Tip O'Day #432 - Singin' Them Rejection Blues

Guest blogger Faye Rapoport DesPres on “Submitting to Literary Journals? Expect, then Conquer Rejection.”

Rejection and discouragement: if you are submitting your work to literary journals, chances are you will experience both. There’s no way around it – rejections happen, and they happen a lot. Not every editor is going to love your work, and the chances of hitting the right editor on the right day at the right journal are slim. However, those chances improve greatly if you research the journals you are interested in, get to know the type of work they publish, send your very best work, and pay careful attention to the journal’s submission guidelines.

Even after you get hardened to the process (which is likely after you’ve been submitting for a while), it can be tough to read those dreaded words: “Thank you for sending us your work. Unfortunately, it does not suit our present needs.” Each time you get this message, as hard as you try not to care, it will probably feel like a kick in the gut. After a while you might get so used to this feeling, in fact, that you’ll do that odd thing that writers do – distinguish “bad rejections” (form letters) from “good rejections” (personal notes from editors, rejections that invite you to submit again, or, let’s face it, anything that isn’t a form letter).

I started submitting personal essays to literary journals about three years ago, after I completed my degree at the Solstice MFA Program in Creative Writing. The first year of submitting was torture; after one acceptance from a magazine, I received rejection after rejection from literary journals. I used to write to my former teachers in despair, only to have them respond by saying something to this effect: “Keep writing and keep trying.” Remember, they said, the only way to guarantee failure is to give up.

The first time one of my essays was accepted by a literary journal, I nearly missed the news. I was so sure I was receiving another rejection that I had to do a double take and re-read the editor’s note. I was riding in the passenger seat of our car (my husband was driving), and I put my hand over my mouth and said, “Oh, my God, one of my essays was accepted!” I think I was in shock.

Thankfully, over time, more acceptances arrived. For me, as for most writers, there continue to be many more rejections than acceptances. I maintain a spreadsheet in Excel to help me remember what piece I submitted where (and when). The sheet is color coded: plain black for submissions in play, red for rejections, blue for rejections that invite more work, and green for acceptances. Red far outweighs every other color (although the blue is getting more prominent with time). Green is the least common color on the sheet (when a submission turns green, I happily allow myself put the type in bold).

Like many writers, I have very thin skin. I can’t deny that it has been a huge challenge to stay confident in the face of all of those “Thanks but no thanks” rejections. Occasionally I even give myself a break from submitting just so I can catch my breath.

I once read a piece of advice from Joy Castro (www.joycastro.com), one of my faculty mentors and the author of several books, including the recent crime thriller, Hell Or High Water. Joy wrote: “You wanted this. You chose it. Get back up.”

Stick with it. I’m rooting for you.

Faye’s website is www.fayerapoport.com and her blog is http://blog.fayerapoportdespres.com/. Her essays, fiction, poetry, interviews, and reviews have appeared in a number of literary journals and magazines, including Ascent, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Eleven Eleven, Hamilton Stone Review, Platte Valley Review, Prime Number Magazine, Superstition Review, In the Arts, Fourth Genre, and The Writer’s Chronicle.

Tip O'Day #418 - Just Look in Her Eyes

Guest blogger Anjali Enjeti opines on the subject, “Ask Me About My Writing."

But first, a note about what Dixon has been up to. I had shoulder surgery two months ago (my rotator cuff wouldn't rotate) and the creativity elves stopped visiting me for awhile. Either I was in too much pain, or I was fuzzy-headed from the pain meds. No more drugs now, and I'm doing well in physical therapy. It's nice to be back. Did you miss me? - Dixon.

I’ve been writing for eleven years now. While I’ve had some success, it’s safe to say that 99% of what I’ve written hasn’t gotten published. Okay, maybe 99% is a little high. Let’s settle on 95%.

My fifth book and first novel will be going on submission with my agent in the near future. (My first book was a memoir, the second an anthology, the third and fourth were picture books.) Going on submission is a scary process, made only scarier by the fact that one of my books, which I would have bet my life on would sell -- didn’t sell.

It’s a lot of hard work — not getting published. When you’re buried in rejection letters, there’s the added stress of wondering whether you’ll ever succeed -- whether your blood, sweat and tears will ever amount to anything.

I know many published writers whose books take up an entire shelf at the local bookstore. At book signings and speaking engagements, they complain about upcoming deadlines from their editors, their worldly travels to promote their published books, their rapidly declining advances. They bemoan their lack of sleep, interrupted and shortened because of their busy writing careers.

Successfully published writers seem to forget that we unpublished writers are also exhausted and overworked with our writing. No, we don’t have the advance or marked-up editorial letter to show for it. Hell, we still can’t find an agent, but we also make enormous sacrifices in order to write. Because we unpublished writers are working just as hard to get published as published writers.

