Tag: publish

Guest Post: Key Steps in Advertising Your Book Digitally

Published on by ascreaseyLeave a comment

So you finished your book. But nobody seems to be reading it. It’s not that your book isn’t good enough; it’s that your book isn’t visible enough. You have the writing skills, but may not have the marketing know-how. It’s okay, though. These days, online promotion can help get your book in front of readers. It can be a lot more convenient and more cost-effective than traditional advertising. If you’re not familiar with the modern, digital method of promoting a book, you can carry out the key steps detailed below to increase your book’s visibility (and sales!).

Keyword Research

Keywords are vital in any online marketing campaign. If you’re not using the right words to talk about your book, you won’t get it in front of the right eyes. This can be useful if you run any advertising for your book on Google, Amazon, on Facebook. Knowing what keywords to use can even be useful for any blog posts or press you do. If you use the right keywords, you might rank on Google for the word and generate extra sales.

Start by making a list of all the words you can think of that someone else might use when looking for your book. These should be terms that generally describe your work. Leave out the very specific search terms you’re wishing for. Aside from the list of potential keywords, you should also take note of the search volume, competition level, and ad costs for every word.

A great place to go fishing for keywords is keywordtool.io. Another method is to ask your friends and acquaintances who read in the genre you write what keywords they would use to search for a book like yours. 

Keep the list of keywords you’ve created handy. Any time you’re doing any marketing, especially marketing related to search or search ads, utilize the keywords. For example, if you found the phrase “young adult story with wizards” is a keyword that is popularly searched, but not competitive, you could test Google Ads on that keyword. You might mention the phrase in your interviews. Some of those press quotes just might rank on Google! You might write a blog post about why your book is such a great young adult story with wizards, and target the keyword for SEO.

Social Media and Email

Post about your book on your social media accounts to help make sure your contacts know about your work. Send emails to every address on your list, as well. You never know who among them might be interested in buying, reviewing, or recommending your book.

Composing and sending an email newsletter is also an effective way to market. The challenge with books is that once somebody puts down your book, you have no way to reach them again. With a newsletter, you have their email address. This means you can build your relationship with your readers and can market to them in the future, every time you have a new book released, or information you want to share.

Try offering a free chapter or a teaser story for newsletter subscribers to incentivize people to subscribe and update them on your journey regularly.

Your Blog

Writing several blog posts about your book will not cost you anything except your time. Aside from your book, you can also tell stories about how you deal with writer’s block and other challenges. 

If you’re not keen on doing those things, or if you don’t have the time, you can pay someone else to do that for you. For a few hundred dollars, you can hire ghostwriters through sites like Upwork and Fiverr. 

Guest Posts on Someone Else’s Blog

Guest-posting is another way of promoting your book and yourself as a writer. Thankfully, there are many online publishers and blogs with a subscriber base that accept guest post submissions. 

You can write a post and pitch it to the said publishers and blogs. Another option is to go over your own blog, look for your most popular content, and then see if it can fit niche websites. If your submission is accepted, you can fill your author bio with a link to your website and your book’s sales page. 

Book Reviews

Nowadays, readers value book reviews more than an author’s star rating. These reviews may come from bloggers, Goodreads group members, and anyone who reads, for that matter.

You can first ask your family and friends to provide feedback about your book. You can also get paid reviewers to help create hype for your work. If you have an email list and several social media pages, you can announce giveaways in exchange for reviews. Be a little careful with this as some sites like Amazon prohibit “incentivized” reviews.

Giveaways and Discounts

Never discount the power of promoting free and inexpensive products. For many readers, it’s exciting to bump into books offered for free. You can set up your giveaway on Goodreads, on your social media pages, and on writing sites that allow such.

You can also offer discounts. Use a coupon site like RetailMeNot. Then, encourage your prospects to tap those coupons to purchase your book on your website. 

