing day jobs with writing
- our writing needs (vs. “their” needs)
- self-defeating behaviors
Friday = Tips ‘n’ Tricks of the Trade (includes:)
- specific genre help
- writing books I’ve found helpful
- blogs I find useful
- classes I’ve taken
- voice (writer’s and character’s)
- critique groups
- conferences
- working with publishers
- marketing–all kinds
- considering the audience when writing
- dealing with publishers who don’t respond
- finding good markets
- developing depth in writing
- selling “unique” pieces instead of jumping on the bandwagon
Thanks for Your Input
All your feedback has been immensely helpful in organizing future blog posts and making sure I cover topics you want to hear about and find useful. If I missed anything on these lists, feel free to let me know!
Do you sometimes feel like you aren't getting anywhere? Ever wonder if you should give up trying to get published? Here's the second installment of our Wow Wednesday series with some words of advice about why it's important to keep the faith. We're going to run these every week featuring the secrets behind the successes (big and small) of other writers on the journey. Have you had a success of your own? Share it with us!
This week's feature is from Cole Gibson, and here's the Publisher's Marketplace blurb run just last week:
Cole Gibsen's debut KATANA, about what happens when the captain of the pom squad learns she is a reincarnated samurai, meets a boy claiming to be her soul mate from another life, and must chose between continuing as the girl she's always been and embracing the warrior inside her, to Brian Farrey at Flux, in a two-book deal, by Chris Richman at Upstart Crow Literary (NA).
When a Rejection Feels Like a Punch in the Face As someone who used to take martial arts, I can tell you that getting punched in the face hurts like a mother. And, unfortunately for me, I was punched/kicked in the face quite a bit because I’m no Bruce Lee.
The same thing goes with rejections. They suck ducks. And let me tell you, I received my fair share of them.
So how did I do it, you ask? How did I withstand years (yes, I said years) of literally hundreds of rejections, each feeling like a sucker punch to the gut?
I applied the lessons I learned during my training at the dojang.
You see, martial arts teaches you how to block – but if you engage in a fight getting hurt is inevitable. That’s why you must also learn how to take a hit.
Here are some pointers:
- Relax mentally. Your mindset is very important. If you fear that the pain will be more agonizing than what it actually will be, it'll hurt even worse. If you know you might get punched, accept that you will get punched so that you can prepare yourself mentally for it.
The same thing goes with querying. Relax! It’s not as bad as you think it’s going to be. There will be rejections. Accept that. Prepare for it. But don’t focus on it.
- Keep your vision. When confronted with a threat, it's very easy to make that the center of your universe. Avoid this natural tendency and try to maintain peripheral vision and awareness of your surroundings, especially other assailants. There may be something that can help you in the ensuing fight, your assailant may have a weapon, or there maybe someone else attempting to jump you from behind.
When querying, don’t make the rejections the center of your universe. Keep honing your craft and working on other projects.
- Practice. In order to learn relax, and not panic, you really need to experience the sensation of having punches thrown at you. You will obviously want to do this in a controlled environment that safely simulates a real world scenario as best as possible.
Keep practicing! The only real way to prepare yourself and your work for querying is to join a critique group. Sure, hearing about your shortcomings can feel like a jab in the gut, but discovering your weaknesses and improving upon them will only make you a better writer.
- Try to "roll with the punch". If you can't avoid getting hit, move your body away from the hit. This decreases both the momentum and the time of the impact, effectively reducing the impulse and forcing the assailant to inadvertently "pull his punches."
- You might feel angry receiving a form rejection for the manuscript you’ve poured your heart and soul into. But shake it off! Writing the agent/editor back to proclaim their mental shortcomings is the worst thing you can do. Roll with the punch and move on.
- Keep your
By: Adventures in Children's Publishing,
on 5/7/2010
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Adventures in YA Publishing
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Rejection always hurts. I’m skeptical of writers who claim that rejections don’t bother them at all. No matter how experienced you are, I can’t help but think that a rejection -ANY rejection- has got to sting at least a little.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m saving all my rejections (paper and digital) for any particular project so I can roll them out to encourage other writers WHEN that project gets published. I certainly appreciate hearing about other writers’ rejections -> success stories!
I’ve been gradually collecting these types of successful author rejection stories on Inkygirl.
One great place to find other writers’ rejections is Literary Rejections On Display. The author of this blog prefers to remain anonymous, but describes himself/herself as follows: “I am a published, award-winning author of fiction and creative nonfiction–but whatever. In the eyes of many, I am still a literary reject.”
