Thanks to Cliff Burns and Paisley and Plaid on their feedback. Paisley’s site gives a list of other authors who were once rejected and went on to achieve great fame.
Cliff’s advice is definitely some I’ve already taken into consideration. I’ve done my homework. I picked a handful of agents (mostly from agentquery.com) who handled my style of writing. Dare I say it…I bought a copy of The Writer’s Market this year. I haven’t bought one of those since high school, but I was able to get one for a buck this year by signing up with QPB again. I also bought a subscription to The Writer magazine this year hoping it will keep me motivated.
Even with all of these steps and all of my determination, I do accept the fact that I still may never be published traditionally. If so, I guess I’d go down the self-publishing path again. All of this reminds me of a PostSecret postcard I recently came across. It said…
Salary for teaching creative writing……$32,452.00
Salary for writing creatively…….$0.00
Cliff Burns
April 16, 2008
Those figures you tag on the end of your post are telling…and depressing, Shannon. As in depressingly accurate. After more than two decades I’ve come to the conclusion the traditional publishing scene is not for me (submissions, agents, all that inane bullshit).
The new technologies mean I can bypass them and go directly to my readers without interference from morons with both eyes fixed on what’s hot at that particular moment (and to hell with good, ground-breaking writing). If fame and posterity come posthumously, fuck it, I’m ready to take that chance. I simply refuse to kowtow or cater to fuckheads. May your experiences be better, more positive; God knows, kid, I wish you all the best in the world. Don’t end up like this:
http://www.redroom.com/blog/cliff-j-burns/according-canadian-standards-im-a-best-selling-author
Sarah Lange
April 17, 2008
Hi Shannon,
Unfortunately, rejection is part of the business of writing, and you don’t have control over whether your work is accepted or rejected.
But you do have control of your craft, and you can continue to improve your writing with the hope that your work will eventually find receptive, even grateful, readers.
I am associate editor of The Writer magazine, and I hear many stories from writers who insist their persistence in the face of rejection led to their writing successes.
“The people who succeed in the writing business are the ones who don’t take rejection very seriously, but who keep on patiently building their skills and their careers,” Scott Edelstein writes in his book 100 Things Every Writer Needs to Know.
It may be hard not take rejection very seriously or personally. But if you can learn to accept it as part of the business and to focus on making your writing even better, I think that you will ultimately succeed in your writing goals. Just keep writing.
By the way, I hope that you find our magazine useful, and please feel free to let me know what you think of it.
Best wishes,
Sarah Lange