We've all heard the saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". Yeah, yeah. Easier said than done, and very cliche, which is something writers avoid. Still, the thinking is sound. Lately I've been a little on edge. Rejections from agents, even though they are personal, kind and very complimentary of my work, are still rejections. Publishing insiders tell me that a personal reply is striking gold. Using my own baseball analogy, it's like popping a ball straight up at the plate instead of driving it out of the ballpark. The hitter just missed something special.Close, but not quite.
The other day, while editing the query for the umpteenth time, I got very frustrated while trying to condense the essence of the book into one paragraph. Try doing that for a 100,000-word novel and see how you feel. Anyway, I slammed down a paperback reference book into a plastic lawn chair and the darn book went right through it. I didn't think that was possible. But, it served as a stress reliever, though the chair was an unfortunate casualty. And then the magic words came to me!
Also, after one very successful festival with lots of book sales, the next two were duds. I was just mad after the first one, but this weekend I took a different line of thinking. I met some fascinating people which may lead to some very important contacts. One was a gentleman who said he admired writers because his daughter is also a writer. I looked her up, and turns out, she's an award-winning writer. Another lady I met today is on a library board and wondered if I would be interested in speaking to them. So, I made some possible business advances. To top it off, I received an email from my favorite author wishing me good luck in my quest for a traditional publishing contract, and I found out that some of my tweets were liked by two Major League Baseball Network analysts, and one of those tweets was retweeted by a former big league ballplayer. Nice!
The thing about lemonade, it tastes best when the person drinking it has been in a little discomfort.
The other day, while editing the query for the umpteenth time, I got very frustrated while trying to condense the essence of the book into one paragraph. Try doing that for a 100,000-word novel and see how you feel. Anyway, I slammed down a paperback reference book into a plastic lawn chair and the darn book went right through it. I didn't think that was possible. But, it served as a stress reliever, though the chair was an unfortunate casualty. And then the magic words came to me!
Also, after one very successful festival with lots of book sales, the next two were duds. I was just mad after the first one, but this weekend I took a different line of thinking. I met some fascinating people which may lead to some very important contacts. One was a gentleman who said he admired writers because his daughter is also a writer. I looked her up, and turns out, she's an award-winning writer. Another lady I met today is on a library board and wondered if I would be interested in speaking to them. So, I made some possible business advances. To top it off, I received an email from my favorite author wishing me good luck in my quest for a traditional publishing contract, and I found out that some of my tweets were liked by two Major League Baseball Network analysts, and one of those tweets was retweeted by a former big league ballplayer. Nice!
The thing about lemonade, it tastes best when the person drinking it has been in a little discomfort.
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