URL:
http://literaryrejectionsondisplay.blogspot.com
After reading a batch of e-queries, I tracked some of the biggest reasons they received a rejection.
I think the number-one reason is that the query just didn’t interest me. The book was in one of my genres, but the story didn’t feel different or special enough. For example, it was a mystery that didn’t have a hook or felt very similar to every other mystery on the market or a romance that felt like something I’d already read before.
There were also a number of queries that felt either like pre-queries or felt very incomplete. They were queries that told me nothing about the book, often times going on and on about the author’s credentials in a completely different field, or they were queries that simply fell short.
As always there were a number of queries for books that just aren’t for me at all. Sometimes I think they are queries that would be better for Jacky, but since she’s no longer in the business, the author decided to simply send it to me instead. Examples of books like this would be nonfiction spirituality or new age titles. These are areas that Jacky previously handled that neither Kim nor I represent. Now that Jacky has left I get a number of queries for books like this and they are automatic rejections. I also received queries for screenplays and children’s books, neither of which anyone at BookEnds has ever handled.
Believe it or not I get a number of queries that I just do not understand. I think the biggest problem with queries like this is that the author is too much in her own head. She knows the story so well that she forgets she’s talking to an audience who knows nothing. It’s either that or the query has been edited so much that the author left in only her favorite lines and they don’t necessarily match or make sense.
Jessica
BookEnds, LLC
reminds us that it's important to always query as a professional, and not like an old friend. Just because you've met an agent or editor in person doesn't mean they will remember you or the conversation that you had. Rather, query in a way that provides details to refresh their memory and maintain a professional tone. If you've invested the time, money, and courage to attend a conference and approach an agent or editor, you don't want to blow your chance to use this encounter in a query. Thou shall avoid any reason to be rejected in your query!
Marissa
By:
Kristi Holl,
on 3/31/2010
Blog:
Writers First Aid
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I was reading the new Writer Magazine yesterday, and the article about best-selling (as in over 15 million copies) Meg Cabot caught my eye. She said you need to block out what you read about “overnight successes” in the publishing business.
She points to her own experience with rejection, and I challenge you to read this without fainting:
- It took her three years of sending out query letters every day to land an agent.
- Before publishing she got a rejection letter every day in the mail for four years–over 1,000 rejections.
And she didn’t quit! She went on to write over 50 books for juveniles, teens and adults. Her Princess Diaries series became the basis of two hit Disney films.
Slightly Embarrassed
Reading about Meg Cabot’s stick-to-it-iveness made me rather embarrassed for all the times I’ve (1) moaned and groaned about a couple of rejections, and (2) given up on a manuscript after fewer than five rejections. I have four novels in my closet right now that I gave up on after just a few rejections.
This next week I will be dusting them off, re-reading them for possible revisions, and sending them out again.
Rejection Stamina
How about you? What is your “rejection stamina”? Are you another Meg Cabot? I hope so! Look how her stamina has served her well.
If you’re brave, share how many rejections you receive before giving up on a piece. Also, what’s your best tip for getting a manuscript back in the mail ASAP?
By:
Kristi Holl,
on 2/17/2010
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Rejection is part of the writing life. Writers have always struggled not to take rejection personally. Unless you’re super human, it deals a blow to one’s self-esteem.
“To be a writer is to be rejected. I’m not kidding,” says Rachel Ballon, Ph.D., author of The Writer’s Portable Therapist. “Those writers who stop writing the first time they’re rejected can’t call themselves writers because rejection is part and parcel of the writing game. It isn’t what happens to you IF you’re rejected, it’s what you do or don’t do WHEN you’re rejected.”
You Can Recover
I get concerned when my writer friends and students get so beaten down by a rejection. (And with our struggling economy lately, rejections are happening more frequently.) Rejections do hurt, and the disappointment can be huge. All the “don’t take it personally” lectures don’t help much then. You need more, especially in the initial stages when the rejection is new and raw.
“Expect rejection and disappointments with the knowledge that you’ll recover from them,” says Ballon. “Be just as prepared for rejection as you’re prepared for an earthquake in California or a hurricane in Florida.”
Plan Ahead
I never thought of that before: prepare for rejection. It makes sense though!
Most of my family members live in Florida now, and when a tropical storm is building to hurricane status, they go into motion like a well oiled machine. Buy batteries and food staples. Nail plywood over windows. Make sure generator works. Stock up on drinkable water. They don’t just sit back and hope the hurricane veers off and misses them. They know that the likelihood of being hit by a hurricane is low, but definitely possible. Being prepared has saved their lives and property more than once. And their plans for recovery and clean-up go into effect as soon as the storm passes.
