I’ll bet if you were to talk to ten published authors you would learn that most/all of them had many rejections before a publisher finally accepted their manuscripts.  Maybe I should even underline many rejections just to be especially clear.

Why would a sane person put themselves through the pain of getting rejection after rejection?  Is it because he or she enjoys the interminable waits followed by the dejection of yet another “no”.

Speaking as a rejected author I can tell you that isn’t it.

No, each rejection slip is another badge of honor that strengthens my resolve to see my work in print.  I soldier on because I have faith in my stories and I know that if I’m not willing to fight the good fight no one else will.

You see, my stories have been there for me when I needed them.  I’ve had times in my life where work royally sucked.  Getting up in the morning was a chore and it was only the thought of my family that kept me going.  To say I wasn’t having any fun would be the understatement of the year.

Whenever I hit bottom I would try and think of the things and people that brought me joy.  More often than not my writing was factored heavily in there.  It would get me going again.  How can I possibly do less than give it my best shot to get it published?

The very thought of becoming a published, professional writer keeps me going.  Kind of like those people who buy lottery tickets every week.

Do I expect to be rich and famous?  No, but I hope to have a successful career as a writer and that’s more important.

And it’s what keep me going.

Personal Update

I’m really excited about an upcoming interview for ‘Get Published’.  This week I will be interviewing none other than Philippa Ballantine.  We will be talking about her recent two-book deal and her 12-year ‘overnight success’.  It should be up very quickly.

I’m also looking forward to posting something new to the site: book reviews. Expect to see (and hear) my first one in the coming days.

Tags: hope, perseverance, philippa ballantine, pjballantine, published, rejection letters, rejections

You have a great idea for a story so you sit down and write it on the nearest paper available. Maybe it’s a napkin in a restaurant, maybe it’s in the margin of the phone book. The important thing is you have written it down.

Now what?

If you’re like some of the squares out there you will transcribe the story onto a computer. Then you’ll spend a bunch of time proof-reading and editing the story. If you really want to get carried away, you will get someone to read it and check for errors.

But that’s only if you’re a square.

I mean, really. Your story is obviously a cut above the rest so why bother with all that? Any publisher would be honored to read the story right from the napkin. If they aren’t, to hell with them, right? The publisher should know that you are an amazing writer with a bright future and gladly read past the spelling and formatting errors.

While they’re at it they should type the story out for you, correcting any mistakes as they go.  If there are continuity problems or sections that don’t work, they can fix them. That’s their business isn’t it?

Once it’s done, they can send the corrected story back along with a nice contract. It’s only your due after all. You’re the talent. The star. Without you they don’t have a product.

And as for those schmucks out there who make the effort to edit their work and send something readable, I feel nothing but pity. Any publisher worth his or her salt will see right away that those writers are simply compensating for a lack of talent. If the publisher is smart he or she will simply toss those submissions into the trash.  After all your writing is obviously superior.

Personal Update

Nothing new to report on the book front but I did have something exciting happen. ‘Get Published’ was nominated for a Parsec! All I can say is “Holy Crap!”  Never in my wildest imaginings did I suspect such a thing could/would happen (and no, I didn’t nominate myself ).  I’m not expecting anything miraculous to happen but it’s exciting to actually be nominated (and thank you to whomever did the nominating).

If you are interested in learning more about the Parsecs you can go to http://parsecawards.com.

Tags: editing, Get Published, Michell Plested, parsec awards