Tuesday, June 7, 2011

It Takes Patience to be a Writer

It takes patience to be a writer. A full length novel will be thousands and thousands of words long. Writing a book doesn't happen overnight. When I first started writing my book, it revolved around life insurance fraud. After talking to experts I realized what I wanted to happen couldn't happen, or if it did--it would be the exception rather than a common occurence. So my book changed.

It takes patience to be a writer. Even when you think your more or less done, you're not. I've read my entire book at least four times looking for typos or inconsistencies. I've revised a lot. I've had three people, including a professional editor look at my book. It's ready. Now comes the really hard part. The query process.

It takes patience to be a writer How depressing is it to find yet another rejection letter in your in-box? You know your book is good. You figure it's your query letter, so you rewrite and rewrite the query letter. My query letter was looked at by a woman who sent out 12 query letters and received 9 requests for partials. She knows how to write a good query letter, and I'm still getting rejected. Do you think I'm gonna say, "Screw this, I"m done."? Nope.

It takes patience to be a writer. Maybe I should give up? Maybe my query letter still stinks, or the pages I send stink. Maybe my whole book stinks, and I just don't know it. Or, maybe my book is the next best seller, and those agents who have rejected me are gonna be sorry. Yeah, let's go with that one.

It takes patience to be a writer, and a lot of confidence in what you've written. I have both.

8 comments:

  1. and lots of luck from here too xx x

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  2. If those things are true, and I'm sure they are, you're a shoe-in for success!

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  3. I always think of it as like dating. It's highly unlikely you'll find the soul mate for your project (the right publisher) the first time out. You've got to date around a bit first!

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  4. "Sólo con una ardiente paciencia conquistaremos la espléndida ciudad que dará luz, justicia y dignidad a todos los hombres. Así la poesía no habrá cantado en vano". (Pablo Neruda)

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  5. Carol Kunz half of C.A.KunzJune 8, 2011 at 7:41 PM

    Mary Ann you have me hooked, love it and want read it now! We went the traditional route for 8 months, rejection, sent partials and then my son said let's self publish, that way we can do it ourselves and we have complete control. He was right. Have had so much satisfaction and meet some wonderful people along the way and the best part is I can hold our book in my hand. All I wanted was to write a book, but I find I enjoy all the work. We have almost finished our 2nd book and have three more in the series to go. Keep your chin up and think positive thoughts, I have faith in you and you will make it. Now about this book, I really want to read it, not joking either :)

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  6. Gosh there's nothing worse than seeing that you have an email from an agent, hoping it's positive, and then opening up another rejection. Sucks! But it seems like it's a big numbers game--maybe it isn't the query or the book, but you just need to send to more agents! Good luck!

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  7. And patience must be rewarded :-)

    A present for you:

    http://wordsbystelladeleuze.blogspot.com/2011/06/blogging-isnt-just-sharing-blogging-is.html

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  8. Rejections are always hard. They don't always mean your work is bad though. It may not be what their looking for at that particular time, or perhaps it' not the sort of thing that float their boat. Remember Stephen King got plenty of rejections as did J.K Rowling before they got their chance. In music ( another business renowned for it's fickleness) the beatles got turned turned down umpteen times before they were signed. In short: keep at it, and like you have posted: believe in not only your work, but yourself also. There's a lot of people on this planet, and a high chance of there being not only a market for your book, but also enough readers keen to turn the page.

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