The likelihood of writers being rejected is about 100%–much worse odds than destruction from an earthquake or hurricane. But how many of us have a plan for recovering from that particular professional “disaster”? Not many, I’m guessing. But we should have. We know it’s coming from time to time. And I wonder if we wouldn’t respond better if we planned for it.
Strategy
How do you plan for the day-perhaps after months of hopeful waiting or interested nibbles-when your story or novel or proposal is rejected? How can you prepare for it? Well, what makes you feel better when you’ve been rejected by someone in your personal life?
- A hot bath and a good novel?
- A phone call to your best friend?
- A candy bar or Starbucks coffee?
- Hanging out with people who do love you?
- Going for a hard sweaty run or bike ride?
- Journaling?
- Curling up with a “feel good” movie or chick flick?
Chances are, those same things will help you through a manuscript rejection. They can be the solace for your bruised soul.
Plan Ahead-Work Your Plan
I think I’m going to make a list on a card called “Rejection Recovery Strategies” and tack it to my bulletin board. And the next time a book or prop
My watchwords for 2010 are
Clarity and Focus (it's so important I feel like putting it in fancy font). Here are some examples of rejections from 2009...
You are a good writer, but I found this story too confusing in the beginning. I think you need to concentrate on the focus of the story, i.e., what are you trying to say? (Abyss & Apex)This had some evocative description, but I hadn't the faintest clue what was going on during most of it. (Every Day Fiction)The details and ideas are marvelous, but we spent a bit too much of this scratching our heads. (Shimmer)I took several hits on the head re clarity before I sat down to tackle it, we're still mid battle I'm sure, but I'm hoping to have sorted the beast out before 2010 makes me another year older. 2009 has provided me with quite a lot of valuable advice in the form of rejection letters, but I think the below is the one that really struck a chord and left me with a e
ureka moment (we've all had those, right?)
Some great potential to the premise, but all of these interesting ideas (wings! 10,000 years of waiting! dead father glowing!) are thrown out and then left hanging. Take the time and write the full story - it sounds more like the plot of a novel than a piece of flash fiction. (Every Day Fiction)I swear the above made me pull up my socks to my thighs, which is quite an achievement for ankle socks.
On The Muffin, we've posted about rejections before. As a writer, you've probably heard all the standard rejection advice: personal rejections are good, a rejection is at least a response, and everybody gets rejected.
That's what I want to focus on today--during Thanksgiving week--
Everybody gets rejected!
I received an e-mail over the weekend, reminding me of this fact, and I thought it would be great to share it with my fellow women writers as a reminder not to give up, not to see one rejection as the end of your career. Look at this list:
Dune by Frank Herbert – 13 rejections
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – 14 rejections
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis – 17 rejections
Jonathan Livingston Seagull – 18 rejections
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle – 29 rejections
Carrie by Stephen King – over 30 rejections
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – 38 rejections
A Time to Kill by John Grisham – 45 rejections
Louis L’Amour, author of over 100 western novels – over 300 rejections before publishing his first book
John Creasy, author of 564 mystery novels – 743 rejections before publishing his first book
Ray Bradbury, author of over 100 science fiction novels and stories – around 800 rejections before selling his first story
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter – rejected so universally the author decided to self-publish the book
So, when you open your mailbox and see the thin envelope OR open the e-mail and see, "Thank you for your submission but. . .", remember this list, don't give up hope, and be thankful that you can go back to the drawing board.
Happy Writing!
Margo Dill
http://margodill.com/blog/
Read These Books and Use Them
If you were to put a percentage on the reasons you most often reject queries, what would they be? (ie: the writing, the premise, the wrong genre, etc.). Knowing that feedback from agents regarding rejections is next to impossible, considering their excessive workload, I'm just trying to get a feel for the most common problems.
Without keeping a tally while I’m reading queries, I don’t know if I could give a percentage of the reasons. I can give you some overall thoughts though.
While there are definitely times when I get an influx of inappropriate queries—wrong genre, wrong agent, unprofessional—for the most part I think the queries I receive are serious and well thought out. There’s no doubt that agent blogs, writer forums and the Internet in general has given writers an edge. While it’s probably making you all more anxious, it’s also giving you the knowledge you need to succeed.
I think the biggest reason I reject something is that it just doesn’t excite me. The idea might be okay, the writing good, the query fine, but the idea just feels done, like I’ve seen it a million times. In all the research you do on querying and all the work you do on writing the query, there’s one thing that writers will never be able to fully grasp unless you sit on my side of the desk and read the queries, and that’s what everyone else is doing. If I get 50 queries a day and 35 of them are vampire romances you’re going to have to work really hard to convince me that your vampire romance is going to excite me. After a while they all start to sound the same. I’ve talked before on the blog about insurance adjustor mysteries. How, to the best of my knowledge, there’s never been one published and yet regularly I receive a query for a mystery featuring an insurance adjustor as the sleuth. This just does not excite me.
