We’ve all had moments where things didn’t go quite as planned. We’ve all had times when it seems like the world is plotting against us. Responding positively to these challenges is critically important and often extremely hard to do.

Case in point, I interviewed JC Hutchins for ‘Get Published’. I must confess that I was really looking forward to talking with JC. We connected via Skype and started talking. Five minutes into the conversation, JC dropped off. I called him back and we picked up where we had left off.

About 25 minutes into the interview, increasing amounts of distortion crept into JC’s side of the talk. I should have halted the session, reconnected and proceeded. Unfortunately, I thought maybe the problem was with my system and I hoped (fingers crossed) that it would clear up when I started mixing.

Alas, I could not clear up the distortion and unfortunately JC was too busy to rerecord the second half of the interview. It would have been so easy to throw the entire interview into the garbage and move on. I didn’t do that; JC gave me an hour of his time and had many interesting and useful things to say. What did I do?

I split the interview in half. The first half became episode 10a. The second, largely unintelligible half is destined to become episode 10b. I’ve now completely listened to it (several times, in fact) and transcribed it to the best of my ability. I recorded JC’s side of the conversation and it will be released later this week.

Is it a perfect solution? Hardly, but this way, my listeners will still hear what JC had to say even if it isn’t in his voice. Kludgey, yes, but better than throwing it away.

The same is true of submitting stories to agents and publishers. You send it out and it gets rejected. Time to quit? Not on your life.

Send it out again, and then again. Set yourself a limit to the number of rejections (but be realistic; 1 isn’t a big enough number and neither is 10). If you hit your number, try something different. Maybe hire an editor to work with you to fix it up. Or perhaps join a critique group. Your story may be fine and just need some polish. Or maybe it IS bad and you need to use it as an apprentice piece and move on to the next story.

The point is, you don’t tell yourself you suck and quit. The difference between many a failed author and a published one is perseverance. Learn from your setbacks/mistakes and move forward. I know for certain I will do other interviews. I also know that if distortion starts to creep in, I will stop the session and reconnect. In the end, the interviewee will appreciate that I am trying to present them in the most positive way possible and I won’t have to find a way to make it work.

The same holds true of my writing. Let the rejections come in. There are other ways to get the work out and one day it will be published. Count on it.

Personal Update

One of my first readers did a once through on my fantasy novel and gave me some great feedback. I will be sending it off to my publisher in the next week.

Also… ‘Get Published’ is a Parsec Award finalist (I may have mentioned this before but it bears repeating). Wish me luck.

Tags: Get Published, jc hutchins, Michell Plested, parsec award, perseverance, podcast, writing

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