By: Joelle Charbonneau
This weekend I was at the fabulous Murder and Mayhem in
Muskego, which is a gather of readers and over two dozen authors. Fun, right?
These events are great because they allow authors to connect
with people who love books. They also
give writers a chance to talk shop. We
exchange news and industry gossip. We
talk about the books we’ve recently read that we loved or the to-be-read piles
that are about to topple over on our nightstands. And it never fails we talk about the
questions we get at events or the e-mails we receive asking us about how we got
started in publishing.
Every published author (or at least every published author
I’ve met) remembers what it is like to be searching for an agent or an
editor. We’ve all faced the rejections
and the concern that our writing might not be good enough. Perhaps that’s why we all get along so
well. Despite our many differences, the
experience of creating a book on a hope and a dream then sending it out to
dozens, sometimes hundreds of people in the small chance someone would love it
links us.
On the ride to the library, one author was able to tell us
exactly how many rejections he’d received from agents on his first published
novel – 118. Others explained that they
didn’t sell a manuscript with their first agent. It took two or more agent experiences before
they found the right fit and things finally locked into place. And once you sell…well, authors dream of a
long, fruitful relationship with one editor and publishing house, but more
often than not that doesn’t happen.
Editors take other jobs. Authors’
option contracts are not picked up.
Things don’t always go according to plan.
Which brings me to the point of this little blog post. The road to publishing is a bumpy, long ride
that beings after you hit THE END. Once
you finish a manuscript, there is no magic button to push that gets an agent’s
or editor’s attention. There isn’t a
magic code to be cracked that will put you on the road to publication and let
you stay there. There is very little
mystical or secret about any of it. The
only thing there is – is work!
We are all writers, which means we write. For good or ill. No matter whether we hear a yes or a maybe or
a no. We sit down in front of our screen
and write. Almost every author I talked
to this weekend found their agent through a query letter. They didn’t have a magic wand to wave that
got the agent to read the book. They
just wrote the best letter they could and hoped for the best. And not a single author was universally loved
by editors. Rejections abounded. Heck, I have lots and lots and lots of
them!
The only secret to writing is book is making the commitment to
sitting down and writing it…beginning, middle and end…no matter what. And the only secret to getting traditionally
published is realizing that it’s filled with lots of no thank yous. But if you are driven to keep writing and at
it long enough (and for me it took 5 manuscripts) you might hear a yes.
For all NaNoWriMo writers – I hope you are having a great
writing month! Go! Go!
Go!