Helping Other Writers

Be active in online communities for writers and readers, especially those pertinent to the same genre as your book. Wattpad and Commaful are some options to explore. 

Then, buy your fellow writers’ books. Give positive comments about their works. Connect and communicate with them through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. 

Basically, show them that you care. Sooner or later, they may also return the gestures.

Tracking Your Successes and Failures

The best way to learn how to market a book online is to get out there and do it. Map out different promotion tactics. These could include working with bloggers, utilizing social media, setting up a landing page, or putting together a website that promotes your book.

Sure, there are some things you can only do when you have a larger budget. However, you can start small to get a feel for how running a campaign goes. Eventually, you can increase your budget as you get better and better at advertising and marketing. 

Evaluate how your efforts went. Was there anything you wish you had done differently? Was there anything that worked particularly well? Spend some time analyzing the results of each strategy to determine what worked best for you.

Personally, I like to track my results in a spreadsheet. I make notes on every campaign or idea I try. I note the difficulty and ease of the campaign. I also note any costs associated with it. As numbers come through, I update a “sales” column to track how well the campaign is doing. Sometimes it’s impossible to attribute exactly where a sale comes from, so I use my best guess and round as needed. Pause campaigns that are not working, and invest more effort in ones that are.

Marketing is hard. There is no way around it, but there are many opportunities. It’s a critically important part of the process of being an author. With a little luck, creativity, and hard work, we’ll see you on the bestsellers list!

Author Bio

Hayley Zelda is a writer and marketer at heart. She’s worked with a number of self-published authors on marketing books to the YA audience, and has written on Wattpad, Commaful, Archive of Our Own, and Fanfiction.net.

Inkshares All-Genre Manuscript Contest

Published on by ascreaseyLeave a comment

I’ve been a little absent from the blog lately, but it hasn’t been without good reason. After receiving favorable feedback from a small press back in August, I’ve been working diligently on revisions of my manuscript, formerly titled The Experiment, recently retitled An Expected End. It’s no secret I would love to see this manuscript morph into a real book, one that is “absolutely real,” with “pages and everything,” to quote Owl Eyes in Fitzgerald’s famed The Great Gatsby. To that end, in addition to continuing to look into agents and small presses, I have entered the piece in the Inkshares All-Genre Manuscript Contest.

Nacho and Soda keep me company while I work on revisions one day before work (also before 5:00 AM).

As part of the contest, I will be posting a new chapter of my manuscript every Tuesday and Friday (with the exception of Christmas day; I will post Tuesday and Wednesday that week). To read them, just visit An Expected End on Inkshares, and click “Read” just under the cover (which is not the actual cover yet).

If you like what you read, a cross between Adam Silvera’s novel They Both Die at the End and the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and want to help my manuscript move forward in the contest for its chance at publication, I invite you to follow the project on Inkshares, leave comments in the Discussion, and write a review in the Reviews tab. One element of the contest involves reader engagement, so if you follow the manuscript, any time you read, discuss, or review it, you’ll be helping it find its way to bookstore shelves!

Nacho and Soda sit with me during an early-morning revising session.

If you really like what you read, I hope you’ll pre-order your own copy of the book. After 750 pre-orders are placed, Inkshares will commit to publication, regardless of the manuscript’s performance in the contest. If the manuscript doesn’t reach 750 pre-orders, everyone who pre-ordered a copy will receive a refund.

So, let me send you off with a book blurb, in the hopes that it will whet your appetite to head on over to Inkshares and follow An Expected End (the first chapter is already up!).

Book Blurb

The year is 2045 and science has made a breathtaking discovery: People can predict, with incredible accuracy, the day that any man, woman, or child will die. But Penelope Hope won’t accept that. She wants to live her life without the overwhelming knowledge of her death, no matter how many people in society choose to learn their deathday (officially known as one’s Date of Departure, or DoD). That is until her self-centered fiancé, Sebastian Flach, and her spunky best friend, Bea Adams, convince her to enroll in the Experiment and learn her deathday for the sake of her future family. What she learns turns her world upside down, breaks up her engagement, brings new love into her life, and forces her to make a stark choice: Does she tell her new love, Marshall Mitner, whose child she now carries, that she will die very soon, or force him to live in the ignorant bliss she wanted all along–and break his heart?