We, too, struggle with self-esteem, depression and anxiety. We also have to wait until the kids are asleep before we can get a significant amount of writing done. We come home cranky and spent (from our other jobs, which actually pay the bills), and somehow muster whatever creativity reserves we have left to write engaging prose and scintillating poetry.

Recently, I went out to lunch with a wildly successful, best-selling author. Over grilled cheese and lemonade, she peppered me with questions about my own writing, my agent search, and my publishing history. She nodded when I confessed that I didn’t know whether it was worth it anymore — this writing life.

Here she was, living the dream: a big-time author, traveling the country to speak to reading and writing groups, researching her next novel in Europe, and selling foreign rights to countries I’ve never even heard of — and she couldn’t have acted more interested in my own, humble, and fledgling publishing career.

I left the lunch feeling validated. Reborn, almost, for she had taken the time to listen not only to my (numerous) tales of woe, but also to reveal her own, very discouraging start in publishing. By doing so, she pulled me from the pit of rejection-despair, and restored the fire in my belly for writing and submitting that had nearly gone out.

So if you are a published author and you find me standing in line, waiting for you to sign my copy of your book, do me a favor: Remember what it was like to be on this side of the process. Take a moment to look me in my discouraged, weary eyes. And ask me about my writing.

Anjali recently completed her first novel, Secrets of the Sari Chest, and is working on her second novel, Finding Om. She is represented by Robert Guinsler of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc., and blogs at anjalienjeti.com

Tip O'Day #382 - Writing is Hard Work

Guest blogger Jennifer Harlow says, “Oh, @%&^!”

She's done. The weeks of research, the months of writing, the weeks of typing, the month of editing, it's all done. She is ready to be read by my wonderful Beta testers who will see how splendiferous she is and confirm I am the genius I always knew I was. Huzzah!

Three Weeks Later...

Oh, @%&^. They hated it. They really hated it. They thought the main character was annoying. The male lead was too perfect (meaning no real man would act like that). I kept switching between too much description and too much telling and not showing. The entire first fifty pages were dull and redundant. And the grammar. Oy!

“Didn't they teach you anything at the baby Ivy college your father and I took out a second mortgage on our house so you could attend?” my mother asked. (Yes, that watching Frat boys play beer pong is not how I want to spend my Friday nights, thank you very much).

Well, did you like anything? “Yes. The chapter titles were funny.”

Anything else? “ I liked the character names.”

@%&^!

What do you do when what you've written the first time around isn't that great? Me, there was vodka and three Real Housewives marathons involved. (Kidding about the vodka.) It's hard hearing criticism about something that you spent so much time and effort on. When they're telling me their constructive criticism, I try to put on a brave face while inside I'm considering skewering them with a fireplace poker. (Once again kidding. It was a machete.) Then I watch more Real Housewives, calm down, and think about what they've said and the suggestions they give.

Like how to make the hero less of an archetype. Make the heroine have faults instead of her being little miss perfect. See how much of the beginning can be cut away without losing the characterization and world building you presented in those pages to get to the action quicker. Use a thesaurus as much as possible. When in doubt, use a comma. Really ask if you need to describe the leaves on all the trees. Then put on your big girl pants and get back to work. (Unless there's a Real Housewives of Atlanta on. Love me some Kim and NeNe.) With every word on the page ask if this is the best choice. Sound like fun? About as much fun as Andy Cohen has at the Housewives reunions. (I think I have a problem.)

Writing is @%&^#*! hard work. Most of my books have gone through at least five edits before I even present it to my agent, who does one more. Right now I'm on the third of the steampunk book I wrote, Verity Hart Vs. The Vampyres, cutting the first chapter entirely, working eight hours on the current first chapter, twelve on the second, and so on. My main character went from Cher Horowitz in Clueless to a pretty version of Jane Eyre. My hero now smokes, drinks, cusses, and is rude. There is more red ink on the pages than black. As it should be. Nothing comes out of the gate perfect, but if you're smart enough and trust in your skills and vision, it can certainly get pretty darn close.

Publishers are tough. I once got rejected because two character names were too similar and the reader got confused. So though it may hurt, and take for-bloody-ever, editing is probably the most important part of writing. I've learned that 80% of the time my Beta testers are right. As long as you have the backbone of the story and halfway decent characters with potential, then all is not lost. Most things can be fixed. And after all the hard work and tears, in the end you get this...

Jennifer Harlow is the author of Mind Over Monsters, the first in the F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad series (out now) and To Catch a Vampire (out in September 2012). To learn more, check out her website.

Tip O'Day #340 - "Rejection, Get Thee Behind Me"

Guest blogger Jo-Anne Russell on The Reject Effect.

“You must develop a thick skin...”

This is a common phrase most writers hear at some point in their career – usually at the beginning. When I started out as a freelancer and short story writer ten years ago, I didn’t quite grasp its meaning. After receiving a handful of rejection letters, I was ready to quit with much resentment towards those who had put me in that position.

A writer friend of mine heard of my situation and repeated the phrase. Frustrated, I asked what exactly that meant. I knew I would receive rejections, but there were so many.