That does not mean it’s all about the idea because certainly in reading the queries there can always be that one author who, with her voice, writing, and the presentation of her idea, can convince me that everyone wants to read about a vampire insurance adjustor.
So I think the most common problem is that the query just doesn’t resonate with the agent for some reason and often that reason is nothing more than “while I found it intriguing I don’t think it’s for me.” The truth more times than I can count.
Jessica
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By:
Dianne Hofmeyr,
on 9/5/2009
Blog:
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After Meg’s really superb piece yesterday and all the responses, this seems frivolous but it’s the week-end!
In a recent SAS newsletter there was some good advice on what to do when rejected. For me it’s cooking. Banging pots and pans about, rocking a sharp mezzaluna blade against a tender stalk of celery, stabbing a tomato, hissing through a fennel bulb with a Japanese Global knife, are little acts of retribution. Cooking is something I turn to in all times of writing crises – at the first sign of a deadline or the smallest glitch in a plot.
But I have to confess to cooking because basically I’m greedy. And right now with the leaves swirling down, I’m greedy for summer to last.
I’ve taken
Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle quite literally this summer and without the hassle of Ryanair have been living a life of the Italian countryside… in London. I’ve shopped at my local Farmers Market in Bute Street every Saturday (even taking back egg-boxes) and have come home laden with enough produce to feed the Titanic.
It was the sight of the zucchini fiori that got me started… those furled globes waiting to be filled with ricotta and basil. Somewhere in the 70’s Shirley Conran wrote in Superwoman that life’s too short to stuff a mushroom. Well life’s too short, NOT to stuff a zucchini fiori and dip it in egg and Japanese breadcrumbs and fry till golden. And then there are the heaps of different sized and shaped tomatoes… some for roasting, some for salad, some for gazpacho… that fill my basket because we all know the same tomato can't be used for everything!
Right now it’s the turn of tiny plums straight from English orchards tasting of almonds and the late summer figs, still holding their sweetness. Except figs aren’t too eco-friendly because of airmiles. But I’ve marked the fig trees around the streets of Kensington and Chelsea. They’re laden with tiny, green goblets and I’m watching them just as possessively as I’m watching the olives on my single olive tree growing in a pot on my terrace. Figs on hot toast is not far off!
I have ‘wood-fire oven’ envy of anyone who’s built their own…
Lucy Coats.
Now I’m heading off to the kitchen to bake biscotti. But I do on occasion write and even read, so on a bookish endnote, taking Anne Cassidy’s (sorry Anne couldn't find your exact blog on this) remark to heart that we should be physically putting books into the hands of others, here are some I’ve read this summer:
Ray Bradbury says he received at least 1000 rejections during his writing career, and he’s still getting rejections. Bradbury submitted more than 800 manuscripts before he made his first sale.
Since then, he has written more than five hundred published works — short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse, and was awarded the National Book Foundation’s 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, an the National Medal of Arts in 2004.
From his Wikipedia entry:
Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century.
On writing rituals:
Every day at 9:00 a.m., for two hours, I begin a new short story, sometimes finishing it, or write an essay or poem. This routine has continued for sixty-five years. I have my favorite cat, who is my paperweight, on my desk while I am writing.
Quotes by Ray Bradbury:
You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.
Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.
Want to find out about other famous author rejections? Visit Writers & Rejections: Don’t Give Up!
Want to find out about how other authors write? Visit Author Writing Habits.
Sources:
RayBradbury.com
B&N interview with Ray Bradbury
Examining The Resilience Of Responding To Rejection
Rejections: three methods of coping (Gotham Writers’ Workshop)
Ray Bradbury Wikipedia entry
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I didn’t attend the New York SCBWI Conference this past weekend. Yes, it’s true. (Sometimes you’ve got to nurture your creative life and get down to writing. Plus I was just at a 10 day VCFA residency…).
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I was at the SCBWI conference this weekend and Sara’s talk was amazing. It’s nice to be reminded that I’m not the only one who throws obstacles at myself, and that many of us are still working on our creative lives.
I posted some of my favorite quotes from the weekend on my blog: http://www.vbtremper.wordpress.com.
Thanks, Ingrid, for sharing Sara’s talk with your readers. I’m sure others will get as much from it as I did.
Vicki