© Amanda Sue Creasey

https://amandasuecreasey.com/

Enticing Readers with a Killer Book Blurb

Published on by ascreaseyLeave a comment

Writing a book is one thing. Selling that book is another.

The countless hours you’ve poured into your manuscript will be for naught if it never makes it onto readers’ bookshelves or Kindles, and one of the key elements in successful book marketing is a compelling book blurb. Condensing your entire novel into a couple paragraphs of densely packed promo is not easy—but you’ve already written an entire book, so you can do this, too.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a book blurb: Self-published authors need one to entice readers to buy the book, and authors hoping to land a deal with a traditional publisher need a tantalizing blurb to hook prospective agents. So take your time to write an effective blurb, allowing for many drafts and dog-walking breaks to keep your spirits high.

Query Letter Blurbs for Traditional Publishing

If you’re going the traditional publishing route, you’ll almost certainly need a literary agent. Most major publishers won’t accept direct submissions from authors, and the professional guidance of a literary agent can work wonders for your publishing career. Landing an agent is the difficult part.

To convince an agent to represent your manuscript, you’ll need a query letter. Short and sweet, never exceeding one page, query letters succinctly describe your manuscript, your experience as an author, and why the given agent is a good fit for your book. The most important part of a query letter is the book blurb, your chance to convince the agent your manuscript is worth reading.

Selling your manuscript to an agent isn’t entirely the same as selling it to readers. While readers are simply looking for entertainment and may be more willing to take a risk on your book, agents are searching for professional opportunities and need to know reading your full manuscript won’t be a waste of their time. That’s what your blurb is for. Without giving away the ending, you need to promise the agent an interesting and worthwhile read.

Promotional Book Blurbs for Self-Published Books

If you publish traditionally, your publisher will take care of crafting an effective book blurb, but if you self-publish your book, you have to do everything yourself. Your book blurb is almost as important as the book itself, because the book isn’t much good if no one ever reads it. It’s crucial that you take the time to learn how to write a compelling book blurb.

Query BooksThe key to book blurbs is succinct, concise writing. Keep it short and skimmable, and emulate the style and tone you use in the book. Hook your prospective readers with a creative and interesting first sentence, and end on a cliffhanger that leaves readers hungry for more. Choose the vocabulary carefully to build atmosphere and spark your readers’ curiosity. Focus on the most important themes of the book, but don’t forget that less is more, and packing in too many details can turn potential readers away.

Writing is a creative field, and no two books are the same. Consequently, there’s no one perfect approach to writing a book blurb, but that doesn’t mean you can’t draw inspiration from previous successes. Go to Amazon or your local bookstore, browse the blurbs in the bestseller section, and take note of which blurbs most strongly spark your interest. Using similar techniques can help you boost your own blurb.

Book Blurb Example

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, the classic format for fiction book blurbs is to introduce the situation, add a problem, and raise an intriguing question. Blurbs typically end with a single sentence that describes the mood of the book. Keep it short: Don’t go over 150 words. The goal is to convincingly sell your book in as few words as possible.

In a previous post on query letters, we used the example of a middle-grade novel, Good Boy, about Spot, a canine detective who has to begrudgingly collaborate with a leading detective cat to uncover a pet treat black market in their hometown. Here’s what the book blurb for Good Boy could look like:

Spot is your average border collie detective: observant, deliberate, energetic, and passionately anti-feline. The star detective of Inouville’s canine police force, he’s only one groundbreaking case away from the most coveted detective award in the canine world: the Good Boy Award.

