Today, we have a guest blogger, Liz Flaherty, a friend and CP of the Wordwranglers, published by Silhouette and Wild Rose Press. Thank you, Liz, for sharing your thoughts with us today!
You know, it doesn't matter how long you're in this business, a rejection, or as some friends put it, a decline from an editor is still a heartbreaker. The thick skin you thought you'd developed just falls off in bloody scabs and there you are with blisters again. You've been there. You've done that. You've bought the damn tee shirt.
Crap!
Oh, there. I feel so much better. There are other four-letter words that would fit better there, but since the whole world knows I'm by way of being a prude, I'm not going to put them there.
I have friends who seem to sell every word they write. Even better, they can sell them with a proposal. My big decline came on a manuscript that was finished. Finished! It was 57,000 words already written. That's a whole lot of hours to someone who will be 60 soon. Sixty!
Crap!
Oh, now I feel even better.
Today I printed out a proposal for a publisher who still wants hard copy submissions. I wrote a query letter, shortened up the synopsis, and changed a word here and there for the first three. And I sent it out. I may be bloody (remember the scabs) but I'm unbowed. I may be sixty ( well not for three or four days) but I can still write books and keep sending them out.
No crap!
Right now, I feel great again. I hope you all do too.
You know, it doesn't matter how long you're in this business, a rejection, or as some friends put it, a decline from an editor is still a heartbreaker. The thick skin you thought you'd developed just falls off in bloody scabs and there you are with blisters again. You've been there. You've done that. You've bought the damn tee shirt.
Crap!
Oh, there. I feel so much better. There are other four-letter words that would fit better there, but since the whole world knows I'm by way of being a prude, I'm not going to put them there.
I have friends who seem to sell every word they write. Even better, they can sell them with a proposal. My big decline came on a manuscript that was finished. Finished! It was 57,000 words already written. That's a whole lot of hours to someone who will be 60 soon. Sixty!
Crap!
Oh, now I feel even better.
Today I printed out a proposal for a publisher who still wants hard copy submissions. I wrote a query letter, shortened up the synopsis, and changed a word here and there for the first three. And I sent it out. I may be bloody (remember the scabs) but I'm unbowed. I may be sixty ( well not for three or four days) but I can still write books and keep sending them out.
No crap!
Right now, I feel great again. I hope you all do too.
Oh yes I had a tiny hope when my rejection letter came earlier this year. I figured it was a rejection but I still had a pinch of hope it was a yes we'll take it. But on the other hand it wasn't that good to me so I laughed it off. It entitles me to go pro but I don't know if I really want to hassle with submitting the mess I wrote to the RWA.
ReplyDeleteI'm two (2) years behind you here rocking along lol. Happy Birthday early Liz and maybe this one will be a NYT Best Seller. I have faith for you.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Liz. I can't say I know how you
ReplyDeletefeel because I haven't been rejected yet. (of course
I haven't submitted anything either.)lol. I'm a big
chicken. But your writting is terrific. I'll be picking
up Early as soon as it comes out. (I know it will be published.
Liz~
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for coming by! You gave me a boost to get moving on the WIP!
You go girl! just keep plugging away and getting up after the hard knocks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming by, everybody!
ReplyDeletego, Liz, go... 60 is just another number, don't let it keep you down! And you're writing is gr-r-r-eat (as Tony the Tiger would say!) so don't let a little R get you down, either... :)
ReplyDeleteI know the pain of a "decline." Not that it helps, but a friend of mine who is doing very well for two publishers did not sell her first novel until she was sixty. We're ahead of her!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Caroline, and everyone else who stopped by and offered comfort. You're right, Kristi, 60 is just a number, and to tell the truth, I really love my life--new sale or no--so it'll be a good day!
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz, for those words. The rejections are coming in but I'm not giving up.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!