Yesterday I wrote about the necessity of having thick skin if you are creating something of yourself for the public. I'd like to share an actual rejection letter that I received. I don't have the letter but the words are seared into my heart.
To give a little background, I had spent at least a decade pouring my heart and soul into my work not to mention over $10,000 of credit card debt which was rapidly accumulating interest and eating my paycheck alive. It was very obvious that I could not go on that way much longer. I needed help.
I had entered a writing contest sponsored by a Mackinac Island publisher and had won a spot in one of her anthologies. Thinking that she might be able to give me some advice on where to turn, I wrote her a letter. I tried to be as calm and unemotional as possible but something must have shown through. Because this is what she wrote back:
"Everyone dreams of being the next J. K. Rowling, but that is a fantasy very few achieve . . . I realize that I have not answered your questions but . . . you sound very emotional and upset. Perhaps you need to see a therapist to deal with these feelings . , , Have a nice day. Sincerely, X"
I was devastated by these words. By her evasiveness and refusal to answer my questions and the suggestion that I seek professional help. I realized that the contest was merely a vehicle to promote her company at our expense and time. She had gotten what she wanted from us and had no interest in helping young writers get started.
Now, the subject of my failed book was a travelogue. I can only imagine how much harder it would have been to read these words had I been writing about a traumatic event I was trying to recover from. Remember, this was from a PUBLISHER. Not some "anonymous" person online. Whether she was right or wrong to say such things is immaterial. Say them she did, and it left a big scar. It was, essentially, the death of my dream.
Looking back, I wish that someone had sat down with me and asked the questions that I ask here, the questions that made this other member so upset. I wish someone had said, "You do not have the chance of a snowball in hell the way you are going about this." That they had asked me hard questions of where I was getting the money to do all this travel and research all of a sudden when for years previously I struggled with making barely enough to cover my needs. Instead I was told things like "this is a great book. A wonderful book." A great book it might have been but without the means and know-how to market it, it was doomed right from the beginning. Yes, I would have been upset and angry at first, and it would have been a blow to hear those words, but it would have saved me a lot of grief.
Because my biggest mistake was that I went about it the wrong way. In the first place, I had no business as a beginner with no track record trying to write a book of that scope right off the bat. After I had written and sold several smaller pieces and established myself, then, maybe then, I could do the book I really wanted to do. But only after I had written a proposal and had it accepted. See, that is what the professionals do. They don't write the book first and then try to sell it. They try to sell the book first, and if it is accepted, then they sit down and write it. But I hear very few amateur writers talk like that. "I am writing a book." Oh, really? Have you got a publisher? "No, but . . . " They have got the cart before the horse. You need to write the proposal first. Send it out. Get it accepted. Then write your book.
Now I realize that e-publishing has changed the game somewhat and made the playing field more level in that anyone with access to a computer can publish anything, and I do mean anything, good, bad, indifferent. There is some very good writing out there online, and there is writing that is semi-literate, and I am being charitable when I call it semi-literate. The Internet doesn't care. There's no screening process. It's all the same. Some people don't care about that, and that's fine. However, you still need to be on top of the marketing process, because it won't happen on its own. If you want your writing aggressively promoted, you cannot sit back and let some free online publishing program do it. It's up to you to direct your readers to the sites where your book is available.
To give a little background, I had spent at least a decade pouring my heart and soul into my work not to mention over $10,000 of credit card debt which was rapidly accumulating interest and eating my paycheck alive. It was very obvious that I could not go on that way much longer. I needed help.
I had entered a writing contest sponsored by a Mackinac Island publisher and had won a spot in one of her anthologies. Thinking that she might be able to give me some advice on where to turn, I wrote her a letter. I tried to be as calm and unemotional as possible but something must have shown through. Because this is what she wrote back:
"Everyone dreams of being the next J. K. Rowling, but that is a fantasy very few achieve . . . I realize that I have not answered your questions but . . . you sound very emotional and upset. Perhaps you need to see a therapist to deal with these feelings . , , Have a nice day. Sincerely, X"
I was devastated by these words. By her evasiveness and refusal to answer my questions and the suggestion that I seek professional help. I realized that the contest was merely a vehicle to promote her company at our expense and time. She had gotten what she wanted from us and had no interest in helping young writers get started.
Now, the subject of my failed book was a travelogue. I can only imagine how much harder it would have been to read these words had I been writing about a traumatic event I was trying to recover from. Remember, this was from a PUBLISHER. Not some "anonymous" person online. Whether she was right or wrong to say such things is immaterial. Say them she did, and it left a big scar. It was, essentially, the death of my dream.
Looking back, I wish that someone had sat down with me and asked the questions that I ask here, the questions that made this other member so upset. I wish someone had said, "You do not have the chance of a snowball in hell the way you are going about this." That they had asked me hard questions of where I was getting the money to do all this travel and research all of a sudden when for years previously I struggled with making barely enough to cover my needs. Instead I was told things like "this is a great book. A wonderful book." A great book it might have been but without the means and know-how to market it, it was doomed right from the beginning. Yes, I would have been upset and angry at first, and it would have been a blow to hear those words, but it would have saved me a lot of grief.
Because my biggest mistake was that I went about it the wrong way. In the first place, I had no business as a beginner with no track record trying to write a book of that scope right off the bat. After I had written and sold several smaller pieces and established myself, then, maybe then, I could do the book I really wanted to do. But only after I had written a proposal and had it accepted. See, that is what the professionals do. They don't write the book first and then try to sell it. They try to sell the book first, and if it is accepted, then they sit down and write it. But I hear very few amateur writers talk like that. "I am writing a book." Oh, really? Have you got a publisher? "No, but . . . " They have got the cart before the horse. You need to write the proposal first. Send it out. Get it accepted. Then write your book.
Now I realize that e-publishing has changed the game somewhat and made the playing field more level in that anyone with access to a computer can publish anything, and I do mean anything, good, bad, indifferent. There is some very good writing out there online, and there is writing that is semi-literate, and I am being charitable when I call it semi-literate. The Internet doesn't care. There's no screening process. It's all the same. Some people don't care about that, and that's fine. However, you still need to be on top of the marketing process, because it won't happen on its own. If you want your writing aggressively promoted, you cannot sit back and let some free online publishing program do it. It's up to you to direct your readers to the sites where your book is available.