And then that case falls right into his lap. Or, more precisely, the leading detective from the rival feline police force comes hurtling through his open window, claws out, and whacks his favorite pet treats right out of his paws (cats never were polite). The cats have discovered a major pet treat black market—and the only way to uncover it is through cooperation. Is Spot a good enough boy to put aside his anti-cat bias and expose Inouville’s largest organized criminal group?

Good Boy is a uniquely creative comedy exploring crime and mystery, bias and prejudice, and indefensibly rude felines.

Professional Help with Query Letters and Book Blurbs

Need help writing an effective query letter or book blurb? Don’t be discouraged. Plenty of authors seek external help. QueryLetter.com is a fantastic resource for authors Query Logostruggling to summarize their masterpieces succinctly and successfully. QueryLetter.com hires publishing industry professionals with vast experience in the field, which means they know exactly what agents and publishers are looking for. Whether you’re looking for help with your query letter or need assistance finding the right literary agents to query, the publishing professionals at QueryLetter.com can help you.

If you need practice writing book blurbs, QueryLetter.com’s blurb-writing contest is perfect for you. Let your imagination run wild! The winner will be awarded $500—a great incentive to practice your blurb-writing skills.

Update

Congratulations, Julia Kiger! Out of over 3,000 competing book blurbs, Ms. Kiger’s was the winner of QueryLetter.com’s blurb writing contest! To read her winning blurb, as well as nine other finalists, click here.

Why Query Letters Matter—and How to Write a Great One

Published on by ascreaseyLeave a comment

So you’ve finished your manuscript. Congratulations! Take a moment to celebrate. Indulge in some celebratory sweets, play with your dogs, and revel in the glory of having written a book.

And then get back to work. If you’re looking to get published, you’ve finished only the first step. Assuming you’re hoping to go through a traditional publisher, your next step should generally be to write a query letter and land a literary agent.

What Is a Query Letter?

Query letters are what authors use to hook agents and publishers and get them interested in their work. They essentially serve as an advertisement, with the goal being to entice the agent or publisher to request a full copy of a manuscript.

Query letters should be short and sweet (like the Littles!), not exceeding one page. The exact content will vary depending on the manuscript, your writing experience, and the agent’s personality, author list, and preferences, but generally, you should include an opening hook, a blurb, a quick overview of the target market and any comparables, and, if relevant, an author bio.

How to Structure a Query Letter

Don’t rush through your query letter. It’s a crucial part of getting your book out on bookshelves. If sending your letter by mail, use the same professional format as a business letter, meaning standard black 12 pt. serif font on white paper. Provide the agent with your full name, address, phone number, and email address, followed by the name and contact information of the agent you’re addressing.

If sending your query by email, you’ll likely wish to include your contact information under your signature at the end of the message, and you don’t need to include the agent’s contact information. Otherwise, the format of the query itself, discussed below, will be identical.

First Paragraph

It’s time to dive into the body of the letter. Start with a hook—something creative and unique to draw in the reader. For example, say you’ve written a book about a sassy detective dog who has to begrudgingly work with a feline detective to solve a major case:

Enclosed are three chapters of my middle-grade novel GOOD BOY (50,000 words). When a pet treat black market emerges in his hometown, experienced detective dog Spot has to abandon his anti-cat principles and collaborate with a leading feline detective to solve the case.

In general, your first paragraph should contain an extremely brief summary of your book that also highlights the more subtle themes of the story. In the Good Boy example above, the overt themes are detective work and dogs, but the deeper theme is overcoming biases and prejudice.

Query Publish Scrabble Tiles

Second Paragraph

In the second paragraph, you should outline the plot of your book. (Think of the book blurbs you see on the backs of novels.) Your goal is to entice the agent to request the full manuscript, so make it interesting without giving away the ending. Many authors struggle with this part because condensing an entire manuscript—your labor of love, no less—into a few sentences is difficult. Take your time. You may require several iterations to sculpt the perfect blurb.