I believe he answered me by quoting Stephen King’s On Writing, and said: “Give ten editors a manuscript and you will get eleven opinions.”

I doted on this for a few weeks, and then started writing and submitting again. This time I did more research on the magazines, and paid close attention to what the editors were looking for as well as their guidelines. I still got rejections; this time, many of them carried helpful, handwritten editors’ notes.

I continued in this fashion until one day it happened. I got an acceptance, my first sale. I was elated! My attention to guidelines, my market research, and my determination had finally paid off. Every future rejection was taken with a grain of salt, and each page added another layer to my “thickening skin.”

Now, as an editor and publisher of my own press, I am in the same position as those editors who made the hard decisions on my manuscripts. I can understand their frustration with ignored guidelines, sloppy punctuation and inappropriate content. As I write rejections or editorial comments, I try to remember how it felt to receive them, and to be compassionate. The reject effect carried me along from writer to publisher, helping my career and my business to grow.

My advice? Grow a thick skin, be aware rejection is part of the business, learn from it, and pay attention to editors who take the time to personalize your rejection – because they see something in your work that cries out “potential.”

Jo-Anne is a horror writer and publisher at Scarlett River Press. Despite numerous short stories, poems and a novel under her belt, she still feels like a new writer. Her debut novel, The Nightmare Project, will be available October 2012. Find her online at her website or visit her author page.

One Sentence Writing Tips: #4 of 5

This week, we’re sharing “one sentence writing tips” and this is the fourth installment of suggestions from my FB writer friends.

Terry Parrish - “If you don't know how to spell, please use a dictionary.”

Jimmy Pudge - “Prison is the best place to learn about writing.”

Gil Roscoe - “Think of rejection letters from literary agents as your way of weeding out the less intelligent among them.”

Tom Winton - “You never finish writing a novel, you eventually abandon it.” (To which Cynthia Echterling said, “No, they grow up and leave home.”)

Tip O'Day #239 - Rejection

Matt Hilton on Rejection. (This excerpt is from “Col Bury’s New Crime Fiction” blog of Feb 9, 2009. He interviewed Matt Hilton, author of the Joe Hunter thriller series, and the subject of rejection came up.)

Like all writers I’ve suffered the dreaded rejection slip on so many occasions I can’t remember. Between writing Aggro, and my deal for Dead Men’s Dust coming to fruition, everything I ever wrote – apart from a few articles for magazines - was rejected for one reason or another.

I came very close on a few occasions, and it was the advice that I was given that spurred me to keep on writing. Rejection can be depressing, but you have to look beyond the ‘thanks but no thanks’ message and pick up on any advice contained in the rejection letter. I took each rejection as a step along the road to publication, and after each I’d go back to my work and see what it was that wasn’t acceptable to the publisher and try to put it right next time round.

Expect rejection and you won’t be disappointed, so when the acceptance comes it is a great surprise. If you lay all your hopes in one place – or one step of the process – it can pull you down if you’re knocked back. But don’t give up, keep trying. If you’ve got the drive and the talent, someone will pick you up.

Tip O'Day #214 - Feeling Rejected?

Guest blogger J.E. Seymour on dejection over rejection.

I read a complaint from a writer the other day. He was whining about how it took a year to write his novel and then an agent rejected it. One agent. He even got helpful feedback from said agent.

It took me years to write my first published novel. It took me years to get it published. My very first novel was picked up by an agent fourteen years ago, but she dumped me after thirteen rejections from publishers. I finished another book, got another agent, dumped him after six months of inaction. Wrote another book. Got 86 rejections from agents. Got numerous rejections from small presses before finally selling it to Mainly Murder Press. This is not a game for the easily discouraged.

If you want to write, be prepared to stick to it. And don’t give up after one rejection. Just keep writing a better book.

J.E. Seymour’s first novel, Lead Poisoning was released by Mainly Murder Press in 2010 and she has short stories in four different anthologies. J.E. is the markets coordinator for the Short Mystery Fiction Society. To learn more, check out http://jeseymour.com

Tip O'Day for Authors #175

Guest blogger Heather Peters on writing ideas that work for her.

I'm certainly no expert in giving writing advice; I can only share my own beliefs and methods. These are simple suggestions, but ones that I live by.

First and foremost, never become discouraged by rejection. Take it as one person's opinion, and move on.

Next, write what's in your heart and head, always believe in yourself.

Never give your manuscript to a friend or relative to critique; they cannot be objective. Find a reliable critique partner from your writers group.

Finally, always write the story you'd want to read.

Heather blogs at www.BodaciousBabesBookBuds.blogspot.com or check out her website at www.HeatherPetersauthor.yolasite.com

Dixon says: Not everyone is fortunate to live near a thriving writing community that fosters critique groups. For those "in the sticks," search for helpful, positive online critique groups. It may take a few attempts - just like with local groups.