We often hesitate to submit. Is it laziness, lack of organisation or fear of failure? Or even possibly fear of success? What if you did become a writer with a great reputation and had to live up to it? Or was so in demand you didn’t have the time or the brain-space for writing?
Rejection as a part of acceptance
Yes, I’m afraid it is. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a
novel accepted quite quickly, your editors will ask for more work on what you
thought was your perfectly polished script and once it is published not
everyone will give it a 5* review. In fact, some will give considerably less
and a reading group’s verdict will often read like a school report. No matter
how good your work is there will always be a but.
And no matter how much you’ve had published so far, you’ll
still get rejected. I’ve had two novels out this year and a third comes out in
July. Yet I had one rejected yesterday by a similar company to the others
who’ve given me a green light. I had a lot
of hope.
You have to develop a thick skin, you have to keep faith in
your writing and you have to have another go.
One writing friend doesn’t talk about rejections. She’s more
likely to say, “Ah here comes the post with a load of rewrites.” What a healthy
attitude.
And indeed, the rejection I got yesterday was quite a
helpful one. They actually liked my writing.
The topic was good. The work was polished. There were some concerns
about the very opening. Aha! Rewrite coming on. In fact, anyway, I’ve changed
the title and rewritten a couple of pages further in since I last sent it out.
I’ll respond to the screen full of advice they gave me too. So, in a couple of
weeks’ time a slightly different version will go out to more agents and
publishers.
Fishing rods
The fact remains that if you don’t submit you can’t have
your work accepted. Another writing friend once said that you have to be like
those men on the end of the pier; they have half a dozen or so fishing rods
dangling into the sea. Eventually they get a catch.
The said novel is actually out with another publisher and an
agent as well. I’ve also got some flash fiction and some short stories out with
certain publishers and entered for competitions. One publisher is looking at a whole
collection of flash fiction. So, yes, I have cast my rods.
Keeping on top of it all
You have to keep good records and you have to build in
routines for chasing up work. You also have to look for the opportunities. It’s
hard and slightly boring work. However, it must be done. Naturally the writing
comes first. This probably comes a close second. Steaming up behind in third
place come the conjoined twins of marketing and publicity.
But what about an effective strategy?
I’m always looking to refine this but at the moment it sort
of works for me.
Once a work is finished I put it on my To Do list. That means
when it comes to the top I’ll take one more look at it and then send it out to
three agents if it’s a novel and three publishers looking for submissions or competitions
for shorter fiction.
As soon as something is rejected, it goes back on to my To
Do list and gets sent out twice more after I’ve got a some distance from it and
the rejection and after I’ve refined it a little. After all, we constantly grow
as writers.
Periodically, when my To Do list tells me to, I got through all
of my submissions and see if any need chasing.
I also keep a list of opportunities. Once I’ve exhausted the
yearbooks, I go through this list. Every so often, again when my To Do list tells
me to, I go through the opportunities and see if there isn’t one I’d like write
something new for or if there is one that suits a piece of work that hasn’t
been out for a while.
I always work the most proactively with the latest completed
work. When I’ve finished something new, I put most of my energy into trying to
sell that. However, I also keep an eye open for new opportunities and again see
if older work might suit.
Identifying opportunities
I find these from friends, through Twitter (two books this
year!), Linkedin, Facebook, NAWE and Mslexia. As I lecture in creative writing,
several people approach me and offer opportunities. I vet these carefully and
publish my own list of opportunities that are fair to my students. I use this
list for myself as well. You too can sign up for it here.