The blurb, which is the most important and powerful part of a query letter, is also a good opportunity to show off your writing skills. Target clarity while emulating the tone and writing style of your manuscript. If your book is a comedy, add a few jokes and aim to get a laugh out of the reader.

Third Paragraph

In the third paragraph, discuss your target audience. For example, Good Boy is likely to appeal to middle-grade readers, especially dog lovers. Also consider mentioning any recent successful books that address similar themes or topics to yours to give the agent an idea of where your book might belong in the market.

The third paragraph is also the ideal place for your author bio. Don’t tell your life story! Keep it brief, like the rest of the letter, and mention only relevant information about yourself as a writer or subject matter expert. If you’ve previously published books or won any awards, be sure to mention those.

Closing Remarks

Close the query letter with a statement of appreciation for the agent’s time and consideration and state that you look forward to his or her response. If sending your letter by mail, also mention that you’ve enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the agent’s convenience (and actually enclose one).

How to Tailor Your Query Letter for Specific Agents

After writing the perfect query letter, you’ll need to personalize it for each agent you query. This involves more than changing a couple of details. Take the time to mention why you believe this specific agent is a good fit for your book or how your manuscript relates to previous books she has represented or is looking to represent. (Some agents discuss the types of books they’re looking for on social media, so keep an eye out.)

If you’ve met the agent before, definitely say so. It’s best to include these details at the beginning of your letter to establish rapport right away.

Professional Query Letter Help

Query LogoIf you’re struggling with your query letter, don’t be afraid to request professional help. At QueryLetter.com, you can find publishing industry professionals who will craft a compelling query letter, as well as a succinct synopsis and outline, to help you sell your manuscript. It’s a valuable resource for any author seeking publishing success.

QueryLetter.com is currently holding a blurb-writing contest, with a $500 prize for the winning entry. Consider submitting a blurb! This is a great opportunity to practice your writing skills and maybe even win a cash prize in the process.

 

Guest Post: Reedsy Discovery: Compiling a List for the Best Books of All Time

Published on by ascreaseyLeave a comment

Reedsy is a publishing company that helps authors realize their publishing dreams by connecting them with professional editors, designers, and marketers. Since our founding in 2014, we’ve helped countless self-published writers perfect and launch their books. However, about two years ago, we realized there was another side of the equation we hadn’t addressed: the review and recommendation side of the book industry.

Hence, the idea for Reedsy Discovery was born. We wanted to create a book-focused platform where authors can promote their books and readers can discover new titles to peruse. And while we regularly shine a spotlight on up-and-coming indie titles, the bibliophiles in us will never stop cherishing all good literature. Which is why Reedsy’s content team decided to curate a list of the 115 best books of all time. If you’re wondering how we took on this gigantic task, read on!

Deciding on the Structure

Before we even started selecting titles, we needed to decide the basis on which we would organize this list. There have been so many masterpieces crafted throughout time, and we hardly knew where to begin! Naturally, we were immediately drawn to the idea of having a list of classics available in the English language. But we wanted to go a bit further.

Particularly, we wanted to draw attention to the fact that there is more to the world of written text than English literary exploits. What of spiritually-rich ancient recordings? What of stories from across the globe?

While we realized that many of these wouldn’t be considered books the way we know them today, the fact that they told tales meant that they were as close to books as was possible at the time. With this in mind, we decided to structure our list according to a vast timeline: from ancient times to the post-classical era to the contemporary world.

100_books_to_read_before_you_die_reedsy-page-001
In addition their list of the 115 best books of all time, Reedsy Discovery released this list of 100 books to read before you die.

Looking for Titles from Across Cultures

The criteria for the “best books” has certainly changed over time, especially as voices and styles have adapted to fit each society’s ever-evolving readership. However, we made a point to include stories that pulled readers in, narratives that moved souls, and prose that was considered beautiful both at the time of publication and decades later.

