Pick Up Your Pen and Step Away From the Ledge

With the new year quickly approaching, many of us, will hopefully be getting our first publishing contract. Or our second or third.

Many of us will be getting bombarded with a stream of rejection letters as editors get busy after the holidays.

The odds are stacked against us in the business of publishing, so unfortunately, more rejections--way more--will be on their way than acceptance calls.

Par for the course.

Still stinks though.

The worst rejection letter I ever received, and believe me I have a few to choose from, came from an acquisition’s editor in regard to my first novel.

I sent this kind sir a query.

He liked it and requested a proposal, which of course I sent.

He liked that and requested the first hundred or so pages.

I received a very enthusiastic e-mail about how tight my writing was. What a page turner. I’d like to take it to committee. And then a page of revisions he would like to see.

Hooray. I was as good as contracted!

I made the revisions, sent it back. The tumbleweeds began to roll...and then a rejection.

Now, up until that point, I had received rejection letters, but getting as far as the words, “going to committee” from the acquisition’s editor, well, the first cut is the deepest.

So, here I am a year or two or three, (it’s beginning to blur) later, my manuscripts, (two now) in the hands of editors, I am a bit more guarded. Hopeful, don’t get me wrong, very hopeful, but I’m tightening my stomach this time so the gut punch doesn’t knock the wind out of me.

If the rejections come, I will do what I have done in the past:

A. Run on my treadmill until I nearly pass out.
B. Get busy on something new and get my passed over manuscipts back out for another round.
C. Reread Ralph Keyes' The Writer's Book of Hope




The Writer's Book of HOPE [Getting from frustration to publication]
Ralph Keyes
Henry Holt & Company



FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In 1889, the editor of the San Francisco Examiner, having accepted an article from Rudyard Kipling, informed the author that he should not bother to submit any more. "This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers," the editor wrote. "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language."

A century later, John Grisham was turned down by sixteen agents before he found representation-and it was only after Hollywood showed an interest in The Firm that publishers began to take him seriously.

The anxiety of rejection is an inevitable part of any writer's development. In this book, Ralph Keyes turns his attention from the difficulty of putting pen to paper-the subject of his acclaimed The Courage to Write -to the frustration of getting the product to the public. Inspiration isn't nearly as important to the successful writer, he argues, as tenacity, and he offers concrete ways to manage the struggle to publish.

Drawing on his long experience as a writer and teacher of writing, Keyes provides new insight into the mind-set of publishers, the value of an agent, and the importance of encouragement and hope to the act of authorial creation.

Reviewed by Gina Holmes:

The Writer's Book of Hope, released in 2003, continues to be a beacon of hope to those on the long and tumultuous path to publication.

Keyes gives antidote after antidote on writer's rejected who went on to become best-sellers.

Excerpt:
`
"Ursula Le Guin sent out her first story when she was eleven. She got her first acceptance at thirty-three. James Dickey endured years of form rejections before he finally saw hand-writing on one that said, "Not bad."

According to James Lee Burke's agent, 100 editors turned down Lost Get-Back Boogie (including multipe editors at the same house) before Louisiana State University Press bought Burke's first novel for a pittance.

It's a rare writer who doesn't have to hack through a jumble of rejection slips before (and after) getting published. Some of history's best-known books were rejected many times before finally being accepted. The Ginger Man, by J.P. Donleavy--now considered one of the best 100 novels ever published--was turned down by thirty-six publishers before it found a home..."

Besides happy endings to rejected beginnings, Keyes takes us inside the world of publishing. Some of the Chapter titles:

~AFD Syndrome~ (before drinking hemlock)
~Dealing with Discouragers
~Rites of Rejection
~The Publishing Tribe (Why publishing Resembles High School)
and more...

This book is one of the few writing books I can't bring myself to give up. Every so often, I find myself discouraged beyond reason, and this book takes me back from the ledge of despair.

It's a must read for any pre-pubbed writer needing an injection of optimism.