It didn’t matter what language the story was told in, because an enticing tale transcends borders. You will find in our list many texts that are pillars in Chinese and in Indian literature (most notably Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Mahabharata).

And the diversity didn’t stop with classical texts. We also wanted to show our appreciation of voices from many current regions of the world, voices expressing the different ways we all grapple with modernity — which is why you’ll also find contemporary masterpieces such as The Kite Runner, Midnight’s Children, and Angels in America.

Searching for Titles that Reflect the Complexity of Society

Beyond the beauty of the language and an enthralling plot (think of Agatha Christie’s ingenious mysteries), we were also on the lookout for titles that are unafraid to demonstrate the many perspectives that weave together to make our societies.

Often such stories involve challenging existing beliefs in order to bring out different points of view. With this list, you can travel back to the 15th century and see how Christine de Pizan challenged gender constructs in The Book of the City of Ladies, or teleport to a Brave New World where the bliss of consumption and indulgence is pulled back to reveal society’s dark underbelly.

Sometimes such rebellious content can also be accompanied by innovations in literary style. You probably won’t be surprised that we included Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises for this very reason. How could we have resisted this modern classic, with its simple-yet-elegant prose and plotline alluding to the problematic drunken lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties?

Of course, we realized that there were plenty more books that could have been included in this list, but didn’t make it. With a lot of consideration and reluctance, we decided to narrow it down to these 115 titles. It’s by no means definitive; they just happen to fit our criteria the best. Feel free to discuss and suggest other books in the comments below!

Author Bio

Image from iOSThao Nguyen is a writer at Reedsy, a platform that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. She enjoys writing non-fiction, especially the historical kind, and is delighted by the prospects that self-publishing provides for aspiring authors nowadays.

One, Green Row

Published on by ascreaseyLeave a comment

Writers, at least those of us with a desire to share or publish our work, need a thick skin. There are always people with ideas pertaining to how we could improve our writing. Some of them are right. Some of them are not. There are always publications that will

Submission Spreadsheet
My record of 2020 submissions thus far

reject our writing–many more than will accept it. For years, I have kept color-coded records of the work I have sent out into the world in hopes of seeing it published. Red indicates a piece has been rejected, white indicates that its publication is still pending (Read: I haven’t heard anything back–yet), blue indicates that it has made it through some initial phase of the acceptance process, and green indicates it has been officially accepted for publication. Consistently, red (in other contexts one of my favorite colors) dominates my submission spreadsheets. So far, 2020 hasn’t proven an exception to this seeming rule. Above is my submission spreadsheet for 2020 thus far. You will note a whole lot of red. And one–one–row of green.

But that single row of green means everything–means more than the over a dozen red rows. That single row of green means the one piece that I most wanted to find a publication home, did. The original version of this piece, “A Search for Meaning in the Face of Loss,” appears on this blog. An abridged version, retitled “Always With Me, Still,” will appear in an upcoming edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Dogs, available at bookstores on July 14.

cover_art_230918_0
The cover of Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Dogs, available in bookstores July 14. A story I wrote about Jack, which also features Sadie, will appear in this book.

The piece, the third about Jack and Sadie to appear in a Chicken Soup book, details the many ways in which Jack is still with me, leaving me signs (usually socks), comforting me, communicating with me, making me smile. Though I initially wrote this piece about a year ago, signs from Jack have not stopped materializing, and I am near-to-tears happy that the story of his ability to stay by my side will be able to reach thousands of readers around the world.

Jack and Sadie are featured in two other Chicken Soup for the Soul titles, Life Lessons from the Dog and Think Positive, Live Happy.
Jack and Sadie are featured in two other Chicken Soup for the Soul titles, Think Positive, Live Happy and Life Lessons from the Dog.

Ever since I submitted the piece in November 2019, I have held close to my heart the hope that it would be accepted. As the January 2020 submission deadline approached, I became increasingly eager to hear whether it would be included. My husband has probably lost count of the number of times I earnestly voiced my hopes, but as he shared them, he was patient with me.

Yes, I am disappointed about the pieces that, so far, remain homeless–but I will continue searching for their homes, and in the meantime, the red rows on my submission spreadsheet pale in comparison to that one, green row.

 

 

Are you gonna be famous one day?

Published on by ascreaseyLeave a comment

“Oh! Look at this!” I said upon receiving an unexpected e-mail from Turtle Island Quarterly this evening. “One of my pieces is going to be published–again!”

“Are you gonna be famous or something someday?” my husband responded. His question probably sounds a little extreme–delusional even, and I’m sure my response sounds equally so:

“Well, it would be kind of lovely, wouldn’t it?”

For a moment, I let myself bask in a little limelight at the kitchen table while I ate my ice cream sundae, imaging all my literary dreams coming true someday.

“I mean, it’s kind of insane,” my husband continued. “It’s never been like this before.”

I don’t really advertise the rejections–not because I am ashamed or embarrassed or disappointed (though I am always disappointed)–but because they are so frequent that telling you–or anyone else–about them would get old. Fast.

By “it’s” he meant my writing. By “like this,” he meant the sudden and recent success of my writing. Over the course of the spring and early summer, I’ve experienced:

B394856A-99F2-4A95-96DB-997496D58696.jpg
Nine Lives: A Life in Ten Minutes Anthology is available at Chop Suey Books in Richmond, Virginia, or online.

“Well,” I said, “I wasn’t really trying before.” Which is basically true. I was writing. Or not. I was submitting my writing. Or not. Whatevs. There was no concerted effort on my part. I was sporadic, unfocused. It’s only been in the last year or so, inspired by a desire to ultimately see my novel (and novel-in-progress) published and for sale (and selling!), that I really began to put myself and my writing “out there.” I haven’t met with all the success I would have liked, at least not yet–my novel remains unrepresented, my novel-in-progress is still in progress, my submissions spreadsheet was near-decimated when the file somehow got corrupted–but I’m making strides, and that feels really, really good.

Rejections are part of the writer’s life. They just are.

What I haven’t told you yet? I get far more rejection e-mails than acceptance e-mails. But I don’t really advertise the rejections–not because I am ashamed or embarrassed or disappointed (though I am always disappointed)–but because they are so frequent that telling you–or anyone else–about them would get old. Fast. Saying, “Oh, such-and-such agent doesn’t want my manuscript” or “Oh, such-and-such magazine isn’t interested in my poetry” would be kind of like walking around every Monday saying, “Hey, it’s Monday again.” You already know and it’s not fun to hear about. It’s just a fact of life. Like Monday is a fact of the 9-5, five-day workweek life, rejections are part of the writer’s life. They just are. I quickly reached a point at which I read them, and disappointed but unsurprised and more or less unfazed, file them away.

One insult could knock someone’s self-esteem down so far, that that person would need seven different compliments to build her confidence back up. The same is not true of rejection e-mails and acceptance e-mails. It doesn’t matter how many rejection letters I’ve gotten–it only takes one acceptance letter to pick me back up again.

When I was a sixth grader going through the D.A.R.E program at school, the police officer who visited our classroom each week told us it took seven (or some number I can’t exactly recall) compliments to outweigh one insult–that one insult could knock someone’s self-esteem down so far, that that person would need seven different compliments to build her confidence back up. The same is not true of rejection e-mails and acceptance e-mails. It doesn’t matter how many rejection letters I’ve gotten–it only takes one acceptance letter to pick me back up again.

I hope one day to hold in my hands books I have written with them.

So, am I gonna be famous one day? Who knows. It would be kind of lovely, wouldn’t it? In the meantime, I plan to enjoy writing–and seeing my writing published, whenever and wherever it is. And even if I’m never famous, I hope one day at least, writing will provide my main source of income, and I will hold in my hand books I have written with them. Because that would be truly lovely (even lovelier than fame).